War Of The Roses- Question From A Newbie!
Decorating By Aimeestrange Updated 30 Apr 2007 , 5:50am by indydebi
I sat here this evening and drove myself nuts making buttercream roses!! I'm having one major problem at the moment- when I make my petals, the edges end up cracking! 
Anyone have any advice? Any advice would be much appreciated! 
Welcome to cake central. You will find a wealth of information here, and the answers to most questions are already here. You can use the search button above.
As to ragged edges, typically, your icing is too stiff. You can try adding a bit of piping gel to a small amount of your icing to see if that helps.
good luck.
The problem might be the consistency of your b/c.
Try adding a little water or milk for a slightly less stiff frosting and see if that helps.
Here's a video on icing roses:
(provided by ngez09)
http://tinyurl.com/323fts
HTH
I was going to say what 7yyrt said, check your tip. This weekend I was making them and they were cracking, I added more liquid to the frosting and did more, same thing happened, only they were cracked AND 'melting' into a cabbage rose. I changed tips, went back to the original batch of frosting and did more and those were fine. So it could be your tip too.
I have that same problem. It's sooo frusterating!! I always take a butter knife and pry the small part of the tip open a little more. That seems to help me.
I am driving myself crazy with the little buggers too. I am convinced that I could do a pretty decent rose if they would just stop cracking! It's horrid. I have had the problem with all but the first batch I ever tried and I don't know what it is because the consistency is always a little different. I thought maybe it was residual grease, so I boiled those suckers (the tips) for 20 minutes, scrubbed them down big time, but still have the problem. Ugh. Sorry to go off on my own bc rose rant! I wish I had some advice for you.
Sometimes you need to add a little shortening. If there is too much sugar/shortening ratio it will cause ragged edges. Liquid sometimes make the roses wilt. I agree
the tips are also a reason for the edges cracking.
Thanks everyone, I'll try all of the above! 
Hopefully I'll be able to resolve my rose dilema.
Thanks everyone, I seem to be doing much better with them.
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