Royal Icing Roses Or Buttercream Roses?
Decorating By Susieindy Updated 10 Mar 2011 , 2:48am by Unlimited

I am making a 2 tier stacked cake. She wants roses all around the border of both. Should I make them out of Royal Icing or Buttercream? What would you do? I am not the best rose maker. I have made Royal Icing roses. I'm just not sure which type would work out best. Please advise.

I have never cared for the crunch factor that a royal icing rose has. Kids usually do, but not many adults. Gimme soft yummy buttercream anyday.

There are benefits to doing either type. With the royal roses, you could make them ahead of time and just place them on the cake after it is frosted. The buttercream roses would be soft so that they wouldn't need to be removed when the cake is cut. Well...you could, technically, make the BC roses ahead of time freeze them. I have only done this once but I make them, froze them (so I could pick them up) and decorated on the same day.
Sorry if I got a little long winded . I think I'd go with the RI roses.
Good luck and post pics

I would make Buttercream..You can also make Buttercrean with a thicker consistency and freeze them..Then just place on the cake and they soften up once thawed..That is how I used to do my roses...Now I just make them on the spot.

Personally, I would make the buttercream...I like the softness and tast better. Like others said, I would freeze them first before applying to the cake. It makes it much easier to put on the cake.



I prefer (as most adults do) butter cream roses. You can make them ahead of time just like royal icing on wax paper squares and let them dry for a couple days. Then you can pick them up and put them on the cake, they are dry on the outside, but still soft and creamy in the middle. Works perfect!

I prefer (as most adults do) butter cream roses. You can make them ahead of time just like royal icing on wax paper squares and let them dry for a couple days. Then you can pick them up and put them on the cake, they are dry on the outside, but still soft and creamy in the middle. Works perfect!
Exactly! I dont' use RI for anything cake.
Caution on freezing roses. Freezing turns the moisture that is in the BC rose into a frozen solid. And from our 3rd grade science lesson, we learned that a frozen solid will turn back to a liquid when removed from a frozen temp state...... this means the rose will "Melt" when removed from the freezer. I've thrown roses into the freezer on a last minute job and I barely have time to get it from the freezer to the cake before it starts to melt and look malformed.
If you read ANY thread on FBCT's, the advice is the same: Work fast because it melts quickly. FBCT's are made with the same icing as BC roses, so the result would be the same.... fast melting. (Icing doesn't know to stay hard longer just because it's in a rose shape.)
I prefer air drying .... air drying allows the moisture in the roses to evaporate, which leaves the roses nice and firm so you can pick them up, as mentioned by jhunt, above, but still creamy inside. Because the moisture has been removed, the rose is also much lighter which makes it great for applying them on the sides .... less likely to slide down which a lighter weight rose.
Here's one I did recently with lots of BC roses.... http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1583841

Yep, air drying for me also. It works perfectly! As long as you are using crusting buttercream.

Do you have a hard time putting air-dryed roses on a cake? Do you use the little scissor things?

Wow! A revived thread from a year ago!
Do you have a hard time putting air-dryed roses on a cake? Do you use the little scissor things?
Never. Are you having a hard time?
Scissors aren't necessary unless removing wet roses from a flathead flower nail. Air-dried roses can be picked up and placed where they go or you can lift them with a small offset spatula to slide them into place.

I don't do roses very often. I have a cake this weekend that the customer wants roses on ... I was thinking I have to make them today and hope they dry enough. Just checking on how my colleagues are doing it.

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