AThis has happened to me twice! I make the prettiest rosette cake. I use a crusting buttercream recipe with 4 sticks of butter butter, crisco 14 oz, 1 tablespoon vanilla, 1 tablespoon of butter flavoring, and 4 pounds of conf sugar. I add up to 7 tsp of milk. If I don't add the milk then the bag is hard to squeeze. Adding a little milk helps. Is that my issue? When I get my cakes out of the oven I let them cool overnight covered in a container so they are moist and not dry. Am I supposed to let them sit uncovered all night? Maybe too moist? I do a crumb coat. I don't put in fridge though. I heard that makes things not stick??? It's not too hot or humid. Usually the rosettes just start sliding down. No cake came off on last cake. Just slid down. Help- I want to give up. My cakes taste good. The frosting is great. It's just those darn things just fall off.

I have never ever heard of this happening before.

Are you piping the rosette directly onto the side of the cake? I do it the same as you described, crumb coat cake, then pipe rosettes on the side. But I use IMBC so I chill the cake after the crumb coat and chill it until a few hours before serving. Well, actually maybe I do one thing differently... my family can't get enough buttercream, so I actually do a crumb coat, and a another layer of BC, then pipe on the rosettes.

I can't comment on your icing recipe since I have no experience with that type of frosting, But since your method sounds fine, I assume it is your recipe. You could try some recipes for American BC on this site that are tried and tested, like IndyDebi's or Sugarshack's.

http://cakecentral.com/a/indydebis-crisco-based-buttercream-icing

http://cakecentral.com/a/sugarshacks-buttercream-icing

Maybe you need to place your tip a little closer to your crumb coat so the rosette is pressed more into the crumb coat.

AThank you for answering. I do think I am pressing the rosettes enough but I will try, try again! Then I will use the 2 recipes above. Thank so much for your help. I will repost in a few days when I experiment again! :-)

A picture of the sliding rosettes would be helpful.

Quote:

From your description, this is what may be wrong:

Trouble shooting:

If you DON'T crumb coat, the rosettes will land directly on a crumby surface and will fall off.

CRUMB COAT your cake with a THIN LAYER, only enough to hold in the crumbs.   (About the thickness of a piece of paper.)    Then pipe the  the rosettes.

If you have a thick crumb coat, the weight of the rosettes will just pull themselves downward due to gravity.

Your rosette buttercream is probably too stiff and doesn't have enough "wet" surface to attach to the sides of the crumb-coated cake.

Last but definitely not least:   practice!!!  "Twice" is not a learning curve.  5 or 6 times is a learning curve.  Pay attention to individual details on the things that go wrong AND the things that go right.

AI did not take a picture. I wish I had but I had to hurry and redo the cake so that was the last thing on my mind.

AApti- Thank you so much for the advice!! You rock! I will take all that you have said and put it to use!! :-)

When I did mine, I did more than the usual crumb coat so that where there were small gaps between the rosettes no crumbs would show through.  So it was heavier than my usual crumb coat but less than a full coat since the rosettes would be adding icing. 

DinahD~~You are most welcome. 

AHello DinahD, the way I make a rosette cake is as follows: Bake, level, fill and crumb coat the cake. Put it in the fridge while I'm cleaning up and have a cuppa. Take it out and pipe rosettes on. Put it back in the fridge until it's needed. I do it all the day before the cake is needed so it's as fresh as it can be. The buttercream I use is: 100gms butter (room temp) 280gms icing sugar 1tsp vanilla/ lemon or other extract Mix it on high in a stand/ hand mixer for 7-8 mins. If I don't add flavouring I add 1 or 2 tsp milk or cream. It's always delicious and pipes very well. :-)