My first cake made when I finished the first cake-decorating class at Sweet Celebrations (similar to the Wilton classes). I piped some burnt-orange buttercream roses with really stiff buttercream and it gave it a really cool looking "dry leaf" appearance. The other roses were a red wine color. I found piping roses on a skewer is a lot easier than the nail. However, piping a large rose kind of requires a nail (or a really fat skewer).