So I made a cake this weekend (pic not posted yet), covered with white buttercream roses...i used tip 104 and the edges were always jagged...any idea how to prevent this from happening. I used wiltons buttercream recipe. Everyone loved the roses, but I was not to impressed by it myself. Any thoughts of what i could do to avoid this. thanks in advance.

Icing may have been a little too stiff.....try a stiff to med consistency, that is what I use when I don't want the jagged edges, sometimes, depending on the cake, I love the look of the jagged edges....makes them look not so perfect.....

Jagged edges come from not enough pressure on the piping bag too. Make sure you are applying the right amount of pressure.

I got that problem with stiff BC. I just added few drops of water then it worked.

Thanks
Nitu

I've added piping gel to my icing to soften it a bit. Also, try widening ever so slightly the narrow end of your tip with a butterknife. My instructor had told us to do that b/c sometimes it is just too narrow from the factory. That helped me as well.

Adding a bit of piping gel will make a big difference in the edges..they come out a lot smoother! give it a try and see what you think!

I will try that next time....i used stiff icing bec thats what the course book said....piping gel seems like a good idea...cant wait to try that...thanks everyone...

Try the dream whip icing recipe I find it's really a lot creamier and even when its stiff the edges come out nice..I know what u mean...and i also found that i had to make about 368 000 roses before i started to get them the way i like...

I really think most people see cakes differently than decorators as in detail .I have a cake posted with my first attempt at roses..they are jagged and I was gonna make another batch but everyone said no that they were good besides real roses are not perfect...my point is I think some decoraters try to get too perfect and it takes away from the realness of the cake,although I like some of the ideas posted so I think next time I will try some of them to get mine a little better

I'm kind of like a litte "jagged" in my edges too.....more realistic! Looks more like the ones in my garden! I even get this with my fondant roses by thinning the petal edge a bit too much. Looks good to me!

It could be too stiff and you can add a tablespoon of crisco for every cup of icing.

It could also be that you are piping slow and turning your flower nail too fast which pulls and stretches the icing.