Hi, I am new to your group as well I as I am fairly new to decorating cakes. I just finished my Course 1 Wilton class and have pretty much everything down pat except those darn "ROSES" I am the only one in my class that can't make them. My 1st class of course 1 my icing was way to think(says my teacher) 2nd class: better, 3rd class, ok at first then got very soupy. As for my roses I am just not getting it. my petals are either to big, my base is not big enough, when I get to my second set of leaves my rose tends to be slouched to the point of no return, and then in my class tonight, I made 1 that i thought was somewhat decent and my icing was so not right you could not lift it. CAN SOMEONE give me some helpful advice on these dang roses. PLEASE & THANKS for listening. [/quote]

It sounds to me like you need to get the icing consistency down. The consistency of the icing is 75% of getting a good rose in my opinion. You want a very stiff icing. If it is too stiff the petals will crack a little on the edges. But if it is too thin you will just have a lump of frosting by the time you finish your rose. I would say it is better to start with a very stiff frosting because you can always thin it down, but it is not as easy to thicken it up.

Also I noticed that when you take the icing to class and use it for 2 hours it gets pretty thin by the end of class even if it started stiff, just from the heat of your hand.

Try it at home, with fresh stiff frosting. I bet you get the hang of it. Just keep practicing.