I have tried and tried....I will not even take a picture of the rose colored blob my 13yr old tried to convince me "looked" like a rose!!! I don't know why I can't grasp the rose thing!!!

You are in good company - mine are horrible too, I honestly think it is just one of those things that you have to do about a million times before they start to look good.....hang in there

how much have you actually tried?

How about putting LESS pressure on yourself for the perfect rose?

well I haven't reached a million times yet!! maybe thats why they are not so good!!!


I have obsessively sat down every night for the last 3 weeks and tried roses......I can honestly say I am coordinated in every other way in life.............EXCEPT turning the nail and making the rose!!!

I will keep practicing...I just had to vent!!

and please....if someone anyone has tips to help me.......I BEG OF YOU PASS THEM ON!!!!!!!!!

Don't give up it will come to you eventually
Have you taken a cake class? Wilton in particular? I've learned other methods but found them too difficult and the end results not as pretty or realistic as the Wilton rose method.
Practice practice practice.
Also, if your icing is too soft they will go flat, too stiff and they won't flooow as you turn the nail and have crackly edges. It's got to be a nice medium/firm texture ( a little clear gel or corn syrup will help with the smoothness but don't add too much!!). Don't make your base too narrow or they will tip over. Base too short and wide and your roses will look flat and fat.
Good luck and keep trying!
P.S. I think you should post some pics. so we can identify any problems and offer more tips!!

Discolady.....HAHA I had every one of those things happen!!! Thanks for the corn syrup tip...didn't think about that! I will keep trying....and maybe get brave enough to put up a picture....but I won' say its my first I will admit its my 246th

Oh boy! Don't you dare give up!!!! LOL You will get it! Your icing needs to be more on the stiffer side. I use a buttercream without any margarine or butter. Just crisco, water, vanilla & powder sugar. (I am having back problems & cannot get up right now to get the recipe) You need to have a stiff, solid base to start the rose. Buy a package of hershey kisses. Adhere one to the flower nail w/a little icing. Then try making the rose. It will make a big difference. Good Luck!

I can remember being so discouraged myself!!! My friend tried to teach me to make roses. She made THE most beautiful roses. Made it look easy too. I was so jealous! I had about decided I just wasn't capable...but then some where along the way it clicked. I make roses darn near as good as her now.

You really should post a picture so people can give you an idea of what might be going on.

You arent a lefty ( like myself) are you? Sometime trying to follow right handed directions makes for a worse end result that just giving us no info and letting us go.

I have NEVER been able to do roses until recently. I am left handed, and the Wilton method just didn't work for me. I tried and tried, but roses were the one flower I stunk at making. I read and re-read the directions for roses on a stick, and I GOT IT!!!! I have the ONLY cake I've ever made with roses in my gallery, and I am soooooooo proud of them! I didn't have any dowel rods, so I used a chopstick as my stick. You can find the directions here at CC. Good luck and don't give up!

do not feel bad i am gettin ready to try again for some reason my rose also fall over

I know it can be difficult, but practice is the big secret here. reread you directions and try to follow them a step at a time. That is why Wilton gives you 3 nights to do the rose. Once you get the base down pat go to the wrap, then the petals. Remember each petal is only a 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. Also remember that the tip must have the thinner part of the opening pointed away from the base. So many students try to point the whole opening toward the base it just doestn't work as well. I know if you keep trying it will come to you. Good Luck

My mother still can't make them and she tried for years. I'm a lefty and I had to practice a while but I can get an acceptable rose. I have trouble with most of the other flower directions because everything is opposite and I haven't taken the time to really try.

My mother decorates cake for Dairy Queen, and I watched a video with her about how to make roses. I've always made each petal seperate.... stopping after each one. Well, on the video, they do an up and down motion. First they make the base -- same as Wilton. Then, they do an up and down motion three times (thus, three petals) never stopping. (Kind of like a sideways zig-zag) Then, they do five petals the next time. It is terribly difficult to explain -- but it really did work! I was amazed! I will see if I can find some sort of picture explanation.

I had a hard time w/the rose too. Never did make a good one during class. It finially clicked and I got a few decent ones about a year later. To fat at the base, but, on a cake, was not as noticable. Now, I've been doing the candy roses and MMF ones, and I may never go back to the flower nail roses

ANd Tina, I tried the roses on a stick and I have NO idea how you get those looking so nice! OMG, talk about blobs of frosting! LOL. My attempt at those was way more pathetic than the regular flower nail ones.

Check out the tutorial - it's a video. I found out I was turning the nail backwards all these years!

http://www.cakecentral.com/article25-Getting-Started-with-Buttercream-Roses.html

i think i saw a forum on making roses on a stick. i have never tried it that way...i will see if i can find it.

...practice, practice, practice. that's the only advice i know to give!

les

omg! that video is really helpful. i haven't been doing anything the right way

http://www.cakecentral.com/article50-Making-Buttercream-Roses-on-a-Stick.html

here is the directions for making roses on a stick. This method may work for you.

Les

ok just spent 30mins trying do roses i give up maybe i will try again in a couple of weeks

beachcakes, newdec, You are not the only ones. I have been doing them backwords all of these years, too! Now Im going to have to make some icing and try to re-teach myself and see the difference. I cant believe this.(grumble, grumble) .

I@cannot for the life of me make my roses on the nail flat. I turn the nail upside down and do the stick method. It makes such a difference, especially being a lefty. I even bought the left handed rose tips, but I never use them, I am so used to the right handed tips I used to help teach a basic cake decorating class in high school, and for the three years i did that I@found that lefty's don't get how to do them on top of the nail but do the stick method really well. Right handed people cannot even grasp the idea of how to do the stick method, and usually figure out the nail flat method. Go figure....

By backwards are you referring to twisting the flower nail counterclockwise? I'm just starting to learn how to do the roses in my Wilton classes so am far from proficient but was practicing today (and getting quite frustrated I might add) until I started twisting the flower nail counter clockwise - for some reason my petals started looking much more realistic!

whao I just saw the video on how to make the rose, no wonder it never came out I was doing it wrong ......... thank's

Practice, practice and more practice!! I can't tell you how much icing I went through, how many tears I cried and how many roses went flying in my kitchen because I was frustrated!! After many hours of practicing it finally clicked one day...

Yes, I was twisting clockwise and find it's easier counter clockwise. I still don't like making roses and don't do it very often!

Don't feel bad! I almost didn't pass my course I class because I couldn't make roses. I was really really awful, to the point that my very sweet instructor had to come in 45 minutes early on the night of our last class and give me a remedial rose session. It was embarassing, but it worked.
I just had to relax my grip and remember that making the petals is about simultaneously rolling the nail off the thumb while arching the bag. The arching (making the McDonald's arches around the rose base) is actually way more important than the twirling.
I know it's annoying to tell you this, but just keep practicing, you'll get it.

I am glad I am not the only one.. I can make tons of flowers but my roses always look like cabbages... I solved that by learning to make roses in Gumpaste and candy clay... Candy clay is the easiest and I can make bigger roses but they do not work well in the summer.

I should really go back and practice but heck how can they ever look like the ones I do ..... unless I ever want to work in a bakery it would be a skill good to know.

Maybe we can start a club buttercream and royal icing rose rejects.

I'm new here and had to jump into this thread. I too was pretty bad at roses. I took Wilton I in October and totally couldn't get the hang of it. I could do great bases, but when it came time to do the petals, they kept falling over! My instructor said I was moving too fast--that my hand was moving before the nail, or something like that. Anyway, I just made a cake for my mom's b-day and decided to try the roses again. I did royal icing, and they turned out ok. Not perfect by any means, but respectable enough that I put them on the top of the cake. Of course a couple of petals fell off but I tried to cover it up with leaves.

I think it's one of those things that you just have to practice over and over. My instructor told us that if you go to Wilton school, you have to make like 500 bases, and they go around and throw away any that aren't up to par. I guess that's why she made them so easily!