How to Make Sugar Roses

As Mother’s Day is right around the corner, I thought I’d show you how to make Sugar Roses.

Now, I am well aware that my sugar roses aren’t the neatest; cake decoration is certainly NOT my forte. But I love the idea of someone making their mum a cake or batch of cupcakes (I recommend my Orange and Ginger Cupcakes with Orange Velvet Frosting (recipe here), all tied up with a bow. When she opens the tin, there are 12 beautiful roses in her favourite colour looking back up at her, ready to be scoffed down with a pot of tea or a glass of Prosecco.

A bouquet of 12 roses (12 symbolises that you love them for every month of the year) only, homemade, and edible! I don’t think you can get a better better gift than that! Now that I think about it, it’s perfect for Valentine’s Day too.

My friend Jo is a wedding cake baker, and she taught me how to make these a long time ago. She’s much better at sugar craft than me. These little roses are definitely the limits of my abilities. Check out her website Cutie Pie Cake Co to see her amazing creations.

I remember, when she first started making wedding cakes, many moons ago. She had an order for a three tier cake with a huge cascade of sugar flowers down one side. I went round to hers for the day to help her make them. I was kneading the fondant, rolling it out and stamping out shapes, ready for her to form into flowers, while she worked away transforming this beautiful blank cake into a floral extravaganza. Eventually, our bellies started grumbling, so we popped a pizza in the oven, grabbed a glass of wine each, and put our feet up in the living room. When Jo went back into the kitchen 10mins later to check on the pizza, she discovered that her dog, who we thought was shut out in the back garden, had managed to push the back door open, come in to the kitchen, and had eaten all of the sugar flowers we’d left on the kitchen table, ready to be added to the cake!

Luckily, the dog, and the cake, which was out of his reach on the kitchen counter were fine. But it meant we had to clean all the equipment and remake the rest of the flowers. It turned into quite a long day of sugar craft, but when you’ve got good chat and a glass of wine, you don’t mind. And, I learned how to make these cute sugar roses in the process.

What you need:

A pack of Fondant Icing in whatever colour you like.

Method:

Pull 25-50g of icing out of the packet and knead it in your hands until it’s soft and pliable.
Separate the lump of icing into 9 or 10 equal sized pieces, and roll each piece into a ball. (I know I only have 7 in my picture, I had to go back for more)

Flatten each ball either with a rolling pin or the palm of your hand. Make sure they’re flat and even.

Take one disk of icing and roll it up so it spirals round itself.

Take another disk and lay that over the first, making sure the join of the first disk is covered by the second disk.
Pinch it in slightly at the bottom so they stick together.

Repeat with the rest of you disks , making sure you overlap each disk slightly.

As your rose gets bigger, flatten the top edge of your petals slightly, by pinching them between your thumb and forefinger, and ease them away from the centre to open it up.

Once your rose is large enough, pipe a generous amount of buttercream onto a cupcake, or pipe a dollop onto a larger cake, where you’d like your rose to go.