These simple and impressive roses are easy to make when you know how. With our easy step-by-step recipe, you'll have these pretty treats perfected in no time.
From wedding cakes to birthday cupcakes, these delicate, edible roses are the ideal topper to turn a standard cake into a work of art.
Try different colours of sugarpaste like pastel blue or yellow for different seasons. Bright red roses would be a luxurious topper for Valentine's Day or pastel yellow blooms for Mother's Day.
This technique has been tripled tested in the Woman's Weekly kitchen and is the simplest, most effective way to make these beautiful, delicate cake toppers.
Ingredients
- 1 x 200g packet white flower paste, e.g. Squires Kitchen Florist Paste
- Pale pink, pale yellow and soft peach flower paste, e.g. Squires Kitchen Florist Paste (Pastel)
Step 1
Spoon a small amount of cornflour into the centre of the muslin square and gather up the sides and tie it with ribbon or string, and use this to tap on the work surface to dust.
Step 2
To make cones for the centre of the roses, work some white flower paste to soften it, roll it into a ball and then roll one side to a point to give a cone shape. The cone, when held in the centre of the cutter should come about halfway up the height of the petal.
Step 3
Stick a cocktail stick into the broad end of the cone and place in a stand to dry, or stick the cocktail stick into a flower drying stand or a clump of non-drying modelling clay (or even a ball of leftover sugarpaste or marzipan).
Step 4
Use the ready-coloured pink flower paste mixed with white to give three different shades of pink, keeping them wrapped in a freezer bag so they don’t dry out. Starting with the darkest shade, roll the paste out very thinly on the non-stick board dusted lightly with cornflour and use the cutter to cut out petals.
Step 5
Place the petals on a pressure pad and dab lightly with cornflour, then rub over the edge with the dog-bone modelling tool. Hold the tool so it’s half on and half off the petal, so the petal flutes gently, rather than just cupping up.
Step 6
Flip the petals over and pull a cocktail stick with a cone on it through the centre until the cone rests on the petals. Brush water over about half of one of the petals. Be careful not to use too much water, though, as it will make it slippery.
Step 7
Lift the dampened petal up and wrap it tightly around the cone, so that when you look down from the top you can’t see any of the white of the cone showing in the centre of the petal.
Step 8
Leave one petal hanging, then dampen the next and wrap that around the opposite side of the flower to the first petal, but not so tightly.
Step 9
Dampen all three remaining petals and stick down the left side of each petal. Then stick over the right side of each, so that the three petals will have interlinked.
Step 10
Using the middle shade of pink, prepare the next layer of petals, as in step 5. Flip them over and pull the cocktail stick through the centre. Dampen petals, and stick them evenly around the flower.
Repeat the previous step using the palest flowerpaste, placing the petals alternately to the previous layer.
Leave the flowers to dry overnight. Soften some sugarpaste with water to give a piping consistency and fill the piping bag. Cut off the end of the bag to give a small hole. Pipe a little of the icing onto each rose and stick in place on your cake.