Bakers Royale

How to Make Roses on a Cake, Step by Step

By 51 Comments

Practice makes perfect when it comes to making icing roses! Fill a pastry bag with a Wilton 1M tip and let’s begin. Step by step instructions included. 

You may have seen this cake all around the internet, but it was originally piped by the very talented Amanda from i am baker. While mine may not look perfect like Amanda’s, I’m happy with the results. And happy to tell you, it’s not so difficult to do. If you wanna take on a smaller canvas for your first go; try Rose Cupcakes! 

Rose Cake with step-by-step photos via Bakers Royale

To help you along, I put together this tutorial on how to make a rose cake with step-by-step photos. My advice if you are even the least bit nervous about making this—take a deep breath, practice on a surface that will allow you to reuse the frosting and then go for it. Don’t hesitate, or the roses will end up looking jagged and stuttered from all the pausing.

The finished cake covered in white frosting roses with a decretive straw holding up a banner sticking out of the cake.

A few notes:

  • For the frosting I used my swiss meringue buttercream recipe (step-by-step photos included). If you decide to use another frosting, one that will slightly “crust” as it dries, use Amanda’s tip here, so that your roses will adhere to the cake.
  • This is the chocolate cake recipe I used. I picked a denser cake, since I had intended on making this a two tier cake but ran out of time.
  • Again, to make sure you are comfortable with the piping motion and with how much pressure to use on the pastry bag while piping the buttercream roses, practice on a surface that will allow you to reuse the frosting (straight –sided salad bowl worked great for me)
  • Of course the bunting is extra, but I do love how it steps up the cute factor on a cake.

The left is the step picture with a cake lightly frosted on a stand. The second picture on the right is more heavily frosted.

Step three is on the left with a hand smoothing the sides of the cake with an icing knife. The fourth step is on the right with a piping bag just about to start making the first rose.

Step 5 on the left shows the first row of roses on the base of the cake complete. The step 6 photo shows the sides of the cake covered in roses with the top outer edge complete as well.

Step 7 shows a finished cake with the straw and string banner installed on the cake. The Step 8 photo shows all the items needed to make the banner including straws, string, and decretive tape.

Close up photo of the finished cake covered in white frosting roses with a decretive straw sticking out of the cake.

How to Make Roses on a Cake, Step by Step

Yield: 1 Cake
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Additional Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes

Practice makes perfect, when it comes to making icing roses! Fill a pastry bag fitted with a Wilton 1M tip and let's begin. Step by step instructions included.

Ingredients

Frosting

  • 7 large egg whites
  • 2 1/4 cup sugar
  • 6 sticks unsalted butter, diced and softened
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoon vanilla

Instructions

To make frosting
  1. Combine egg whites and sugar in a bowl placed over simmering water. Bring mixture to 160 degrees F while whisking constantly.
  2. Transfer mixture to stand mixer bowl fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on medium speed until mixture becomes foamy, then increase speed to high and beat until it cools and doubles in volume.
  3. Add butter in one piece at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition. The mixture may appear clumpy and almost curdled looking-this is normal. Keep mixing and it will become even and smooth again. Add salt and vanilla and mix to combine.

**Refer to the post for step-by-step photos to piping the roses on the cake and making the bunting.**

To pipe roses on cake:

  1. Cover cake with a crumb coat.
  2. Cover cake with frosting coat.
  3. Score a line across cake horizontally to easily guide two-layer rose piping (one on top of another).
  4. Place parchment strips down on preferred cake stand and transfer cake on top.
  5. Fill pastry bag fitted with a Wilton 1M tip and hold it perpendicular to the cake. To pipe rose, gently squeeze bag and move in a circular motion starting from the center and moving outward. Finish by releasing pressure and dropping the finishing point to the right of the starting point (to the left if you are left handed). Continue to pipe roses all the way around cake. For the second layer, start in between two roses and pipe all the around cake.
  6. For the top, start by piping roses along the perimeter and moving towards the center. Fill in empty spots with dollops of stars. To do so gently squeeze and lift pastry bag. I used this method to fill edges on the top and bottom of the cake

To make bunting:

  1. Supplies:(1) Twine (2) Two different patterned Washi tape (3) Striped straws and (4) Scissors
  2. Start by wrapping twine around one straw and extend and wrap twine to around second straw .
  3. Place first Washi tape around twine and cut a triangle pointing up toward top of twine.
  4. Place second Washi tape and cut a triangle pointing down away from the twine.

© Naomi Robinson
Cuisine: American / Category: Cakes

Comments

  6. Stacy | Wicked Good Kitchen says

    Naomi, I love your twist on Amanda’s rose cake…your star border around the top edge and at the base of the cake make it look finished off and frilly! Just lovely, girl. Thanks for sharing the tutorial. (Is there a missing link for the chocolate cake recipe?) Pinning!

  19. Tieghan says

    It’s perfect! I have always wanted to make a cake look this, but never thought I could. I am still not sure, but I have tO give it a try! Thanks!! This is awesome!

  26. Bri says

    Looks sooo tasty! I thought it was a standard buttercream frosting, but it’s meringue, ah… I suppose you need a special candy thermometer for that, too.

  35. unique angel says

    itz osum
    i guess i hve to try wid ma hands
    love ittt
    it would surely look tasty nd beautiful wen i mke it!!!!!

  36. Charlie Blix says

    I tried the frosting and it was great but I accidentally added the butter before thickening the egg whites and afterwords it still wasn’t getting thick so I popped it into the freezer hopefully it gets better but do u have a soulution to my problem?

  37. Brian Harder says

    Would be great if this post included a picture of the actual tip you used on the pastry bag. I have about 40 tips of various makes and models, but don’t see a “1M” tip. I have no clue which one you are using. Can we see the tip itself? Thanks.

  40. Rahul says

    Thanks for sharing the tips for making such beautiful roses on cakes. Would definitely try and again comment over here. Please keep us updated with such cake decorating tips.

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  48. Pankaj Verma says

    This rose cake recipe looks absolutely stunning! I can’t wait to try it out and see if I can recreate the beautiful rose design. Thank you for sharing!

  51. Emma Wilson says

    I’m not an experienced baker, but thanks to this tutorial, I was able to make beautiful roses on my cake that looked like they were done by a professional. Highly recommend it!

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