‘Tutorial Tuesday': How to pipe a buttercream rose using a flower nail!

Tutorial Tuesday: How to pipe a buttercream rose using a flower nail!

In this week’s tutorial we show you to pipe a buttercream rose using a flower nail! These buttercream roses are perfect on top of delicious cupcakes. They are also great decorations to place around the top of a home made cake.

Why not play with colour and add interesting looks to your roses. Fill your piping bag with two buttercream colours on each side for two tone roses. Paint a stripe of food colour along the inside of your bag in-line with the thin part of your petal tip to add colour to you flower’s edge. Use one piping bag per cupcake and layer tablespoons of different coloured buttercream inside the bag to make rainbow roses. Those are just a few ideas to add colour to your piped flowers.

This piping style can take a while to get right, but once you have the hang of this method it is really fun! We do, however, have a simpler buttercream rose tutorial for those who would like to create a quick, easy and lovely rose. Both types of piping will create eye catching roses that are perfect for both cupcakes and cakes!

What you need:

3 inch flower nail
Piping bag
Coloured buttercream
Petal tip no. 125 or 126
Small square of parchment paper

Step one: You need to stick the small square of parchment paper to your flower nail by piping a tiny bit of buttercream atop the nail and setting the paper on top. By adding the parchment paper to pipe your rose onto you are making transferring the rose to a flat surface to set easier.

Step two: Pipe a centre to your rose. This should be a small cone like shape of buttercream. With practice try to pipe your rose bud centre with a ‘fold’ shape to it. The ‘fold’ makes a more natural rose bud shape to the centre of your flower.

Step three: To pipe your rose petals angle your tip slightly towards you. Also, keep the thick end of the petal tip on the bottom so the thin part forms the top (visible edge) of your petals. Pipe your petals in scallops around the centre. With each new rose pipe your petal or scallop from the last petal’s centre.

Step four: Pipe your rose’s petals to your desired size. Piping this type of rose takes a fair bit of patience and practice so keep trying and don’t be disheartened!

Step five: When you reach the final layer of petals angle the top (thin end) of your petal piping tip a little more towards you so that your final petals curve outwards. This makes your rose finish much neater and with a more natural finish.

Once your rose has set you can carefully move it from the parchment paper onto a cupcake (pipe a small bit of buttercream on top of your cake for it to stick) using a pair of small scissors.

Also, you can pipe this type of buttercream flower straight onto the top of your cupcake. Be aware that this can be tricky. TIP: If you do want to pipe straight onto your cupcake try using a turntable to turn your cupcake and sit with your cupcake at eye level for more control.

If you have followed this tutorial you will be left with a beautiful buttercream rose! If you need to decorate a batch of cupcakes or a cake why not make your roses in advance, leave them to set (you can even keep them in the freezer then thaw them at room temperature), and they’re ready to decorate you baked treats with.

If you give this tutorial a try we’d love to see your finished cakes and cupcakes!