How to Make Frosting Roses

Turn that dessert into something extra special with easy handmade frosting roses. 

Valentine's Day is coming up and the pressure to do something romantic for that special someone in your life is building! For myself, and I'm sure many of you, that "something romantic" revolves around food. Congrats. You are on the right track! Perhaps you have already planned out that romantic dinner, but you need a dessert that WOWS! And what's more romantic than roses? Frosting roses, obviously! It's time to amp your dessert up with a few of these frosting beauties.

It's not too difficult; all you need is frosting, a frosting bag, a #104 frosting tip, a flower nail, scissors, some determination and a little practice.

You're going to want to use a fairly firm frosting that will allow you to build a solid rose. In this case I used a basic buttercream recipe with 1 pound powdered sugar, 2 ounces butter, and 6 ounces vegetable shortening, plus some food coloring, mixed until smooth (which should make 15-20 roses).

To start the rose, on the center of the flower nail, pipe a column of frosting – without the tip on your frosting bag.

Once you have piped the center, place the tip on the frosting bag, and with the wide end of the tip at the base of the rose, pipe around the column of frosting.

Next, pipe the center petal of the rose, repeating the same process as the bottom but making it nice and tight.

Now you can begin the petals. Starting on the top of the rose, pipe three petals around the center. When piping a petal, you're going to move in an arc motion. Begin with your frosting tip lower, then moving up as you pipe, and back down before releasing.

If you have excess frosting on your frosting tip, wipe it off with paper towel and begin the next petal with a clean tip.

That's it! Once the rose is finished, use scissors to remove it from the frosting nail, and place on your cake or cupcake.

Good luck and Happy Valentine's Day!