Monday, November 3, 2014

Buttercream roses galore!

I used to really dread piping buttercream roses.  Simple reason - I couldn't do it, no matter how hard I tried.  No matter how many YouTube video tutorials I watched.  No matter what kind of buttercream I used.  The easy way out for me had always been to just mould the roses from gumpaste.

After several years of being disappointed at myself, however, I can finally and proudly say that I have conquered the buttercream rose!  So much so, that now, I look forward to every opportunity to make them.










All these roses were made using Swiss meringue buttercream (no shortening) which many even consider too soft for this purpose.  Well let me tell you, it can be done!

I find that freezing the roses before placing them on the cake really makes the process so much easier. What I always do now is make my buttercream first, then pipe my roses (which I set aside in the freezer right after), frost my cake, pipe my borders then arrange the roses last.  Less stress!

One more thing - I'll let you in on my secret?  I don't use the usual rose tip #104 anymore.  The larger tip #124 is so much better.  Don't know why.  Just is, for me.

Now my new goal is to learn how to write properly on the cake!  My writing is almost always off center or crooked, too big or too small. :(  Oh well, one thing at a time!

Have a good week.

10 comments:

  1. Buttercream roses are also my waterloo but I find it hard to believe you were having trouble with them. Your roses looks immaculate.

    I find better control with #102 but #103/104 are a pain to use. I can't control the curling towards the thin end of the tip. Thus my buttercream roses looks like close to wilting . I will try to use #124 next time.

    Cheers from Sunny Singapore!

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  2. Your roses look picture perfect! I also prefer using larger petal tips when piping roses. I think its because 104 isn't as tall, which makes it harder to build up the rose without hitting the flower nail and harder to move the final rose. (Although, I think Estrel's uses tip 127D to pipe their unique roses. 127D is a large petal tip without a fat end; it's the same width the entire length. There was a "Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho" replay which showed one of their workers piping the roses. They didn't mention the tip # but it's what I could deduce from looking at the piping bag.)

    My writing isn't very good either. I'd love to learn how to write the way Goldilocks does on their cakes with the beautiful cursive using piping gel. I'm sure It takes a lot of practice to master when to apply more or less pressure to achieve the script.

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    1. I recently bought the Ateco 127 but haven't tried it. I will next time. I think I already know how to pipe roses the Estrel's way.

      Btw, is the Kapuso Mo video on YouTube? I would like to watch it. If you have a link, can you email it to me? Thanks AJ.

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    2. I not sure if the episode is uploaded anywhere online. I'm almost certain that it was a replay of an older episode because it was Undas and the majority of the shows over the weekend were replays except the news. Sorry I'm not of much help. They piped the center bud the normal way like an upside down ice cream cone. The outer concentric petals always started in the same place, but always ended shy of where the last one ended. The outer petals also dragged around the circumference of the rose; not that start stop, pipe in an "n" that's a custom.

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    3. No worries! As I said, I think I've figured it out. Thanks for the extra description!

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  3. I have spent nights browsing videos on piping royal icing and buttercream roses etc. Thanks for sharing that years of perseverance really pays off. Hope you have your video tutorial for tips and techniques in piping these lovely buds. Thanks for brightening my day Ms. Corinne :-)

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  4. Hi Corinne, those roses are perfect! I'm glad you're very at ease now when piping roses. I hope you'll do some tutorial when you make the "Estrel's way" of doing it. ~Mela~

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  5. Hi corinne, its always frustrating everytime i try buttercream roses thats why i stopped trying i find that my buttercream is always too soft so the petals fall off :( i will try again because its nice decorating caramel cake with them. How about the lace pipping? What size of tip do you use and do you have a pattern or is it just free hand/random? My friend is celebrating their wedding anniv on friday and it woulb be nice if i can make them this cake with lace and roses design like yours. I hope i can be like you who can create this delicious and beautiful cakes anytime i want. Thanks for always sharing :)

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    1. For the scalloped lace design, I use Wilton's garland marker to create a guide around the cake side. For piping, I use tip 1 or 2 or sometimes just cut off a tiny bit from tthe tip of the piping bag.

      Good luck!

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