Royal Icing Half Rose

About a week ago I posted about the rosebud, which is perfect for piping directly on cookies, petits fours, etc. The half rose is basically the rosebud with an extra petal on either side to bulk it up; in fact, you can make it as large as you want by adding extra petals to the sides. You'll need a Styrofoam block, a flower nail, a parchment paper square for each half rose (these should be cut a little larger, about 2x2"), a non-toxic glue stick, a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of powdered sugar and cornstarch (you may need to touch your finger to the dusting pouch to tap out any mistakes), a piping bag filled with green icing and fitted with a round #3 tip, and a bag filled with any color icing you like, fitted with a #104 petal tip.

 Start by sticking a parchment paper square to the flower nail with a dab from the glue stick.

 Holding the petal tip almost flat on the nail, pipe the first petal (I go into further detail on this petal and the next in the rosebud tutorial; there are lots of photos taken from every angle there, too).

 Tuck the petal tip against the side of the first petal and pipe the second petal; it should catch on the edge and spiral over:

 To pipe the first petal that will differentiate the half rose from the rosebud, place the petal tip against the left side of the rosebud with the wide end of the tip against the bottom of the rosebud. Pipe a petal as you move the tip up, across, and down to the opposite side of the rosebud, decreasing and eventually stopping pressure as you reach the other side.

Here's a view from the underside, looking up:

Then, pipe a similar petal from the right side. Start with the tip against the right side of the rosebud, with the wide side of the tip against the bud's base. Pipe a petal up, across, and down to the center of the rosebud. I'm not sure exactly what angle I was holding the tip that caused the right petal to curl over at this extreme angle. It was unintentional, but I kind of like it! Hopefully it's one of those things that can be recreated through practice.

 Finally, you'll want to pipe the sepals and calyx; the directions are the same as for the rosebud. I used a round #3 tip, and piped three sepals, starting with the middle one, then piping one on either side (only the left one is visible here), then joined them together with a calyx that tapers down into a stem. Allow the half rose to dry for a while until it slides easily off the parchment paper (you can speed up the drying time by placing it under a desk lamp). Not only would the half rose be sweet on a petit four, it would look good decorating the side of a cake as part of a border.

Royal Icing Rosebuds

I've been hesitant to post about the rosebud, because so much of it relies on motion; it really would be more conducive to a video! But some petit fours bearing them today inspired me to pipe them on Nilla Wafers, so I'm going to attempt to explain the process. All you need to jack up the value of store-bought cookies is a pastry bag filled with stiff consistency royal icing in any color and fitted with a #104 rose tip, and a pastry bag filled with green royal icing that's been thinned with a dab of piping gel and fitted with a #3 round tip. For smaller rosebuds, use a #101 rose tip and a #2 round tip.

 For the first petal, start with the tip to the right of the cookie's center (if you start in the exact center, the rosebud will probably wind up on the left). Lie the side of the tip flat on the cookie, with the narrow end slightly above the surface. As you squeeze and the icing fans out to form the base petal, you'll only move the wide end of the tip along the surface for about 1/4", first toward the center of the petal, then back to its original position at the V-shaped bottom; this motion forms that trough in the middle of the petal.

 The base petal should stand up on its own like this; it's almost like a disc.

 Here's another view of it.

 The next step will involve lining up the tip with the right edge of the base petal, with the wide end of the rose tip aligned with the "V" of the base. Tuck the tip underneath the petal just slightly, and squeeze firmly. As the icing comes out, it will catch on the right edge of the base petal, and curl the petal over itself…

 …which forms the front petal of the rosebud. When it looks like this, stop the pressure and slide the bag away toward yourself.

 Here's another view of the rosebud from below:

 Here's a view from the side where the tip was (you can see the angle from which it was pulled away):

 Finally, here's a view of the top of the rosebud; you can see the inner spiral, and how the petal curled over itself:

 Cap the purple bag, and reach for the green one to make the sepals and calyx. Hold the tip at the base of the rosebud. Squeeze, and let the icing build up on itself a little bit; then, move the tip up the center of the rosebud for just over 1/4". When you reach a good stopping place, stop the pressure and pull the tip down. This should form what almost looks like a little swan's neck and head.

 Repeat twice for a total of three sepals. To finish, place the tip at the base of the center sepal, and squeeze until icing builds up enough to connect all three sepals; this will be the calyx. Draw the tip toward you, reducing and stopping pressure as you go. If this rosebud was being piped directly on a cake, you could continue down into a stem, blending the calyx and stem with a dampened brush. You can also pipe it in buttercream.