Royal Icing Wild Prairie Rose

The wild prairie rose, Iowa's state flower since 1897, is found throughout the state, where it blooms from June through late summer. It comes in many shades of pink; I thought this would be a good excuse to try Fuchsia Soft Gel Paste by AmeriColor; it has a raspberry sherbet quality. You'll also need yellow stiff consistency royal icing, petal tip #104, round tip #2, parchment paper squares, a glue stick, a flower nail, a Styrofoam brick to rest the nail in, and a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of cornstarch and powdered sugar. You may find using a primrose template decal on the nail will help keep your petals equal in size. Start by sticking a parchment square to the nail with a dab from the glue stick. 

 Using the #104 petal tip with the wide side in the middle of the nail, almost flat on the surface, and the narrow side facing outward and angled slightly upward, pipe a heart-shaped petal. Squeeze slowly while moving your hand in a motion similar to a "3" lying with the curves up. Stop pressure and pull the tip away towards yourself when you reach the end of the shape.

 Pipe another petal, overlapping the first one slightly.

 You don't need to pipe the petals overlapping one after the other. I piped one opposite the first two just to mix things up…

 …and then the fourth…

 …and the fifth. Touch a fingertip to the dusting pouch and gently tap the center flat.

 Use the #2 tip to pipe a cluster of yellow stand-up dots for stamens. Hold the tip against the surface, squeeze while pulling the tip up and away for about 1/4", then stop pressure and pull the tip away. With their heart-shaped petals, wild prairies roses would be cute on a Valentine's Day dessert.

Piping Roses with Star-Cut Tip #64

I found an unusual tip this weekend: the Ateco #64, which is considered a star-cut tip. It's a curved petal tip (like you use for piping violets), but it has a couple of teeth carved into the inner curve by the narrow end. The teeth cause whatever you pipe to have a ridge:

I can imagine this tip being useful for borders and swags, but I wanted to try piping a rose with it (only because it looks so much like a violet tip). I started by piping the rose bases in advance and allowing them to firm up. Go here to see why this step is important. 

 Dab a glue stick to a flower nail, then carefully place one of the bases on. If it comes off the paper, stick it back down with a dot of icing.

 I'm not going to bore you with details of how to pipe the petals; I'll let Wilton do that. ;) Seriously, I go sort of nuts thinking about all the angles, hand positions, number of petals, etc. that are involved in piping roses. The basic thing you need to do is pipe a center wraparound petal…

 …and then pipe as many petals as you need to sufficiently cover the base. The petals should overlap, be staggered (not be in vertical rows), and angle increasingly outwards from the base as you reach the parchment.

 Generally, when you've piped the base with the round #12 tip, you can fit on 3 rows of petals beyond the first wraparound petal. The rows might consist of 3, 5, and 7 overlapping petals.

As you can see, these look more or less like traditional roses, but with a grooved edge. This might be the perfect variation for you, if you're tired of piping roses that look like everybody else's. Try piping roses with other non-traditional tips! 

Piping Roses with Tip #101s

Yesterday's blog post was about the largest flower I've ever piped: the gerbera daisy. Just to shake things up, today I piped the smallest flower I've ever piped (with the exception of drop flowers): a rose with petal tip #101s. More common tips for piping roses are the #101 and #104, and I really felt the difference with this smaller tip; you could place one of these roses on a dime with room to spare! Here's the tiny #1 nail I piped it on…

…and here it is, side by side with the nail #914 from yesterday:

Also, here's the #101s tip to the right of the largest petal tip I own, the #126. 

In addition to the #1 nail and the #101s tip, you'll need a Styrofoam brick to set the nail in, a #8 tip, a glue stick, parchment squares (very tiny ones! I cut some 3" ones into fourths), royal icing in any color you like, and a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of cornstarch and powdered sugar. 

 Stick a parchment square to the nail with a dab from the glue stick.

 Pipe a rose base with the #8 tip. Make it look like a tiny Hershey's kiss. Hold the tip just above and perpendicular to the surface, squeeze out a small amount and draw the tip up. You may need to touch a fingertip to the dusting pouch and then to the base to perfect the shape.

 Pipe all of your bases at the same time, one for each rose. Allow them to firm up, then return one of them to the nail. Switch the tip to the #101s, and pipe a wraparound petal while rotating the nail.

 I had a hard time following traditional rose instructions (like those for the Wilton Rose) because of the tininess of the petals; I just couldn't do the standard rows of 3, 5, and 7 petals! Instead, I piped with the goal of covering the base. Here's the rose with the wraparound petal and one row of petals surrounding it…

 …and here's one more row of petals to finish it off. By the way, to pipe petals, squeeze the bag while moving the tip in an upside down "U" movement. These are great for decorating tiny little cookies, cakes, petits fours, whatever! You could eat an entire bouquet in one bite!

Piping Roses with a Striped Edge

Adding a striped edge to a rose takes no special equipment beyond a second color of icing and the cheapest brush you can buy. Needless to say, you can use any two colors you want to make roses for any occasion (patriotic, Christmas, high school colors, etc.). In this case, I used two shades of pink. I started by mixing up a small amount of the darker shade (I used Deep Pink by AmeriColor):

 Then I added a small amount of the deep pink icing to a larger container of white to get a very light shade of pink:

 The set-up includes a piping bag filled with white (or light pink) royal icing fitted with a round #12 tip, an empty bag fitted with a #104 rose tip, a parchment square for each rose, a rose nail, a Styrofoam block (to act as a third hand), a glue stick, and a brush (preferably one that costs no more than fifty cents).

Start by making the bases. Dab the glue stick to the rose nail and stick a parchment square to it. 

Hold the bag with the round #12 tip and pipe a shape similar to a Hershey's Kiss by holding the tip just above the surface, then piping firmly. When the base builds up to about the size of a nickel, start moving the tip up and away from the nail. Stop pressure and pull the tip away. If the shape isn't quite right, either coax it into place with a finger dipped in powdered sugar, or scrape the "Kiss" off and start over.

 No two will probably look alike, but they'll all work, more or less.

 On the empty bag, make sure the narrow end of the rose tip lines up with one of the seams on the bag.

 Cuff the bag over, half the length of the bag:

 Using your brush, paint a stripe on the seam with the darker pink icing (or whichever color you like). Paint as far down into the end of the bag (or the coupler, if you're using one) as you can, and continue up the seam for a few inches.

 Fill the bag with the other color, in this case the lighter pink.

 Pipe out a test squeeze, until the stripe appears. Now you can start piping striped roses!

Official instructions on the Wilton site for The Wilton Rose will tell you exactly which angle to hold your bag at for each row of petals. I just wanted to show you a brief example of what happens when you pipe the first wraparound petal (that should completely hide whatever color the base is)…

 …and then the next row of three petals…

 …then five…

 …and finally seven.

The possibilities really are limitless! Halloween roses, anyone?