Fondant Roses

These are only my second ever attempt and I'm really happy with them.  First attempts were the ones on this cake, last week

Which I also felt were pretty good.  In fact, I swear I uttered the words 'not too shabby' more than a few times in reference to them.  I've wanted to be able to make flowers for quite some time, they will make a really purdy topper for a cupcake in my opinion, and are used in abundance in beautiful cake designs. 

I watched a couple of awful, awful YouTube videos on making flowers before finding anything even remotely decent.  By searching around, I did happen upon one video that I copied most of the 'how to' from, but before clicking the link below, be warned - it is a long video (nearly 7 mins), she talks far too much about things of no importance, her annoying kid starts whining for attention at around the 5 and a half minute mark, but she does have a good, easy to replicate technique for beginners attempting to make flowers from fondant.  I mean, thats how I did my first ones, so she can't be too bad to learn from!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzp3XfhUpQ4&feature=related

If you've got no interest in following her instructions, or you're still angry she used that saccharin sweet 'oooh, honey, mummys coming' placation one time too many instead of getting the damn kid a drink or something to eat (or even, god forbid, chose a time to do a tutorial video when the kid was asleep) so don't really want to subject yourself to the video again, I understand.  I feel your pain, so on with the program!

You will need:-

*Ready to Roll Fondant (Orchard brand was what I used)
*Food colours of your choice. 
*Toothpicks (for dipping into the colours and wiping on the fondant)
*Gloves (for the colouring part of course!)
*Icing Mixture (to stop hands getting sticky)
*Baking Paper/Greaseproof Paper (to rest your works in progress upon)
*Plastic Zip-Lock Bag
*Holder for the finished product (or an airtight container and more baking paper)

To make about a half dozen flowers, you'll only need a small amount of Fondant (about half a palm full).  Thats enough for a first attempt, or, it was for me!  Start by working your fondant into a nice, smooth ball, then colour and knead until consistently coloured through. 

Take a small amount of fondant from your ball, and roll it in your palm until nice and round and smooth.  Place it on your ziplock bag, then fold the bag over the top of the ball and smooth it out with your fingertips.

Peel from the plastic, then roll up like a log to create the inner bud for your flower. 

Set aside on some baking paper, and get to work on rolling up some more tiny little balls of your coloured fondant.  Depending on the size of the flower you are wanting to make, you'll need at least 10 of the balls/petals to make a decent looking flower.  Unless you're more skilled than I, which is highly likely, in which case, post back here with tips for me!

Keep smoothing out your little balls, and attaching them to your bud.  If you work slowly, don't pre-make more than a couple of balls at a time or they will stiffen and dry out too much, defeating the purpose of working them into balls as you'll have wasted your time and will need to re-roll them all over again.

I always start out my next 'petal' so that it will overlap the one done before. You don't want to completely smooth away the petal look as shown in the last photo above.

As you place each petal and are happy with its location, you'll find you can shape or mould the base flat a little.  Do this so you can rest on your piece of baking paper between application of petals. If you rest the flower on its side as shown above, you will get the outermost parts bending out of shape a little, which will need constant re-attention as you add more petals.


This is fiddly work at first.   No two ways about it, but, if you want to make these and master them, practice really does make perfect.  Even on my second attempt last night, I found that by the time I was up to flower number 12, they were looking so much more professional, nicer and I had the hang of it even more than on say flower 4.  Its really about just doing it over and over again to master this skill.  I've had no lessons, used fondant only a handful of times, so please don't be discouraged!

If you want to use your fingers to shape the petals, go right ahead.  I did this several times as well, it does get a little stickier, but just keep your Icing Mixture on hand to solve that dilemma.

Once you are happy with the amount of petals on your flower, gently press back on the outermost petals to open them up a little

Begin working on that giant base you've created next by gently working into a log at the end, twisting and removing excess fondant as you go.  What you are aiming for is your flower bud, with a small stem off it or even a flatter smaller base if you don't have something to rest them in to dry.  To store these I actually used my Wilton nozzle kit holder

These will be cupcake toppers for a morning tea I am catering tomorrow, so they are very small indeed, but so very cute!  If you don't have a suitable holder for these, all you need is some baking paper, a tea towel and a sealed air-tight container.  Simply fold your tea towel to support your flowers, lay some baking paper over it to place the flowers on and store until needed.

It still feels like Winter, but Spring is here :)