Valentines: How To Make A Rose From Flower Paste

Want to add a touch of beauty and romance to your next cake? Learn how to craft a rose from flower paste. A rose is a rose is a rose. Unless you’re making one from flower paste to adorn your next cake, in which case a rose can be a thorn in your side. However it doesn’t have to be this way. Sugar crafting a rose from flower paste is one of those baking rites of passage, but it’s a project many shy away from because it seems so complicated. This guide will help you create your first rose, and after you’ve made two or three you’ll feel like a sugar craft pro. A rose is the ideal decoration for a cake made for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, birthdays or weddings.

Supplies To Craft Your Flower Paste Rose

Although you can make your rose from white flower paste, which you can either colour before moulding or paint after it has set, it’s much easier to simply buy a ready coloured flower paste. You’ll find reds and pinks available, ideal for crafting a rose. You will need: Flower paste in your choice of colour Some icing sugar Cooled, boiled water A ball end tool You can get rose petal cutters, but it’s a good idea to learn how to make a rose from scratch, as it will help you with your decorating skills and also aid you in creating different flowers later on.

Crafting A Flower Paste Rose

Before you begin, sprinkle a little icing sugar onto your work surface.

1. Knead your flower paste on your work surface until it becomes pliable.
2. Pinch off some icing, enough to roll into a ball that is about an inch across.
3. Gently roll one edge of the ball of flower paste until it forms a cone. This will be the centre of your rose. Set it to one side.
4. To make a petal pinch off some icing and roll into a ball about half an inch across.
5. Flatten the ball of icing on your work surface, then take a ball tool and run it around the edge of one side of the icing. Keep the tool half on and half off the flower paste. This will thin one side of the icing out, and give it a frilled petal-like appearance. You need to make 15 more petals.
6. Take your first petal and wrap it around the cone, sticking in place with your cooled, boiled water. You now have a bud.
7. Add three petals to the bud with your boiled water. Make them overlap slightly. Then gently unfurl the top edges with a toothpick.
8. Take 5 flower paste petals and fix them in position, lower down the bud than the previous layer. Again ensure they overlap and position the tops.
9. Apply the final layer of petals before trimming the base of the cone with a sharp knife and setting aside to harden.
10. The flower paste rose is ready to place. Secure it with some cooled boiled water.

And that’s it. A flower paste rose isn’t the preserve of the decorating pros, anyone can do it with a little patience and practise. So give your next cake some flower power, and watch the recipient’s face light up.