Making Fondant Roses

You may think that making fondant roses is difficult. I used to think so as well. And while these beautiful roses look delicate and maybe even difficult to make...nothing could be further from the truth. Making a fondant rose is quite simple.

A sweet friend of mine's daughter was turning fourteen - in October 2011 - and I wanted her birthday to be very special. The fondant roses were intended to decorate rose petal cupcakes and while the cupcakes were not all I wanted them to be...the roses were perfect: delicate, beautiful and so feminine.

While they take some time, fondant roses are quite easy to make.

You will need a block of fondant the color of your choice. I found my fondant at Wal-Mart. I know that stores like Michael's also sell fondant.

Note: What is fondant? Fondant mainly refers to a mixture of sugar, water and cream of tartar that is used in baking; either as a frosting for cakes, candy filling or in our case a base to make edible decorations.

You will also need some sandwich plastic baggies and that is all.

Cut small pieces of fondant: I made 7 per rose. The balls will be about 1/3 the size of a marble. Bigger balls will make bigger roses and smaller balls...you guessed it, smaller roses.

Place one ball onto the plastic baggy, fold it over and with your finger flatten it lengthwise.

Roll the fondant into a tight roll. This will be the center of your rose.

Note: This also makes sweet - and cute - rose buds.

Take another ball. Place it on the plastic baggy. Fold it over and flatten it...this time in a circle or at least an oval.

Fold the petal around the center.

Repeat the step above and put this petal on the opposite side of the first petal. Repeat with the remaining petals, alternating them back and forth.

I place each rose on top of each cupcake. The cupcake's frosting was supposed to be lighter in color than the rose and as you can see...that was a fail, the frosting and roses matched exactly. I could not have done a better job at matching those two had I tried...sigh.