Iced Rose Cookies {Tutorial}

As promised, a tutorial to make your own sweet rose cookies like the ones I made here. I used pretty much the same steps to produce 2 different effects - a flat rose and a raised rose.

You will need:

• Light pink flood icing with a size 2 tip
• Medium pink flood icing with a size 2 tip
• Red (or dark pink) piping icing with a size 1 tip

For the 'flat rose' I used the wet-on-wet technique. Start by outlining and filling with the light pink icing. I freehand the outline, generally sticking to the rule of having 5 petals, 2 large ones and 3 small, the more irregular the better. Then immediately begin piping on the red details.

Start with a spiral in the middle, then start adding petals, finishing off the last petals right on the edge of the light pink base. You want to work quite quickly so that the icing sinks in to the base colour. I prefer to use piping icing at this step because it gives better definition to the lines, but you can use 20 second or even flood icing if you prefer - the more runny the icing, the wider and less defined the lines will be, but they will sink in to the wet base more easily.

Finally add dimension by piping on the medium pink icing into the smaller petals...

...and to the outside edges of the larger petals.

Tap the cookie gently to settle all the icing into the base so that the surface of the icing is nearly flat.

Set aside to dry. Done.

For the 'raised rose', pipe the light pink icing as before, but then allow it to dry before continuing. After about an hour it should be set enough to begin icing the red detail. Again, start in the centre with a spiral, then add petals.

Then add the medium pink to the smaller petals and the outside edges of the larger petals.

Use a toothpick to pull the icing in to the little corners.

And set aside to dry.

As you can see, you get two very different effects. Which do you like better?