Fondant Ruffled Rose Cake- Free Tutorial
Our love for all things ruffled continues in this highly requested, elegant fondant cake design!
We are so excited to offer this tutorial, as cakes dressed in ruffled roses continue to be in high demand year after year. 
While creating ruffle roses is consuming, it is not a difficult technique to master. In this video, we are going to demonstrate a couple of ways to create an elegant ruffled rose.
As an added bonus, you will learn to add a ridged texture to your fondant as well as a beautiful pearl and dragee accent border.
Enjoy the video!
Table of Contents
Materials
(We started with 9 inch/6 inch/ 4 inch tiers covered with Liz Marek fondant. As usual, each tier is on it's own cardboard cake circle cut down to size.)
Fondant (we used Liz Marek's recipe)
Tylose Powder- We kneaded a small amount into our fondant to make it easier to handle. Optional step. If you prefer not to use tylose, you may need to dry your strips a few minutes longer before they are ready to handle. Also needed for "tylose glue".
Tylose Glue- (¼ tsp. tylose dissolved into 2 tablespoons warm water). Piping gel is another option.
FMM Multi Ribbon Cutter for cutting our fondant strips.
Cel Pad-This makes frilling the edges much easier. You can try using a roll of paper towels or even your palm as your padded surface if you are in a pinch.
Ball Toll (I prefer a metal ball over plastic)- necessary if you'd like a frilled/ruffled look to your edges.
Clear vinyl/mat or plastic wrap to help keep the strips from drying too much after they've been out for several minutes
Circle cutter in the size that you would like for your rose centers to be (needed for one of our two ruffled rose methods)
Sugar pearls and dragees, pixie/shimmer dust is optional
Pearl Dust/Pearl Spray -Optional for pearlizing our tiers
Small paint brushes- helpful for brushing on adhesive. Handles are useful too. I also used a large Wilton brush to apply my pearl dust.
Gum paste tool/paint brush with a thin handle- for the middle tier design. I will link to the tool that I use...I believe that mine is for clay but they have very similar options for use with gum paste. Mine are from Michael's craft store.
Toothpicks-Helpful for holding roses/ruffles in places as they set. Just don't forget to remove them! ;0)
Notes:
**In this video, I demonstrate two ruffled rose techniques. I want to thank my friend Stephanie of Delicious Deliveries for sharing one of those methods with me, which involves building the rose onto fondant discs. Before that, I only had built roses directly onto the cake. Being able to prepare them in advance is a wonderful option. If you are not familiar with Stephanie's work, check her site out here...or her Facebook page out here! She is an amazing cake artist!
-In our video, I laid out our thinly rolled fondant strips to set up on the countertop. After about 10 minutes or so, I flipped them so that both sides would have a turn at being exposed to the air. For me, a total of 20-30 minutes on the counter worked well...but that amount of time will vary depending on several factors (humidity in your kitchen, brand or recipe of fondant, whether or not you used tylose,etc.)
-I kneaded a very small amount of tylose into my fondant so that the consistency was not quite as soft as straight fondant...but not as stiff as gum paste. You may find that straight fondant works well for you.
-Don't allow your fondant strips to become too dry while sitting out. I used my clear vinyl to keep them useable as I started the process of creating the roses. You could also use layers of plastic wrap or slide them into large ziplock bags.
-We made our centers for our roses the night before, and so they were still pliable the next day. However, if you are working further in advance, or if you want to prevent them from becoming firm, you can slide them into a large ziplock bag.
Let us know if you have any questions! I hope that you enjoy the tutorial!
Thank you all so much for your comments!! I'm so happy that you like it!
This cake is so beautiful!
@CakesOnTheLane~ Thank you!!
This was an awesome tutorial! TY!
Done! Love this cake. Posting pic in gallery. I accidentally attached the pearl bead border to the 2nd tier and realized it when I got to the top tier, thought oh well, it's ok. But when I put it together it just didn't have the right balance, so took it apart and placed it as in yours. Question- I have a lot of luster dust on it- comes off on my hands ( did mine in a dummy cake). Does yours? If it was real, what would I do? Guessing I put on too much to get the sheen?
Hi paintmycake, your cake is just gorgeous!!
As far as the pearl dust question, I don't remember it being an issue but I believe that for this cake, I added my luster after the tiers were stacked. I think that it would be easy enough to cover any fingerprints with more luster dust. It just takes a very small amount of dust to get that nice sheen. Wish I had a better answer for you!
How far in advance can you make the circles for the inside of the flower? If it is dry all the way through will it still work or does it need to still be flexible?I appreciate the work that you do.
also, how many people does this feed using the same size layers you have? How many layers is each cake?
Hi Tambra, Yes it is best if they are flexible. We made ours the day before. You can place them in a plastic bag to keep them from drying out. This cake is a 9, 6 and 4 inch cake, each cake tier 4 inches tall. The 9 inch serves 24, the 6 inch serves 12 and the 4 inch 8.......for a total of 44 servings. Here is a link to the Wilton serving chart, . This is from the Member Resources on the homepage of the site.
Thank you for your response. Can the cake be done in buttercream or just fondant? If buttercream will work will the second layer look good?
oh my gosh,i keep on falling in love with your beautiful cakes...can i ask you since iam only starting,im sorry if i make silly questions...the board you use under each tier from the base up to top tier,is it just 1 paper card board? do i have to wrap it with plastic roll? can i improvise this card board since is going to be hidden? plus it will save a little more money i guess.."for the start"..
another question.all your board prsentation do you wrap them with table cloth you said? is it easy to glue it underneath?how do we do it please?
more."sorryyyyyy again...
to deliver this type of cake,do you bring them over already tired up? or how do we bring it over without any accident? how do we box this cakes? i have not a clue....
and you mentioned about this. famous new fondant mixture from artisan cake,is it a must to mix it with the wilton? or can it be with satin ice etcother brand? is ita Must to put tylose powder after we have made this fondant? gum paste or tylose? and....last but not the least..can you please tell me,in order. to save a bit on my new start,,can i use any other homemade fondant just to make " figurines,animal,faces,etc...??? and use this new artisan cake fondant recipe just to cover my cakes,since it cost more money?
I do apologise for so many questions,,, please answer only when you really have time,i can wait,thanks alot,God bless your beautiful work!!
@Tambra- This cake can be done in buttercream. Here is the tutorial for buttercream ruffled roses:
For the middle tier, it should work fine-- I would chill the frosted tier, then create your impressions with the side of your spatula or the dull side of a table knife. (You may get a cleaner look by heating the spatula or knife in very hot water before applying to the chilled frosting.)
@Ana Flavia- We use one cardboard cake circle (not wrapped) beneath each cake tier. You could also use foam core. When covering the cake base with a plastic table cloth, you can secure the bottom with tape or a stapler. Now, we use a stapler most often to secure. If using a wooden base, we use a heavy duty upholstery stapler to secure. Liz Marek fondant can be made with Satin Ice also. Since marshmallows & powdered sugar is so inexpensive, this recipe gives you more mileage out of your pre-made fondant which is nice. You can also save money on gum paste by instead kneading tylose powder into your fondant to create a gum paste-like consistency. I do this whenever I need to speed up the dry time or to strengthen the fondant for figure modeling or to roll the fondant more thin for flowers, etc. Hope this helps!