Hello everyone! It has been a long time since I’ve shared a tutorial with you, but that ends today. I’m sharing one, and I’m super happy about it. How would you like to make pretty roses with thick royal icing? I hope you’re ready because here we go! 

royal icing roses, the bearfoot baker, roses royal icing, sugar cookies. royal icing flowers

As you can see, the roses in the image above are not the same. We will make all of them eventually, but today, we will focus on two. They are both made with the same piping tips and the same consistency of royal icing. 

Supply List

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Recipes
Tools
  • Piping bags
  • Piping tips #104, #103, #102, or #101– You can use one of all of these. The size of the tip will determine the size of your roses. 
  • Flower Nail for Icing – Flower Nails are very inexpensive, and you can get these at Walmart, Amazon, The Flour Box Shop, The Cookie Countess, or almost any bakery supply shop. If you plan on making a lot of roses, you will need to purchase a few.
  • Flower Nail Holder- You can make your own by cutting a 2″ block of wood and drilling a hole about halfway down the block. If you want to purchase them pre-made, you can find my design in my cookie-cutter shop. It has a cute bear paw on the front side and a hole in the top for the flower nail. I use mine all the time.
  • Parchment Paper Squares- Cut about a 2″ x 2″ square out of parchment paper. It doesn’t have to be exact; it just needs to be a little larger than your flower nail.

How to Make Pretty Roses with Thick Royal Icing Video:

I want to begin with the Flower Nail. Do you know how to use a Flower Nail? It is a box with a hole in the top of it. The hole isn’t completely through the box, but it’s deep enough to hold the nail and let you twist the nail so you can pipe and spin it as much as you need to make the flower. It’s a game changer for me. If I use my fingers without the box, I don’t twist the flower nail long enough to make the flower. I always stop twisting before it’s finished. The box holds the nail, allowing me to continuously adjust my fingers and keep spinning to achieve a better-looking flower. 

You can find them in cookie shops, or you can make your own. I have both. I made some out of wood, and some are made with PLA Plastic. If you’re interested in one made with PLA, you can find it in my shop. Here is the link- Flower Nail Holder.

Grab a flower nail and either hold it between your index finger and thumb or place it in the hole at the top of the Flower Nail Holder.

Add a little icing to the top of the flower nail.

Add the parchment paper on top. This will allow you to pipe the flower, remove it from the nail, and let it dry as you pipe more flowers. 

Now for the fun part. Add a drop of royal icing to the parchment paper. It doesn’t need to be perfect because its job is to give you height to pipe the rose. Sometimes I make them nice and neat, and sometimes I squeeze the icing blob in the middle. Do whatever works for you and makes you happy.

For this rose, we’re going to use tip #102. Point the skinny end of the tip towards the ceiling, and the wide end pointing at the flower nail. This will make a nice petal on your roses. If it is reversed, the rose will be top-heavy and look strange. 

Gently touch the #102 tip to the bottom side of the icing blob and lift over the center of the blob as you start squeezing the icing bag. You don’t want to cover the entire center, but you do want it to be close. Slowly spin the flower nail and go all the way around the blob. You need to end by pulling the icing over the starting point and pulling down as you finish at the bottom.  You can see how this is done in the video. 

Congrats! The center of the rose is done! Way to go! 

Next, we will add three more petals around the center of the rose. This is where you will see if your icing is thick enough. If it’s not, your petals will look as if they’re melting together. You’ll need to add more powdered sugar, mix well, and rebag it. The icing needs to be thick to hold the shape of the petals.

  • You could place the flower tip in the flower nail holder and let it dry for a few minutes, or you can change to a smaller tip. I began this with the #104 tip, and the icing looked runny. When I changed to a smaller tip, everything worked well. If I needed a larger flower, I would have emptied the icing bag into a small bowl and added more sifted powdered sugar until I got the thickness I was looking for. 
  • When you pipe the next three petals, you’ll need to start at the base of the blob and behind where you finished the first petal. Pipe it almost halfway around the center. Repeat for the next two petals. If you watch the video, you will see it in action. 

  • It is looking like a rose, and I love it.
  • You can repeat and add three more petals, or you can stop here if you want a small rose.
  • If you want a larger rose, you can pipe three more petals, or you can pipe five. You can do it the same way you piped the three petals. Start in the center at the base of a previous petal and pull the bag upwards as you pipe the petal. Go around and start moving the tip in the bag down as you finish. Repeat until you get the size rose you want.

Next, use the turkey lacer, toothpick, or Boo Boo Stick to flatten the side. If you’d prefer, you can use a damp paintbrush to clean up the ends and edges. The paintbrush is my new favorite tool for this. Once your roses are completely dry, you can store them in an airtight container for months. I’m working on a bunch of roses to make for a friend’s wedding cookies. The flowers will be ready ahead of time, so all I have to do is outline and flood the base of the cookies. Then, I’ll drop the flowers into the wet base of royal icing. It’s a quick, easy, and stress-free way to decorate the cookies. 

I hope you come back soon because I’ll show you how to use some of these roses on an animal cookie. Can you guess which one?

Bear hugs,