Vanilla Rose Cupcakes

In the Wilton cake decorating classes I took, you learn two different ways to do roses: piped, or sugar paste.  They are both beautiful, but the problem is, although they are both edible, they're not really yummy.  The piped roses are piped onto a "piping nail" on pieces of parchment paper, which allows you to turn the nail between the fingers of your left hand while piping petals with your right. These are made out of royal icing, which sets up overnight to form a crunchy sugar rose, which can then be placed on a cake/ cupcake/ whatever.  My kids love them - they taste like nothing but sugar.  For adult palates, though, "pure sugar" is not really a desirable flavor!  It's a pet peeve of mine in baking that so much of it is beauty over taste - good taste is routinely sacrificed for the look the baker is trying to achieve.

In any case, I decided to make these vanilla rose cupcakes with the most delicious frosting of all: French buttercream.  The nice thing about French buttercream is, it will harden when cold.  Professional bakers use it (or Swiss buttercream, which is almost the same thing) for this reason under fondant, because it will set hard like a rock after a few minutes in the fridge, and then you have a smooth, hard surface to place the fondant onto, resulting in the beautiful finish you see on professional wedding cakes.

So, I piped my French buttercream roses onto parchment paper squares on the flower nail, and then I placed the squares carefully on a small baking sheet and put it in the freezer for 5 minutes.  The roses solidified, and I could then peel them off the parchment squares and stick them on the cupcakes.  10 minutes later, the roses were thawed, and the cupcakes delicious and ready to eat!