My aunt is very dear to me. She lives three hours ahead, so I often call her while I'm out walking, and it's always so nice to catch up. We share interests in reading, movies, theater, traveling, and more, and I enjoy hearing about her latest adventures. Last February (yeah, a year ago), she turned 70, and we celebrated with a weekend staycation in LA with my parents, my sister and her family, and my aunt. We visited the Skirball, had a great Italian dinner, and I made her this cake with fondant roses:
Roses like these are really quick to make. You can do them in a lot more detail and roll the fondant paper thin to achieve a more realistic petal thickness, but you can do a quick flower, roll it fairly thin, and still come out with a pretty look. You make a cone-shaped center and about 6-8 round leaves (just use a circle cookie cutter). Then you start by holding the cone and wrapping one circle/leaf around the it. Line the edge of the circle up with the bottom of the cone. The next circle/leaf overlaps it just a bit, and you keep adding the leaves, overlapping with the one you just finished. As you go, you can gently pull the leaves out to make a more open rose, or you can leave them closed for a rosebud (which probably only needs 4-5 petals). At the end, I usually pinch or slice off the bottom of the rose and leave a flat bottom (imagine you just broke the flower straight off the stem), and that works nicely to place on the cake.
Note: those are vanilla seeds in the frosting - they taste great but always look icky. The cake was lemon with lemon curd and vanilla bean frosting, if I'm remembering correctly.
Roses like these are really quick to make. You can do them in a lot more detail and roll the fondant paper thin to achieve a more realistic petal thickness, but you can do a quick flower, roll it fairly thin, and still come out with a pretty look. You make a cone-shaped center and about 6-8 round leaves (just use a circle cookie cutter). Then you start by holding the cone and wrapping one circle/leaf around the it. Line the edge of the circle up with the bottom of the cone. The next circle/leaf overlaps it just a bit, and you keep adding the leaves, overlapping with the one you just finished. As you go, you can gently pull the leaves out to make a more open rose, or you can leave them closed for a rosebud (which probably only needs 4-5 petals). At the end, I usually pinch or slice off the bottom of the rose and leave a flat bottom (imagine you just broke the flower straight off the stem), and that works nicely to place on the cake.
Note: those are vanilla seeds in the frosting - they taste great but always look icky. The cake was lemon with lemon curd and vanilla bean frosting, if I'm remembering correctly.
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