Rose Garden Cupcakes

Roses: the quintessential frosting flower found on 90% of bakery cakes. Confession: this is the first time I ever made them! I had thought about taking the Wilton course #1 just to learn roses, but I never got around to it. It turns out that between my books with great illustrations and my Mom (my original cake decorating teacher), I figured them out. When I was told that the client wanted 100 cupcakes with big roses, I said "sure!" (because that's how I roll). I figured that after 100 roses, I'd be pretty good at it. I admit, the first dozen or so were pathetic and didn't make it on a cupcake. But I eventually got my groove...and major hand cramping...so I called in reinforcements. So about half of these roses were the work of my Mom (most likely the prettiest ones!) who bailed me out of the "war of the roses". (Thanks Mom!) The cupcakes were champagne orange cake with vanilla icing, chocolate chocolate chip cake with vanilla icing, and carrot cake with cream cheese icing. They looked so fantastic all together on my big custom cupcake stand (Thanks Dad!) The cupcakes were for a retirement party, and the party was at a home with a spectacular rose garden, so they were such a nice compliment to the natural decor. And they even smelled sweet!