This tutoriial is based in part on Fran’s Rose tutorial : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYkPhb-_gDg
but includes wired petals.

Take a 20 gauge wire and a small styrofoam egg. The egg should be no bigger than the petal size of a 100mm Jem “Easy Rose” cutter. Use a hot glue gun to attach some glue to the wire and then push the wire up into the base of the egg.

Then choose a large petal shaped cutter- cutter is big enough if the egg fits within it when the cutter is turned sideways.

Roll paste thinly and cut out a single petal with the cutter. Put petal on a petal pad and use a ball tool to thin the edges of the petal. Brush tylose glue all over egg and lay it down on the petal.

Wrap the petal tightly around the top of the egg (cone), tucking the sharp end of the petal in first, then pulling the wide end around so that there is a tiny hole at the top. The styrofoam must not be visible through this hole.

This is the FIRST ROW of petals.
Next, roll paste and using the Jem “Easy Rose” 100mm cutter cut one set of petals and ball the edges to thin.

Transfer petal to a thin foam pad. Apply glue to the left hand edge of each petal, from top to bottom. Add a little glue to the centre also.

Feed wire down through centre of the petals and foam.

Take the petal furthest away from you and attach it to the cone along its glued side…

then skip the next petal (working clockwise), and attach the third petal in the same way- you should have something that looks like this:

Tuck the ends of the petals around one another to form an “S” shaped spiral.

Then take the remaining petals and attach them (evenly spaced) in turn around the cone- when finished, the petals should look a bit like the blades of a ceiling fan.

Spiral the petals around the cone, at this stage you can turn the unglued edge back behind itself slightly if desired.
This makes up the SECOND and THIRD row of petals and is at this point a BUD rose.

For the FOURTH row of petals, use the 110mm cutter to cut out petals, ball to thin the edge, then flip over and use a cocktail stick to roll the edges of the petal back slightly towards the middle of the edge of the petal.

Then, flip back onto the foam square, and place on top of petal pad. Use ball tool to make a”bowl” at the base of each petal…

Apply glue to both sides of each petal, from the base, to half way up the side.

Thread the wire down through the centre of the petals, the attach each petal to the rose along the glued edges, trying not to squish the bowl shape, you should be able to see down into the base of each petal. Overlap each petal slightly if necessary.

This completes the FOURTH row of petals and makes a HALF OPEN rose. Hang the rose upside down at this stage to firm up.

Cut out another set of petals with the larger cutter, this time balling the whole petal to increase its size slightly. Curl back petals as before and attach in the same way, taking care to place the petals over the joins in the previous row. This completes the FIFTH row of petals.

For the SIXTH row- cut 5 lengths of 24 gauge wire. Select a single petal shaped cutter which can span the rose from base to tip.

Moisten the tip of the wire with a little glue. Take a small sausage of paste and roll it onto the wire.

Then bend the paste covered end inside the bowl of a plastic spoon, creating a curve in the wire.

Cut 5 petals with the single petal cutter. Ball the edges and bowl out the bases of the petals slightly. Brush the side curve of the paste covered wire with glue and attach the petal on top- matching curve to curve… (this is the back view- )

(Front view)

Curl top edges of petals around and behind the spoons. Leave to dry.

Tape petals tightly behind the last row, again, covering the joins between petals in the previous row.
When assembled your rose should look like this-

To finish off the bud rose and the half open rose, cut two calyxes out of green coloured paste. Ball to thin and elongate slightly, then attach to the base of the rose, covering any imperfections.

To Ganache:

1. Layer cake with ganache and affix to baseboard with ganache.

2. Affix baseboard to workboard with ganache.

3. Trim cake so there is a 3 -5mm space between the cake and the edge of the baseboard all
the way around.

4. Ganache sides of the cake, paying particular attention to the corners- it is important to
completely fill the corners with ganache. With scraper edge held directly at the point of
each corner, check there is sufficient ganache.

5. Starting just inside a corner furthest away from you and using your dominant hand, scrape
one side, finishing at the mid point of that side. Rotate cake and in turn scrape each side the
same way.

6. Then, with the scraper in your opposite hand, and again starting just inside a corner furthest
away from you, scrape each side again moving just past the mid point this time so each side
is clean and straight. The corners will still be messy at this stage.

7. Once all the sides are scraped, return the scraper to your dominant hand and use its inside
bottom corner to locate the corner of the baseboard furthest away from you. To do this
angle the top of the scraper away from you, almost lying the scraper flat. Once you have
located the edge, push the bottom inside edge of the scraper in against the baseboard and
then slowly bring the horizontally lying scraper back up from its prone position to the
vertical plane once more. As you “flip” the scraper up to a standing position it should form a
sharp line. Continue moving scraper along the side of the cake toward you now, finishing in
the middle. Rotate cake and do remaining three corners furthest from you, then move the
scraper to your opposite hand and repeat the process.

8. Once all corners have been scraped, hold edge of scraper against the point of each corner to
check that they are straight- fill corners and scrape again if necessary.

9. Using a spatula bring excess ganache on the top edge towards the middle of the top of the
cake to cover, then chill cake till firm.

10. Prepare an additional square board with florist’s cellophane, place on a level surface and
cover a portion of the board the same size as the cake with a 1-2 cm thick layer of ganache.

11. Remove cake from fridge/freezer and tip upside down into ganache. Remove workboard
and level using a spirit level on the underside of the baseboard. Allow to sit till ganache is
firm. Scrape again as per steps 5 and 6- going as close to the corner as possible. At this stage
you can reattach the workboard and freeze the cake for 15 mins so as to remove the
cellophane, then scrape the corners again as per step 7, once the cellophane has been
removed OR….

12. To finish off the corners heat the scraper and using the edge as a guide, hold above the top
of the cake and move the bottom edge downwards, using the scraper to “slice” the excess
ganache off in a downwards motion. Reattach workboard with light smear of ganache
Freeze for 20 mins and then peel off cellophane.

13. Leave cake overnight to set up.

To Cover:

Measure cake from one side, across top and down the other side, add 2 inches to the measurment.

Syrup cake, clean excess from baseboard.

Roll out fondant a little thicker than you would for a round cake- about 5mm thick. Try to roll a
square shape- it should be as wide as the measurement you took earlier plus the extra inches.

Roll the fondant onto your pin and then roll out over the cake, leaving excess fondant around the
base of the cake- this is the “skirt” you will need to “fluff” to remove the pleats.

Quickly run your hand over the top of the cake to remove large pockets of air, then move to the
sides of the cake, lightly touching the fondant to the cake about an inch down from the top all the
way around.

Attach the fondant all the way down one corner, then to the corner opposite. Continue till all
corners are covered, then move to the sides and carefully open the excess fondant at the base of the
cake to remove pleats. Gently smooth the fondant against the sides of the cake.

Use smoothers to press fondant down against base of the cake and then trim off excess with a lnife.

Use smoothers to smooth fondant, pricking air bubbles as you go.

Use two smoothers at right angles all over cake to sharpen edges.

Leave cake overnight before decorating.

Cut cake into three even layers, flip the layer which was the top of the baked cake over and attach to a base board (the same size as the tin the cake was baked in) with ganache.

To layer the cake, your ganache needs to be the consistency of peanut butter- if it is too soft it will ooze out between the layers.

Spread ganache over the (now) bottom layer and then add the next (middle) layer of ca…ke. Spread with ganache and then flip the last layer (what was the bottom of the baked cake) over and place on the top of the ganached layer. The bottom of the baked cake becomes the top, flat surface.

Try to make the cake as level as possible to the eye- but don’t go to too much trouble- we’ll fix the levels later :)

Spread some softened white chocolate ganache on a larger “work” board. Attach layered cake (on its base board) to the workboard. Leave to set or put in fridge for a few minutes (no more).

The larger the workboard the better- you will have more room to sit the bottom of the scraper on, which will help prevent the scraper “tipping” up or down.

Trim all around the sides of the cake ensuring a 5mm gap between cake and base board- we will fill this gap with ganache.

The ganache on the sides provides structural stability, and allows you to create a smooth perpendicular side.

To ensure you have trimmed enough cake away, push a metal, square edged scraper up against the edge of the baseboard and run it around the board, trim away any cake that touches the scraper.

To coat the cake, the ganache needs to be softer than it was when we used it to fill the cake. If the ganache is too stiff, it will “pull” pieces of the cake away as you work- so just warm your ganache in the microwave a little before you apply it to the outside of the cake.

Apply ganache thickly to the outside of the cake, ensuring that you bring the ganache slightly above the top edge of the cake.

Use a metal scraper (or straight edge) to remove the excess ganache from the sides of the cake. Place the bottom edge of the scraper against the base board and hold scraper completely perpendicular to the cake side. The bottom edge of the scraper should remain completely in contact with the workboard as you scrape. If the scraper “tips” slightly upward, you will end up with a “flowerpot” shape. If…it tilts forward, your cake will look conical.
To ensure your scraper stays perpendicular, use a turntable and keep the hand with the scraper in it still,whiile turning the turntable with your other hand.

After you have scraped all the way around, check for areas where the scraper has not touched the sides of the cake- these will need to be filled with more ganache and scraped again. See that little bit of board peeking between the edge of the cake and the inside edge of the scraper? This needs to be filled with ganache.

To check that the sides are straight, hold the scraper edge up against the baseboard at several points around the cake- if the scraper leaves a vertical line up and down the outside of the cake, then the sides are straight- if not, add more ganache and scrape again

Fill any gaps around the sides and scrape again- repeat process until the sides are smooth and perfectly straight.
You may need to keep softening the ganache in your bowl as you work. If the ganache on your cake is hard to scrape, heat your scraper in a bowl of hot water and use it to scrape the cake.

Using a spatula tip the top edge of the excess ganache over and smooth in towards middle of the cake.

Add additional ganache to the top of the cake if required and make top of the cake as smooth and level as possible. Chill in fridge for 20 mins to firm up. The cake needs to be firm in order to flip it, otherwise it will fall apart. We cover the top of the cake at this stage just to keep it sealed while it chills.

While cake is chilling, prepare a large square board, covering with florist’s cellophane. Using sticky tape on the paper side of the board, stick sides down, stretching the cellophane tightly. Then use scissors to cut cellophane off at corners.
I use this board instead of another board or ganaching “lid” because 1) it’s impossible to find two boards EXACTLY the same shape and size, and 2) I find boards hard to remove cleanly- cellophane just peels off leaving a mirror smooth surface!

I use a square board so the cellophane can be folded flat behind the board with no bulk to effect the level.

Place board cellophane side up and a level surface.

Soften some ganache slightly in the microwave. It should be pourable but not too runny. Spread a circle of ganache 1 – 2cm thick over the prepared board. The circle should be slightly larger than the cake.

Take the cake out of the fridge and flip over onto the circle of ganache.

If the cake is too large or heavy to flip, wait until the ganache on the board has firmed up a little and flip the board onto the top of the cake, then flip the whole thing over, so the ganache is under the cake.

Working quickly, use a spatula to loosen the seal between the base board and the work board and remove workboard (we will reattach this later). Using a spirit level on the topside of the cake (ie against the bottom of the baseboard) move cake around on softened ganache until the top is perfectly level. Leave cake undisturbed until bottom layer of ganache is firm, but not hard.

Scrape around the outside of the cake once again, use a heated spatula if necessary. Remember this time that there is no board at the bottom, so make sure your scraper doesn’t dig in at the bottom- keep it straight, no tilting or tipping

Scrape and fill sides until they are perfectly smooth and straight. Reattach workboard to top with a little ganache. Turn upside down and place in fridge for ½ an hour. This will firm up the ganache enough to remove the cellophane cleanly.

Remove cake from fridge and use a knife to cut through sticky tape attaching cellophane to board. Remove square board.

Carefully peel back cellophane.

Fill any small gaps caused by air bubbles on top of the cake. Leave to set up at room temperature for 12 hours before covering with fondant.

This tutorial appears in a less dense format at:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.379527582121220.88484.223292057744774&type=3#!/media/set/?set=a.379527582121220.88484.223292057744774&type=3