How to Make Rosettes Using a Star Tip With Whipped Cream

While star decorating tips are commonly used to pipe star shapes on a cake, you can also use this versatile tip to create small rosettes. The star-shaped opening creates ridges that resemble the thin layers of petal in a tightly closed rosebud. These are much faster and easier to make than forming large roses on a flower nail. Buttercream frosting is commonly used for making rosettes because it hardens, but you can use whipped cream if you prefer a creamy, light topping. The whipped cream must be stabilized so the rosettes don't melt on the cake.

Things You'll Need

Whipping cream
Powdered sugar
Clear vanilla extract
Electric mixer
Chilled mixing bowl

Piping gel
Decorating bag
Scissors
Star decorating tip
Toothpick

Instructions

Mix whipping cream, powdered sugar and clear vanilla extract in a chilled, metal mixing bowl until peaks begin to form. Add sugar and vanilla to taste, at a rate of about 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla for every pint of whipping cream. Add 4 tablespoons of piping gel per pint of whipping cream and continue mixing just until firm peaks form. The piping gel stabilizes the whipped cream.
Insert a star decorating tip to the tip of a decorating bag. Star tips come in various sizes, so choose a size based on whether you want to make small rosettes to accent other decorations on a cake or large rosettes in which the rosettes are more of a focal point of the decorated cake. Cut an opening in the tip of the bag to fit the star tip size you choose.
Fill the decorating bag with the stabilized whipped cream. Squeeze the bag to release air pockets and push the whipped cream down into the tip.
Hold the bag straight up and down with the tip barely touching the cake. Squeeze with medium pressure to pipe a star-shaped dot onto the cake.
Lift the tip up slightly and tilt the bag at a slight angle while maintaining even pressure on the decorating bag. This creates a strand of whipped cream away from the star rosette.
Swirl the stream of whipped cream around the center star, keeping the whipped cream close to the center. This takes only a subtle movement of your wrist to guide the decorating tip around the central star. Go around the center once or twice, depending on the desired size for the rosette. A rosette made from a small star tip usually only needs to go around the center star once, but you might swirl the whipped cream two or three times with larger star tips.
Stop squeezing the decorating bag when you achieve the desired size for the rosette. This cuts off the stream of whipped cream. Continue swirling the tip around the rosette so the end of the stream cuts off directly against the side of the rosette. If the end creates a slight tail away from the rosette, use a toothpick or the decorating tip to push it against the rosette.

Previous:How to Decorate Pastry With Glazed Fruit

Next: Substitutes for Clotted Cream