A Rose Is A Rose is a Swirl Rose?

Yep.  See?  I hope to get back on schedule of a blog post a week, now that the requirements for an associates in applied science culinary arts degree have been finished.  While decorating the 'Frozen' ombre swirl roses cake this morning, I remembered I'd done a five minute presentation for SkillsUSA competition last February on filling, crumb-coating, and decorating a cake with swirl roses-- and stored everything nicely together on hard drive.  Voila!  Instant blog post!

It starts with a really great quote...
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All sorrows in life stem from the lack of cake. If you had your own cake, you wouldn't bother trying to take away the other person's cake!

And, if the cake you had were beautiful enough, you wouldn't bother trying to melt the icing on that other person's cake!

And if you always had a very beautiful cake that was always beautiful enough, then you would have a smile on your face all the time and wouldn't even care if other people were enjoying their own cakes! Because you'd be enjoying yours, too!

Therefore, I hereby decree that all sorrows can be fixed by many beautiful cakes!

Bake a cake! 
C. JoyBell C.

Bake a cake.

 These were actually the presentation cakes taken to competition.  I had to

show the process from start to finish in FIVE minutes.  Carrying three in various stages

of completion expedited the presentation.

 Pipe a dam.  Add structural support in the center.

 Structural support?  Well, the filling is less dense than the icing;  therefore

inner support is needed, lest the cake sink in.

Add filling of choice and smooth out.

Repeat with next layer.

It doesn't matter if the piped dam isn't quite level,

just make sure the next cake layer going on top is.

Repeat until cake is assembled.

Begin crumb coating cake, working from the bottom up.

Crumb coats seal in the crumbs very well, keeping 

them out of the finished icing.

When the cake is crumb coated, allow to dry

until no longer sticky.  You're ready to decorate!

Use 1M tip to create swirl roses.

Start each rose in the center, swirling outward.  

It doesn't matter which direction swirled.  Consistency

does matter.  Always swirl in the same direction.

 For the next rose, move over only enough to complete

the next rose.  Always start on the same imaginary center line

for the row of roses.

Always stop in the same place, too. I like to leave a bit 

of 'tail' that will be covered by the next rose.

Once the bottom row has been completed, pipe the

next row.  The number of rows is dependent upon

the height of the cake -- and the size of the roses.

Cover the top, working from the outside in.

Swirl roses are, without doubt, the easiest technique to decorate a cake.

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End of presentation...

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And now you know!  Here are a few more swirl rose cakes.  

This was a baby girl's first birthday smash cake.

Same swirl technique, different tip.

And this was the family's cake!

 Thanksgiving cake.

 This was one of the first cakes done.

It took me a little while to get the rose sizes even.

If you encounter the same predicament just 

fill in the spaces however best you can!