How to Make Buttercream Frosting Roses Tutorial

On Monday, we made a delicious House Tyrell inspired cake with pretty yellow roses. Today, we show you how to make those roses. Follow along with us in this short tutorial video or scroll on down to find the step-by-step instructions.

Making Roses and Leaves:

Step 1: Change the tip on your piping bag to a large star tip. I use a 1M tip, but you can also use a 2D

tip.

Step 2: To make a rose, hold your tip against the side of the cake and apply pressure to the bag. Keep pressing out icing while you move outward in a circle. – Practice this on a plate a couple of times before you do it on the cake.

Step 3: To decorate the cake in roses, you’ll want to start the center of the rose about an inch from the base of the cake. Make the next rose to the side of the first and continue until you have a bottom layer of roses. Stagger roses as you move up the cake. When you get to the top, allow the layer to hang over the edge to combine the sides and tops of the cake. Then make roses around the edge and work your way to the center of the cake.

Step 4: Put the green icing in a piping bag with a leaf tip. Start leaves at the base of the cake. Make leaves of alternating lengths as you move around the cake.

Toasting the Hand of the Kitchen with a Red Wine Smoothie

Just as every king needs his castle and his Hand of the King to manage his affairs, so the kitchen of House Cook needs a sous chef--or, in our case, Hand of the Kitchen--to do most of the actual baking.

House Cook is, sadly, divided between two estates. One is where most of the sisters live in Georgia, and the other is where the oldest, Sarah-Lambert, lives in Texas. Most of our cooking is done in Georgia by the sisters there, but every Friday we will be introducing a new drink--some alcoholic, some not--from the kitchen of Sarah-Lambert.

Today, we toast the introduction of the Hand of the Kitchen, Katy-Lynn. You'll be able to spot who the Hand is at all times in our pictures because she'll be wearing her Hand of the Kitchen spoon brooch:

And now (drum roll, please)... meet the Hand of the Kitchen:

What should we toast her with, you ask? How about a delicious red wine smoothie! Yuuuuummy! 

This is an absolutely delicious drink. Perfect for the hot weather, but not out of place when the cool seasons return, this red wine smoothie is fabulous. Here's how to make your own: 

1 1/2 c red wine 

1/2 c frozen blueberries

1/2 c frozen raspberries

1/2 c frozen blackberries 

1 c Greek yogurt

1 tsp sugar *

Blend it all together and voilá, you have your smoothie! 

 Perfect with smoked Gouda cheese. I also enjoyed some Muenster cheese with mine. 

*I prefer mine a little more bitter, so 1 tsp of sugar is fine for me, but if you prefer sweeter simply add a tablespoon instead

**If you feel like 3 types of berries is too many then sacrifice the blackberries

 

Khalee-C-Cupcakes: Heart-Shaped Red Velvet Cake

Caramel Flavored Red Velvet Cupcakes with a Peppermint Garnish

As we watched Daenerys Targaryan muscle her way past the gag reflex and choke down a raw horse heart during the first season of Game of Thrones, we thought to ourselves, "OMG, cupcakes!!" Yes, you read that correctly: cupcakes. Not just any cupcakes, mind you, but red velvet cupcakes with delicious whipped cream frosting and peppermint pieces all in a sweet little heart shape--a nod to Daenerys' suffering. 

Unfortunately, one amongst our number isn't such a fan of red velvet cake and handles eating cupcakes made with it about like Daenarys handled the horse heart...

If you're still with us--which you should be, because these bad boys are tasty--then let's get to baking!

Ingredients:

 Red velvet cupcakes (recipe here) 

 6 ounces of caramel ice cream topping

14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

 1 tsp vanilla extract

 1 tbsp confectioner's sugar

 red food coloring

 peppermint candies

Step 1: Start out by prepping your favorite red velvet cupcake recipe. Here’s a good one from drool factor, but if

you’re more comfortable making it from the box than from scratch, that’s fine too. 

Step 2: I’m using a Wilton heart-shaped cupcake pan. If you don’t have or want to buy a heart-shaped pan, you can either make regular round cupcakes, or there are a couple of simple tricks you can follow to get heart-shaped cupcakes.

•        One is the place a marble between the cupcake filter and the inside of the pan. This created the top of the heart.
•         The second option is to bake your cake batter in a large flat pan and either cut out the heart shapes or use a cookie cutter.

Step 3: Use whichever shaping method you’ve chosen above and bake your cupcakes.

Step 4: While the cupcakes are in the oven, it’s time to prep the caramel and sweetened-condensed milk.  Combine the milk and caramel in a saucepan and stir. The mixture should be warm and easy to pour. Don't let the mixture become too hot and burn the caramel and milk.

Step 5: When the cupcakes are done let them cool for five minutes. Then take a knife and cut slits in the top of the cupcakes. Make sure not to cut to the bottom.

Step 6: Slowly pour the caramel and milk mixture over the slits in the cupcakes. I like to use a big spoon for this, but make sure not to pour too quickly. You want the cake to absorb the mixture.

  

Step 7: Prep the whip topping.

•           Pour 1 cup of heavy whipping cream into a bowl. Mix until soft peaks form.
•           Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 1 tbsp of confectioner’s sugar, and a few drops of red food coloring
•          Beat until soft peaks form

Step 8: Put the whip topping on the cupcakes. To get a great look, put the topping into a piping bag and use a star-tip. I used a 1M star tip (which is quite large) to get a good icing look.

Step 9: Crush peppermints. This is easiest if you put the mints into a Ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush them. Once crushed, garnish the top of the cupcakes with the peppermints. Don’t like peppermint? Any chocolate or hard-candy will work and will add a great flavor.

Crushed peppermints sprinkled on the cupcakes

The sweet red velvet cupcakes with sprinkles of peppermint all around 

...take a bite and enjoy!