Fondant Rose Cupcakes

These flower cupcakes are decorated with fondant ribbon roses, one of the fastest and easiest fondant decorations you can make! They come together in just a few minutes and add the perfect romantic touch to any cake or cupcake.

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🌹 Ribbon Roses: The Easiest Fondant Flower

If you’re new to working with fondant, this is the PERFECT tutorial to get you started! Learn to make fondant ribbon roses, sweet little flower decorations that are both easy and fast to make.

Making fondant flowers can sometimes seem complicated or intimidating, but these easy fondant roses are anything but! They take just a few minutes to assemble, and I love the delicate look they give to my ruffled cupcakes. Not into cupcakes? No worries! They can be used to decorate cakes or any other dessert, and can be made in whatever size and color you’d like.

Want more fondant decorating inspo? Try your hand at a fondant flamingo, narwhal, or gorgeous rainbow cake topper!

🧾 What You’ll Need

Cupcake components

This decorating technique focuses on the fondant flowers, which means you have a lot of flexibility when it comes to the cupcake and frosting recipes you use! I’ve linked to some of my favorites below, but if you have a tried and true recipe you love, chances are it’ll work to make these Fondant Flower Cupcakes. Just pick a cupcake and a frosting flavor, and get ready to make some roses!

Frosting amount: I used about 2.25 oz / 1/3 cup of frosting per cupcake, and for the frosting I used, this equals about 4 cups of frosting for a dozen cupcakes. Obviously I piled the frosting on high, and you can use less if you’d like.

Storebought vs Homemade

Looking for shortcuts? You can definitely use a cake mix to make cupcakes, or even buy already baked cupcakes from your local grocery store to decorate.

I do not recommend using store-bought canned frosting for this technique (ie, the frosting sold in plastic cans near the cake mixes.) It is very soft and doesn’t work for piping big swirled ruffles. If your grocery store sells American buttercream-style frosting in the bakery section, that will work just fine.

🥄 Fondant & Equipment

Here’s everything you need to make the fondant ribbon roses!
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• Pink fondant – about 1 oz for every cupcake (12 oz total for 12 cupcakes)
• Green fondant – about 2 oz total for 12 cupcakes
• Fondant rolling pin
• Pink luster dust
• Piping bag
• Russian ball tip

Feel free to use whatever colors of fondant and luster dust you’d like, and you can switch up the piping tip and use whatever you have on hand.

📋 Instructions

How to make easy fondant ribbon roses

Once you have the ingredients and equipment, making these fondant flowers is an easy and fast process. Fondant dries out quickly, so I recommend working with fondant in small batches and keeping the remaining fondant tightly covered. If you do roll out a large portion at once, make sure you cover your fondant with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out while you’re forming the flowers.

Step 1: Dust your work surface with powdered sugar. Use a fondant rolling pin to roll out your fondant thin, about 1/8-inch thick. Cut the fondant into thin 1/2-inch strips.

Step 2: Take a strip and roll it around itself in a spiral to make a rose shape. If it doesn’t stick together well, you can add a little dab of water or corn syrup at the end to make sure it stays closed. The rose shape will be a pretty long tube, so twist off some of the back so it tapers off.

I used about 3 mini roses per cupcake, and made a few extras in case of breakage.

Step 3: Brush the roses with a bit of edible pink luster dust to give them shine and make them pop!

Step 4: Take some green fondant and pinch off a little piece. Shape it between your fingers to make a teardrop leaf shape. Make 2-3 leaves per cupcake.

When the leaves are done, make some small twisting vines to go with them–about 1-2 per cupcake.

Step 5: Place your buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a Russian ball tip. Hold the bag perpendicular to the top of the cupcake and squeeze the frosting out, making a back-and-forth twisting motion as you pull the bag up, to form a pretty ruffle effect.

Step 6: Finish the cupcakes by adding a few roses on top, and putting some leaves and vines around them to complete the look. How pretty are these?!

Looking for more dessert inspiration? Try one of these great recipes:

Sprinkle Heart Cupcakes

Sprinkle Heart Cupcakes are the perfect dessert for Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, or any special occasion. Use this easy cupcake decorating hack to make cute, customized, sprinkle-covered cupcakes in no time!

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Chocolate Flower Cupcakes

Looking for a cute spring dessert? These Easy Chocolate Flower Cupcakes are simple, fun, and perfect for birthdays and showers! They feature a delicious lemon cupcake, fluffy coconut frosting, and easy but beautiful edible chocolate flowers on top.

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Don’t miss the step-by-step tutorial showing how to make Fondant Rose Cupcakes – check out the web story here!

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Fondant Rose Cupcakes

Author Elizabeth LaBau

5 from 12 votes

If you’re new to working with fondant, this is the PERFECT tutorial to get you started! Learn to make fondant ribbon roses, the sweetest little flowers that are super easy and fast to make. They can be used to decorate cupcakes or cakes, and can be made in whatever size and color you’d like. These easy fondant flowers add the perfect romantic touch to any dessert.

Prep1 hour hr

Total1 hour hr

Yields12 cupcakes

Equipment

• Fondant rolling pin
• Pink luster dust
• Russian ball tip
• Piping bags

Ingredients

1x2x3x

• ▢ 12 cupcakes, baked and cooled
• ▢ 4 cups buttercream frosting
• ▢ 12 oz pink fondant
• ▢ 2 oz green fondant

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Instructions 

• I recommend working with fondant in small batches, but if you roll it all out at once, make sure you cover your fondant with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out while you’re forming the flowers.
• Dust your work surface with powdered sugar. Use a fondant rolling pin to roll out your fondant thin, about 1/8-inch thick. Cut the fondant into thin 1/2-inch strips.
• Take a strip and roll it around itself in a spiral to make a rose shape. If it doesn’t stick together well, you can add a little dab of water or corn syrup at the end to make sure it stays closed. The rose shape will be a pretty long tube, so twist off some of the back so it tapers off.
• I used about 3 mini roses per cupcake, and make a few extras in case of breakage.
• Brush the roses with a bit of edible pink luster dust to give them shine and make them pop!
• Take some green fondant and pinch off a little piece. Shape it between your fingers to make a teardrop leaf shape. Make 2-3 leaves per cupcake.
• When the leaves are done, make some small twisting vines to go with them–about 1-2 per cupcake.
• Place your buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a Russian ball tip. Hold the bag perpendicular to the top of the cupcake and squeeze the frosting out, making a back-and-forth twisting motion as you pull the bag up, to form a pretty ruffle effect.
• Finish the cupcakes by adding a few roses on top, and putting some leaves and vines around them to complete the look.

Video

Recipe Notes

This decorating technique focuses on the fondant flowers, which means you have a lot of flexibility when it comes to the cupcake and frosting recipes you use! Use a medium-stiff buttercream for the best results. The amounts of ingredients and supplies are based off of a dozen cupcakes, each topped with about ⅓ cup frosting, 3-4 roses (1 oz pink fondant), and 2-3 leaves and vines per cupcake.

Measuring Tips

Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.

Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?

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What You'll Need

Pink FondantBuy nowGreen fondantBuy nowFondant Rolling PinBuy nowPink luster dustBuy nowRussian Ball Piping TipsBuy now12-Inch Piping BagsBuy now