Cake with Tootsie Roll Ribbon Roses

If you like tootsie rolls, then this Tootsie Roll Ribbon Rose Cake is for you. I was looking for a quick method to create a rose that looked like fondant but wasn’t. I came up with the concept of making ribbon flowers out of tootsie rolls. These flowers are simple to prepare, but they make your cake stand out and taste delicious!

For this one, I decided with chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream because, why not go all out with chocolate?

The tootsie roll roses aren’t difficult to create, but you’ll need to practice a few times to get the hang of it.

You’ll need to produce a lot of these, so plan accordingly.

For this cake, I piped some buttercream. I piped the bottom border with a star tip.

I also piped some leaves around the outer ribbon roses with a leaf tip.

You are not need to do this, but I believe it adds the icing on the cake.

Enough with the suspense. Let’s get started with the lesson. I’ve included some images with comprehensive directions below, but there’s also a video at the bottom of this page that demonstrates how to roll up your flowers.

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Supplies for the Tootsie Roll Ribbon Rose Cake:

• Tootsie Rolls bag (I used the entire 12 oz bag)
• If you don’t have a little fondant roller, you may use a wooden dowel. All you need is something to roll out your hot tootsie rolls.
• Scissors
• Layers of baked cake (Three layers of 6 inch round cakes were utilized.) Here’s how to make my chocolate cake: Cake with Chocolate and Butter
• Buttercream (Enough to fill and cover three layers of cake) (Enough to fill and cover three layers of cake.) Here’s how to make my chocolate buttercream: Chocolate Buttercream Double
• Icing Spoon
• Turntable for Cakes (Of course, this is optional, but it makes your life so much simpler.)
• Piping sacks
• 32-star recommendation
• Leaf tip 352
• Ice coupler (This is also optional, but it makes switching out icing tips on your bags much easier.)

Making the Tootsie Roll Ribbon Rose Cake:

The first thing you should do is open a few tootsie rolls. The price will be determined by the size of your rose. I used 3-4 for medium and bigger roses, and roughly 2 for tiny flowers. You’ll also trim the extra tootsie roll off the bottom of the rose so that it may be reheated and reused.

So, microwave your tootsie rolls (only a tiny quantity at a time) for around 7-10 seconds. They heat up quite quickly.

Now you’ll want to smash them all together, but be cautious since some of them may become rather hot.

After you’ve mashed them all together, take them in your palm and knead them with your fingers.

Next roll it up into a log form and flatten it slightly on your rolling surface. It’s also a good idea to lubricate your work area so the tootsie rolls don’t stick.

Just roll your fondant roller or dowel into a smoothed out log.

Peel the tootsie roll off your work surface and begin curling it up lengthwise from one end.

Continue to roll. You should wrap it up loosely while pinching the bottom slightly.

Continue rolling until you reach the end of the strip.

Each rose will have a unique appearance. You aren’t aiming for perfection here. They will each have their own distinct personality.

Pinch around the base of the rose a bit more after it’s completely curled up. Now that the bottom is a bit heavy and lengthy, just clip it off with a pair of scissors. Just snip off the extra tootsie roll and put it to your bowl to warm.

Toss that rose aside and focus on your other projects. But, try to fidget with the rose so that it sits upright, since if it falls over, it will smoosh that one side.

You’ll want to build them in big, medium, and tiny sizes now that you’ve mastered the method. You’ll need some extremely little ones to fill in the gaps and to go around the perimeter of the cake.

You’ll simply have to do a million more. I’m joking. That is much more, but not exactly a million. Just keep producing them until the bag is done. It was enough to cover a 6-inch circular cake.

When you’ve completed all of your flowers, you’ll need to assemble your cake. I used three 6 layer chocolate cakes with chocolate buttercream filling and on the exterior.

I applied some texturing around the cake. I just dragged my little icing spatula along till I reached the top to produce some icing ridge lines.

I piped some on the bottom of my biggest rose using a piping bag.

So I placed the dog in the middle of my cake.

Next add the rest of your roses. For this design, I just utilized random sizes. Just add a little buttercream to the bottom of the rose and place it on top. Save the tiniest little ones for the outside of the cake.

After you’ve finished placing all of your tootsie roll ribbon roses on the cake, take your little ones and arrange them in any gaps and around the perimeter of the cake.

You’ll still need something in a few places, which is when piped leaves come in useful. Pipe in some leaves all around the exterior and a few here and there on the outer roses using your leaf tip (link in the supplies list above). I didn’t apply this all over the top, just around the edges.

After you’ve finished the top, pipe a basic shell border around the bottom of your cake to finish it off.

You’ve completed the task! It takes some time, but I like how it turned out!

And here’s the video to show you how it’s done:

So, what are your thoughts? Will you give it a shot?

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