Candied beet roses are fairly easy to make and are a really unique cake decoration. All you need to candy beets (or any fruit or veggie) is simple syrup and your oven!
I’ve experimented with beet roses a few times, and I learned some helpful things through the process.
First, you want to have really thin, basically paper thin, beet slices. If they are too thick they won’t crisp up as nicely. I use a mandolin to get perfectly even and ultra thin slices.
Second, you really do need to candy them rather than just bake them. Plain baked beet slices will crisp up, but they will lose their crispness over time. This is especially true if you plan on putting them on a cake. The coating of sugar is there for both taste and texture.
Finally, toothpicks are immensely helpful in holding the shape of the flowers as they bake. Once the beet roses have completely dried out in the oven, you can remove the toothpicks and they will hold their shape. I suspect you could also use a mini muffin tin to hold the beet roses as they bake, although I haven’t tried it.
For this recipe I used one large beet, which yielded about 9 roses. You could probably get even more, but some of my slices were too short to use. 9 roses was enough to decorate the top of a 6 inch cake.
One last thing, although it may be obvious if you cook beets regularly: I suggest wearing gloves while you make the roses! Beets stain everything, so if you don’t wear gloves you might wind up with some very pink hands!
Candied Beet Roses
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Loading...Thinly sliced red beets are candied and baked in the shape of a rose for a unique cake decoration!
Ingredients
- 1 large red beet, peeled
- 300 grams sugar
- 300 grams water
- pinch of salt
- juice of half a lemon
Instructions
Slice the beet thinly as possible using a mandolin or very sharp knife. If the beet is too large for your mandolin, you can cut it in half first,
In a medium pot, combine sugar, water, salt, and lemon juice.
Heat mixture over medium heat until sugar is dissolved, then add all of the beet slices. Make sure to stir the slices around so that none of them get stuck together.
Bring the mixture to a boil then let simmer until beets have softened and turned translucent. When the beets are cooked, remove them from the syrup onto a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet. Save the leftover syrup, you can use it to decorate your cake or to make beet lemonade!
Preheat your oven to 250 F.
Grab some gloves and get toothpicks ready. Lay out about 5-7 beet slices at a time, some smaller and some larger. Start out with the smallest slice, and roll it up tightly to form the center of your rose. Continue wrapping more slices around the center. Stagger each slice so that it starts at about the center of the previous one. Play around with the slices to get them adjusted to your liking. If they are very large you can fold them in half before wrapping. You can also make them smaller or larger, however don't go too big or they will be difficult to eat!
Once the rose is formed to your liking, carefully push a toothpick directly through the center from one side to the other. Place all of your roses on a clean baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. I had to balance some of my toothpicks on each other to help hold the roses upright.
Bake the roses for about an hour. They should be firm and very dry.
Increase the heat to 350 F and bake for about another 10-15 minutes just until they crisp up. Keep a close eye on the roses so that they don't get too brown or burn.
Once the roses are cooled, you can remove the toothpicks and use to decorate!
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