Preheat oven to 225 F.

Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Lightly grease a mini muffin tin.

Peel the sweet potato, cut it in half, and then cut each piece in half again, so that the cut side of the sweet potato quarter is shaped like a half moon. Use a swiss vegetable peeler to peel half-moon strips of sweet potato.

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water, and cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is simmering.

Add the sweet potato half-moons to the pan of simmering sugar syrup, and cook for 5 minutes.

Transfer the sweet potato half-moons to the two parchment lined baking sheets, laying them flat in a single layer.

Bake the sweet potato half-moons at 225 F for 10 minutes.

Remove the baking sheets from the oven. Take a sweet potato half-moon, and roll it into a rosette, now take another half-moon and roll it around the first, slightly overlapping the two pieces. Continue with additional half-moons until you've formed a large sweet potato "rose." Transfer the sweet potato rose to one of the cups in the mini muffin tin.

Repeat the remaining sweet potato half-moons, forming several additional roses--this could be anywhere from 5 to 20, depending on how much sweet potato you started with and how big your roses are.

Transfer the sweet potato roses, in the mini muffin tin, to the oven, and continue baking for an hour, or until the roses are dry and crisp. Turn off the oven and allow them to dry out further for at least an hour or as long as overnight.