Decorate a cake with colorful, fresh flowers.
Add a touch of natural beauty to any cake with fresh flowers. Decorate a wedding cake with flowers matching the bride's bouquet, or top a Valentine's day cake with red roses. Best of all, you don't need any cake decorating skills or piping techniques when using fresh flowers although some cake supplies may make the task a little easier.
Choose Your Flowers
Select organic, pesticide free flowers to decorate your cake. This eliminates the possibility of chemicals being transferred to the cake and ingested by your guests. Look for organic flowers in grocery stores and whole food stores. If you purchase the flowers through a florist, specify that they are for use on food and cannot have pesticides. The University of Florida recommends only using edible flowers but Martha Stewart says that using inedible flowers is possible if you take certain precautions. You must arrange the inedible flowers so that they do not touch the cake. Accomplish this by covering the top of the cake with a layer of clear acetate before arranging the flowers.
Sugar Edible Flowers
Add a little sweetness and sparkle to edible flowers on your cake with a sugary coating. Sugaring flowers is as simple as brushing the blossoms gently with a beaten egg white and sprinkling superfine sugar over the flower. Layer the flowers on a baking sheet or a piece of wax paper and allow them to dry overnight. The next morning, each flower will have a sweet and stiff coating. Do not apply this coating to inedible flowers as it may encourage your guests to sample them.
Flower Spikes
Flower spikes, flower holders and flower cups are all small containers used to hold fresh flowers on your cake. Place the flower stem into a flower spike and push it into the cake to secure it. You can even add a small amount of water to the flower spike to prevent wilting. Flower holders come in a variety of shapes and sizes including rings and bowls. Flower cups resemble tiny cups and hold flowers without attached stems.
Keep Them Fresh
Martha Stewart recommends decorating your cake with fresh flowers one to two hours before serving. In the meantime, store the flowers in a vase with water to keep them looking fresh until it is time to add them to the cake. Of course, you can apply sugared flowers to the cake as soon as they dry. Do not store them in water or the sugar will be rinsed away.
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