Last year I asked a friend whatcake she wanted for her birthday. She said she didn’t care much about the flavor of thecake orfrosting—she only had one request: “Can you decorate it with lots of flowers?”
Lately, most of the cakes I see on my Instagram feed could be mistaken for floral bouquets. I generally support the trend of decorating with flowers, which gives cakes a soft, natural look and vibrant color palette—that is, as long as you go about it safely. For a brief summer season, I worked as an assistant to a wedding cake decorator who taught me that not all flowers are safe to put on cakes. Some blooms, like hydrangeas, are highly poisonous: They might look pretty in the wedding bouquet, but they belong nowhere near your fork.
I spoke with three bakers and floral cake decorators—Bronwen Wyatt ofBayou Saint Cake,Pamela Thibodeaux ofDeaux Baker, and Loria Stern, author of Eat Your Flowers—to answer some of the most common questions about decorating with flowers. While the following lists are not all-inclusive, here is a beginner’s guide to safely (and beautifully) decorating your cake.
Which flowers are edible?
“Some flowers are 100% edible and can be used interchangeably with any salad green,” says Wyatt. Some completely edible favorites include nasturtiums (flowers and leaves), gladiolus flowers, squash blossoms, campanula, borage flowers, Japanese magnolia blooms, pansies, columbine, stock, violets, dahlia petals, bachelor’s button, orange cosmos, snapdragons, and roses. “Flowering herbs are another great option, such as flowering rosemary or thyme,” she says. But do note that some flowering herbs, such as chive blossoms or flowering cilantro, have a strong, savory flavor, which might or might not taste great with your chocolate buttercream.
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Some flowers can be used to flavor frostings, jams, drinks, or any other food products. Chamomile flowers and leaves are completely edible and often steeped in tea (use the sachets to flavorsticky buns). Try infusing lilacs (which are part of the olive family) intovinegar or decoratingpound cake with rose petals. You can also buy driedhibiscus flowers,culinary-grade lavender orrose petal powder to use in drinks, likehibiscus iced tea orthandai, or bakes, like thislavender shortbread.
Other flowers are edible, but might not taste great. Globe amaranth, for example, can be used as a natural food dye or steeped in tea, but you probably don’t want to munch on those spiky buds. InEat Your Flowers, botanical baker Loria Stern writes that some blooms (like elderflower, jasmine, or anise hyssop) are best for infusions, but not necessarily pleasant eaten whole. “Some flowers can have an off-putting texture when consumed whole or raw—sunflower, with its tough center, is definitely one of them,” she says.Like sunflowers, gerbera daisy and zinnia petals are edible, but the inside is not palatable—Stern advises to use them as decorations. Most marigold and chrysanthemum varieties are edible, but some are not.
