That’s easy, isn’t it?
Flowers are naturally beautiful, possibly in every shade under the sun to choose from. Shapes, sizes, textures, scents and flavours to choose from. That’s what I thought when I was briefed about the theme, ‘The Power of the Flower’ for the latest issue of Styling Magazine. I’ve used flowers in my posts earlier and I was totally excited. I am sure it’s not a surprise that Cake was the first thing that came to my mind. Cake and flowers… made for each other! The challenge was to use flowers in a variety of dishes. So starting out with a blank canvas and flowers as my inspiration I’ve created a combination of dishes for Styling Magazine. You already know my love for colours. I seriously had a blast doing this. I’ve included a few images here. You can see the rest in the issue. Please find the link here.
Meanwhile, I thought I’d share a few tips with you if you love decorating food with flowers, like I do.
Cakes typically use either sugar flowers, edible flowers or pesticide free fresh flowers or a mix. The first, sugar/gum paste/fondant flowers are actually not that difficult to make. These days the kits are mostly available in big supermarkets and definitely in local cake decorating stores. They are addictive once you get a hang of them but a little time consuming. Ready gum paste flowers are easily available online or in cake decorating stores. Let me know if you need more information.
Edible fresh flowers are pretty easy to use if you buy them at the farmer’s market. If they are sold as edible it means that they are not poisonous and are free of pesticides. So they are just ready to go on top of your dishes. A few commonly used are Viola, Nasturium, Pansy, Camelia, Snapdragon, Rose & lavender. Shelf life is an issue with these unless you are growing them yourself so it’s best to buy them close to the date of your event. These flowers also have their individual tastes so if you want to ensure that your guests eat the flowers, it will help to know how each one would complement a dish. You can read this if you are interested.
Culinary rose and lavender are always the safest to use and can be stored for months. They are available in specialty stores and even online.
Fresh flowers (unsure of the origin), unless I am sure of the variety or how they were grown, I wouldn’t want to risk putting them straightaway on the cake. Certainly not on other dishes. Your florist should be able to tell you that. When using on a cake, these definitely need to be removed before serving. Also, care should be taken to ensure that the flowers/stems are washed and dried before use. I generally put a baking paper on top of the cake before placing the flowers or insert the stems into thin straws and then inserting the straws into the cake or wrapping the stems in baking paper. This ensures that the flowers don’t move about and don’t touch the cake. However, you may have to consider the type of cake (sponge, mud cake, chiffon etc). You don’t want to mess up the cake.
You could place the flowers on a ball of gum paste (similar to the colour of the cake) as well and place the gum paste either on the side or top of the cake. It wont be seen when covered with flowers.
Do you have any more tips to share? I’d love to hear them!
When I study your pictures, I see that you have very carefully matched the colour of the flower to the food colour. For example, lavender and mums in the first cake picture with the pink frosting, yellow and brown in the third one and so on. Brilliant.
The way you utilise flowers in your food photography is absolutely gorgeous – you really manage to accent the colours of the food without going over the top at all, I love it. Flowers are something I hope to incorporate into my photos more in future, so thank you for the tips! X
Love how you blend as well as make the flowers stand out in your styling. It’s noticeable but yet it all works and looks cohesive. The idea of styling food with flowers is definitely challenging to me. You do make it look easy though it’s far from it.
Great tips, Sonali! Love the idea of wrapping the stems with baking paper and also covering them with gum paste.
And of course, what gorgeous food styling!
A really great post for a very specific topic, a gorgeous one. I love how you experiment with flowers and food. I would have trouble sourcing them here I think, never saw many, but glad to know new names to keep an eye out for.
Oh my, Sonali! These photos are incredible! I loved the article with the pairings and how your styling compliments the paintings! Well done and congratulations!
Lovely colours with your flowers! Some of your photos remind me of the cookbook “Naked Cakes” by Hannah Miles. I have used flowers from rosemary bushes to decorate my dishes- they are small and unobtrusive.