Edible Flowers for Winter Weddings

I love it when prospective brides phone up and say “I’ve been looking at your wonderful website (and it is!) and I’d like some edible flowers and floral salad for my wedding”.

My immediate response is usually something along the lines of “Marvellous, congratulations by the way, and what’s the date of your wedding?” If the response is anywhere between March and November then I will happy natter on about all the choices and flavours available.

If the answer is December, January or February then my heart does a little wobble.  Edible flowers for winter weddings…..hmmm.

We are officially closed at that time of year and are completely at the beck and call of the British weather. But this is tropical Devon and I know we should have something but I can make no guarantees. We are a small business, certified organic and take this seriously. We don’t therefore heat our polytunnels. What is in season is in season and that is that.

Salad wise we have a good selection in the tunnels but it is nice to add sprigs of sorrel, flat leaf parsley and the wide selection of mustards growing in the field. Flower wise it is all winter hardy varieties that are growing in the polytunnel – violas, calendulas, primulas and pansies and they start to flower when they are good and ready.

So that is what I say. I advise that we keep in touch and speak two weeks before the wedding by which time I will know exactly what we will have and in what quantities. And I keep everything crossed…. fingers, toes… you name it.

Winter floral salad from Maddocks Farm Organics.

This year we’re lucky…so far. Whilst a lot of the country is blanketed in snow we’ve got away with a few frosty nights and nothing worse. So this weekend’s West Country wedding will have floral salad and some extra edible flowers to garnish their buffet.  But next year….next week even….everything might be different.

Spicy flowering radish sprigs  make a lovely crunchy addition to the salad.

A selection of early edible flowers picked in January at Maddocks Farm Organics. 

 

 

Edible Flowers for Winter Weddings

Edible Roses

Roses are fast becoming our favourite edible flower at Maddocks Farm Organics and the one we are most commonly associated with. Roses are a quintessentially British favourite with gardeners and florists alike and are having a resurgence in popularity in the kitchen the like of which hasn’t been seen since Victorian times.

They are a big hit with all our customers whether they’re brides, caterers, top London chefs or cocktail aficionados. We have even been asked to courier our roses to a chef in Hong Kong for a banquet. Having used them in London he said he couldn’t get anything comparable elsewhere in the world.

Cooking with roses

Over the past couple of years we have invested vast amounts of time and money into researching the best types of roses for culinary use. Varieties of damask roses -traditionally grown in Burgaria, Persia and India for making rose water do not grow well in our British climate where there is not ‘always’ the summer heat to produce the intense perfume. Whilst we are not prepared to compromised on either fragrance or flavour of our roses we also needed to seek professional advice on the best varieties of rose that were suitable for the challenges of organic growing.

We only grow British roses. We’ve worked closely with the UK’s leading rose growers and with organic laboratories to test a range of organic rose petals for perfume and ‘flavour’. Who would have thought there were so many flavour notes in roses! It’s been very like wine tasting – ‘too much lemon here.. too little musk there… not enough depth behind”! The flavours also change depending upon the time of year and the weather which is a little beyond our control.

Finally we are happy that our edible roses are second to none in terms of culinary excellence and even have specific beds of different ‘flavoured’ roses growing for different customers whether it be for making jams, chocolates, cordials or even gin (oh yeah!). Our roses feature in many of our own recipes which are detailed in our blog here and there are loads more on our ROSE pinterest board here.

Edible Roses For Cakes

We grow more than 30 different varieties of organic edible roses for use on Wedding and other celebration cakes. All are certified organic by the Soil Association; all are highly perfumed and superbly flavoured; and they come in a whole spectrum of colours and sizes to suit every wish – big and blowsy; sophisticated and delicate; or wild and natural.

 Rambling Rector at Maddocks Farm Organics.

Roses are stunning on cakes either whole, as fresh petals or crystallised. This can be as simple and elegant as a few fragrant rose petals or as complex as a mult-tiered masterpiece.  Whole they can be purchased from us here.

This elegant stunner is from Bees Bakery. There is also a host of inspiration on our pinterest boards for wedding cakes and for using roses.

It cannot be emphasised enough that you must not use commercially grown roses either for culinary use or to decorate cakes. These are sprayed with a cocktail of pesticides and fungicides to prolong their vase life (see here more information) and chemicals are heavily used on roses in particular. Only buy from a reputable organic source or use from your own or friends’ gardens as long as you are certain that they have not been sprayed.

 Edible Rose Petals

Whilst rose petals might well make a fabulous cake decorations – both fresh and crystallised they are also superb floating in cocktails, in salads and a host of other culinary treats. Frances Bissell’s new book The Floral Baker (available here) has a stunning recipe for strawberry, rose petal and white chocolate tart. Bliss. You can buy our seasonal organic edible rose petal here.

All our roses are  picked early in the day, packed up and sent to you by overnight courier so that they are with you just hours from being in the field.

Edible Roses Growing at Maddocks Farm Organics

Growing Organic Roses

Whilst the height of summer is when the roses are making all the effort, behind the scenes here at Maddocks Farm our efforts go unheeded in the winter.

It is during the cold months that we mulch our roses with organic compost and manure. This ensures that they have adequate food for them to grow healthily – roses are very greedy feeders. It also acts as a blanket mulch both to suppress weeds and to keep the roots of the roses damp during the hot summer months. Roses hate to dry out. We work out on average that when we plant a new rose it gets 1/3 barrow of our own organic compost underneath it and then 1/3 barrow of manure on top as mulch. We remulch with manure every year.

We then prune heavily in January ready for a new year.

We underplant our roses with companion plants to bring the much needed hoverflies and ladybirds that will organically tackle any aphids. We NEVER spray.

 

What people say about our edible roses…..

I just could not believe the wonderful scent when I opened the carton of roses and petals on Saturday morning.  Absolutely and unbelievably beautiful – Helen

I wanted to say a big thank you for all your help and recommendations for the flowers for my wedding cake! The colours you sent through were lovely and I took your advice of making the rose sugar. The fragrance was wonderful and the rose worked really well with the rose/pistachio base – Charlotte

Thank you for so much for the flowers, they’re stunning and smell amazing! – Celeste 

I just wanted to say thank you for the roses. The bride has now taken the flowers off the cake and they are floating in see-through vases in her bedroom and they still look great and smell divine – Mylene

Everyone could not believe the scent of the roses you sent me last August!! I have honestly never sniffed rose aroma like it!! – Caroline. 

Edible Roses

Edible Flower Croquembouche

Edible Flower Croquembouche Recipe

My wee baby has just turned 15. Not sure how that happened but she now towers over me and ‘borrows’ my rarely used makeup. She was away with a friend’s family for her actual birthday but came back insisting upon a birthday cake and given that she’s eventually planning an edible flower croquembouche for her wedding (I seriously hope I have a few years before that happens!) we decided to have a play.

We used fresh viola flowers and dried cornflowers  to decorate because they are pretty much the the only edible flower selection available the first week in January.  I am really pleased with the result though as there is something very lovely about the pale blue of the violas and the brown of the chocolate. It pleases me and suits the wintery weather.

I should also clarify, before the purest amongst you comment, that this is not a traditional Croqembouche with spun sugar as that is beyond my culinary skill and also Imy is a chocolate lover so it is more of a ‘yummy profiterole tower’.

When making one of these edible flower croquembouche you need to work out how many people you are feeding and work backwards if that makes any sense at all. We did it the other way around and ended up with a bald spot at the back of the tower (although that would not have been there had  there not been so much ‘quality control’ sampling going on as we constructed).

I used a 22cm cake stand so made my cone (think witches’ hat that you made as a child – using stiff but bendable cardboard) with a base diameter of 18 cm. This left a couple of cms each side to wedge the bottom circle of profiteroles between the cone and the edge of the stand. You can buy ready made cones but they can be extremely expensive. When you’ve twisted your cone and fixed it with tape you will need to trim the bottom so that it sits level on your stand. Then fix it to the stand with a couple of bits of tape to stop it moving around.

It did occur to me after I had finished that actually for about £10 one of the Lakeland Magic Oven Liners might be a worthy sacrifice to use to make the cone for a number of reasons. Firstly it is probably more hygienic that cardboard and less porous. Secondly it is wipeable and therefore resusable (although obviously not in the oven once it had been cut into a cone shape) and finally it’s black which means that there are not going to be any glaring white holes showing if there are gaps between your choux buns).  Worth a thought..

My cone (18cm in diameter resulted in a cone that was 25cm in height). This needed approximately 68 choux buns to completely cover it. Each bun when stuffed with cream was between 4 and 5 cm in diameter. These are pretty wee profiteroles though so you’d need at least 3 per person – 5 for a Billington gathering!

Now if you are a better baker then me then there might be some sense in graduating the size of the choux buns to make the top ones smaller and the construction easier but we went with what we had and used a bit of melted chocolate sauce on the back of each one to act as mortar – gluing it to the cone.

I would also suggest that this tower is constructed where and when you want it – or alternatively right next to an empty fridge where it can temporarily be stored and where the chocolate will harden to hold the whole thing together. We constructed in the kitchen and wanted to move it outside to take some pictures and had a disaster en route (visualise the falling rocks road sign). The 3 second rule applied! Also do take into account that the taller the tower and steeper the gradient then greater the opportunity for disaster.  We had the choux buns already filled with cream in the fridge and warmed the sauce slightly to soften and it only took us 5 minutes to pile them up and decorate.

Choux Buns – using Gordon Ramsey’s Recipe

I used Gordon’s recipe above. Why mess with rugged perfection hey! I doubled the mixture but piped them smaller so that I ended up with about 65 ish for the amount.

Wasn’t keen on Gordon’s slightly wishy washy caramel sauce (not offence G). We were after serious chocolate ganache to fix the chocolate cravings and cement our super structure.

Chocolate Ganache

We used the chocolate ganache here from the Joy of Baking’s profiterole Recipe. As the recipe amount was designed for 12 large profiteroles we multiplied it by 4 and would have had some left over to make a few truffles (as the recipe suggested) had we not cleared the bowl with our fingers.

The edible flower croquembouche was decorate with a few dried cornflower petals and less than a box of violas which you can buy from us here. It would make a lovely centrepiece for a Wedding, Christening, Birthday or other celebration.  Choux buns are surprisingly easy to make but if you are really not a confident cook you can easily buy them ready made and create this look with less than £9 worth of edible flowers.

Edible Flower Croquembouche

Using fresh flowers on wedding cakes.

A Guide to Using Real Flowers on Wedding Cakes.

There is a lot of confusion regarding the use of fresh flowers on Wedding Cakes so I thought I’d clarify a few points.

First the negatives of using fresh flowers on wedding or other celebration cakes….

Despite my job I must state that fresh flowers are not a general food product and flowers should not be eaten unless they are sourced from a reputable organic edible source for the following reasons:

Firstly, and not wanting to state the obvious here, quite a few plants are actually poisonous and could cause a range of symptoms from vomiting to blistering skin around the mouth etc or worse if ingested. They have no place being attached to food items such as a cake and particularly with the boom in popularity of edible flowers on wedding cakes there is a risk that non edible flowers might be mistaken for edible when they are not. There are an increasing number of wedding cakes which are being decorated with fresh flowers and leaves that are actually poisonous. Even if they are not actually eaten there is a risk that sap or fine hair irritants from poisonous plants can leech into a cake if they come into contact with it. I recently saw a wedding cake on Pinterest with Euphorbia stems poked into the cake itself. The gardeners amongst you will know that the sap of Euphoribia is an extreme irritant and causes problems even if it comes in contact with the skin let alone ingested. The Royal Horticultural Society produces a list of those plants that have been clearly identified as clearly poisonous but this is not a comprehensive list.

In the photo below the stunning cake is made by the fabulous Bees Bakery. Bees Bakery is scrupulous about only sourcing organic edible flowers from us here at Maddocks Farm Organics to decorate their wedding cakes. The cake below is photographed alongside flowers in vases including one which is poisonous. Can you identify which one is?

Secondly, there is the temptation to pick up flowers from a supermarket or florist or to ask your wedding florist to bring along a few extras to decorate the cake when you are getting married. Please don’t for a number of reasons. Firstly floristry flowers are absolutely not the same as edible flowers even if they are the same species. Irrespective of whether you are, or are, not planning on eating them they are still going to come into contact with the cake that you are going to put in your mouth. Flowers from a florist, supermarket or garden centres are not designed to be eaten. They are routinely sprayed with insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, none of those are regulated fit for human consumption because they are designed to maximise the shelf life of the flower  – not to be eaten.  More importantly, more than 90% of flowers sold in uk are imported and flown long distances many from Africa and Columbia. They are not not regulated for the pesticides they use nor packaged or handled with hygiene in mind. There has been a lot of negative press in recent years about flower pickers suffering huge ill effects from coming into contact with sprayed flowers let along the impact on the environment (but that is a whole other story).

Finally, for the same reason, please make sure that your caterer or florist does not push the stems of flowers into the cake that you are going to eat. These flower stems have recently been in water in vases or florist buckets so again there are food hygiene problems. Hospitals have banned fresh flowers from wards partly because of the number of bacteria harboured in flower water. Just remember that your cake maker, whilst qualified in food hygiene,  is not a horticulturalist and should not be expected to know about flowers. Likewise your florist, may well know about flowers but not cakes.

Another stunning cake from Bees Bakery using our edible flowers. Just one £10 was used to decorate this cake.

Now for the positives…….

Please don’t let the above put you off using fresh flowers on wedding cakes because edible flowers on a wedding cake are stunning and a cheaper alternative to a lot of fancy sugar work. Fresh edible flowers are more contemporary, smell wonderful and also a fantastic talking point. You just need to follow a few simple rules.

1) Buy your flowers from an reputable organic source.

Edible flowers cannot be washed and should therefore be sourced from an organic source. Do not be afraid to ask questions and to ask for a firm’s organic credentials. A company is not allowed by law to refer to itself as organic, or even state that it grows organically, unless it is both licenced and regulated. At Maddocks Farm Organics, we are licenced with the Soil Association as both growers and processors of edible flowers. Our fields and production methods are inspected annually and we have had outstanding reports every single year which is why Jan was made an Organic Hero by the Soil Association and why our products have won several awards. Whilst some organic growers do use natural insecticides such as garlic spray etc, we use nothing here at Maddocks Farm relying on crop rotation, good organic gardening practices, companion planting, sacrificial planting and beneficial insects such as ladybirds to keep our plants free of pests and diseases.

2) Ask how your flowers are grown, picked and processed.

Here at Maddocks Farm our plants are grown directly in the soil (as is a requirement of the Soil Association) so that they have a ready source of minerals and other nutrients they need for healthy natural growth. We grow in raised beds to keep the plants clean and use a mixture of unheated polytunnels and natural outside planting. Our flowers are brought into the preparation room within 15 minutes of being picked and each flower is checked before being packed into food grade approved recycled and recyclable packaging. They are then put immediately into a fridge before packing up for despatch in thermal biodegradable boxes. Our flowers are sent out by overnight courier with chiller packs included to ensure that they arrive before 12 noon the following day in perfect condition.  This is particularly important in the height of summer.A wedding box selection from Maddocks Farm Organic. Here three boxes for £25. The bride chose to have a smaller number of larger blooms for her cake.

3) Discuss with your edible flower grower how you want to use the flowers.

The way you plan to use your edible flowers on your cake should also dictate to a large extent which sort of flowers you choose and how they are picked and prepared. Thing to consider are:

- Are you having a naked or iced cake and if so what sort of icing are you having?

Some edible flowers have very soft petals which absorb the fat from butter icing or cream if they are left on the cake for too long  – an example of this is borage. Having said that, cakes with fresh cream etc should not be left on display for too long anyway – food hygiene regulations state no more than 4 hours and less if the weather is very hot.

An Autumn naked wedding cake with fresh cream and fruit looks stunning with fresh edible flowers – this one made by MMYC Bakery.

- Where is your cake going to be displayed and for how long?

With the best will in the world, if you want your cake to sit outside, in directly sunlight or in a boiling hot marquee for several hours then you might want to consider crystallising your flowers, using really robust flowers that can cope or using flower picks. Your edible flower grower can advise on this.

At Maddocks Farm we generally send out our flowers without stalks on them so that they can either be balanced on, or pinned/stuck to the cake as you choose. If you want the flowers to hold for a long time, or want larger statement flowers then you can request that they come with stalks on them and these can be placed into florists picks which look like small golf tees and can contain small amounts of sealed water so that statement flowers don’t wilt. These are very cheap and widely available and at Maddocks Farm we can advise on the size of picks you might need depending upon the type of flowers and thickness of the stems.

 – When should you add the edible flowers to your cake?

The later you add fresh flowers to your cake the better. Most good wedding cake makers will assemble the cake on the day of the wedding for you at the venue.  If they are delivering the cake the day before then keep the flowers separate in the fridge in their container until the morning of the Wedding. Edible flowers will survive for several days in their sealed boxes in the fridge but will deteriorate if they are put on the cake the day before and then refrigerated on the cake. They just dry out.

A stunning cake, using fresh edible flowers made by an amateur wedding cake maker using 4 boxes of edible flowers from Maddocks Farm Organics. They used the edible flowers to sprinkle over the entire table.

 – Do you want to use edible petal confetti?

Petal confetti is a stunning and extremely fashionable option. It is also one to consider if you are planning on making and decorating your own wedding cake and are working on a budget. It is an extremely cost effective option as 1 large box of flowers for petal confetti will cover a standard three tier wedding cake with ease. The petals can just be scattered over the cake, (requiring no expertise!) for a stunning natural look. A few accent flowers can be used as a flower cake topper if required. Edible confetti made from calendulas and cornflowers holds extremely well on a cake as well so is a good summer choice.

 – The personal touch

Do also consider using edible flowers out of your own garden for a lovely personal touch. Remember to ensure that the species and variety are definitely edible; that they have not been sprayed with anything; and that they away from where pets have been. Alternatively have a go at growing your wedding cake flowers. The best source of edible flower seeds in the UK is The Edible Flower Shop. Just ensure when you grow your own that you grow them organically.

I hope this helps. If you’d like any more advice on using fresh flowers on Wedding Cakes then please do give Jan a ring on 07935 268744.

 

Using fresh flowers on wedding cakes.