As an alternative to artificial flowers, today's bride can choose to use fresh and edible flowers to decorate the wedding cake. There are many flower choices available for wedding cake decoration with fresh or edible flowers; however, there are some important factors to consider before making a final flower choice.
Using Fresh Flowers for Wedding Cakes
Fresh flowers can be co-ordinated with the bridal bouquet, both in choice of flowers and bouquet style; however, there are many flowers which are toxic and/or poisonous. Wedding florists should know which flowers are safe to use to decorate wedding cakes; flowers should also be free of pesticides.
Some florists now use special holders for fresh flowers on a wedding cake; flowers can also be arranged in a corsage style which allows the flower stems to be put in food safe plastic picks, inserted into the cake instead of the stems. This prevents any toxins from getting into the wedding cake.
Toxic Wedding Flowers
Wedding flowers which are known to be toxic and therefore are unsuitable for using directly to decorate a wedding cake include:
- Calla lily
- Arum lily
- Hyacinth
- Lily-of-the-valley
- Jasmine
- Snowdrop
- Tulip
- Hydrangea
- Bird of paradise
- Pink carnation.
Common Wedding Flower Cake Decorations
Wedding flowers which are commonly used to decorate wedding cakes include:
- Rose
- Petunia
- Orchid
- Daisy
- Tiger lily.
However, these lists are not exhaustive and expert advice should be sought from a wedding florist as to the suitability of using each individual species of fresh flower to decorate a wedding cake.
Edible Wedding Flowers for Cake Decoration
Edible flowers can be used, and crystallized, to decorate a wedding cake; edible flowers include lavender, rose, calendula and chrysanthemum, although it should be noted of these particular flowers only the flower petals are edible. These flowers can be crystallized, with sugar, to decorate the wedding cake.
Alternative edible flowers which can be used for wedding cakes include:
- Pansy
- Thyme
- Apple blossom
- Orange blossom
- Nasturtium
- Cornflower
- Oregano.
However, it is worth checking if any wedding guests, who may eat the cake, have particular flower allergies as some people may be allergic to some species of flowers.
How to Use Flowers to Decorate a Wedding Cake
There are several ways in which a wedding cake can be decorated with flowers:
- place a corsage flower arrangement on top of the wedding cake and/or each cake tier
- place flowers between the tiers of the wedding cake
- sprinkle flower petals over the cake
- make the cake tiers from flowers
- create a cascade of flowers to flow from the top cake tier to the bottom cake tiers
- decorate the cake table with flower petals or flower arrangements.
Other alternative ways to decorate a wedding cake include using artificial (such as silk) flowers, marzipan flowers, fondant flowers and fruit. Wedding cakes may follow the flower theme of the wedding too. However, using fresh and edible flowers is both a fun and beautiful way to decorate a wedding cake.
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