Wedding Menu - edible flowers

We made our daughter's organic wedding cake (my husband is a chef) and decorated it with edible flowers. No plastic cake toppers. We added puff pastry swans all they way up the layers, and everyone got to eat the decorations. Edible flowers are more than violets and nasturtiums. Pansies, day lilies, tulip bells, and begonias are some of the most popular, with herb flowers such as chive blossoms another pretty idea.

Here are some cake decorating ideas:

"Calendulas, also known as pot marigold, used to be called poor man’s saffron. The yellow or orange petals of the daisy-like flowers can be used like saffron..Calendula petals add pizzazz to carrot cake. Sprinkle petals on the cream cheese icing."

"Two types of marigolds – Lemon Gem and Tangerine Gem (Tagetes tenuifolia) – with their fernlike foliage, are the only edible marigolds. They have a citrusy tarragon flavor, but little scent. When you pull the petals from the flower, break off the right-angled portion; it is bitter".

"Pansies are a favorite as they come in so many different colors – single and combinations. When eating pansies, you can break two of the cardinal rules of edible flowers, which is to eat only the petals and remove the pistils and stamens before eating. In fact, you can eat the pansy sepals as well. Some pansies have a delicate fragrance, primarily the blue-flowered ones, and a mild wintergreen flavor"

and for a lovely yellow theme: "Although most people think of dandelions as weeds, the flowers are edible when young..Native Americans dipped the entire young flower in egg and then in cornmeal and fried it - this turns the slightly bitter flower into the flavor of a mushroom".

Who knew?

Here is a post on agreenbride about Organic Wedding Flowers