Big Cakes: How to Make Crystallised Flowers and Leaves

Name: Big Cakes: How to Make Crystallised Flowers and Leaves
Yield: Makes as many as you want
Ingredients: edible flowers and leaves, such as whole roses or rose petals, violas, pansies, violets, mimosa, cowslips, pinks, primroses, lavender, sweet geranium leaves, mint leaves; small paint brush; florists’ wire (optional); white caster sugar; egg white, lightly whisked

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Bake and Decorate

By Fiona Cairns

Published 2011

About

A quick and stunning decoration that requires very little equipment, just a quiet hour and a bit of patience. These should keep for up to 1 week in a dry place. Use unsprayed flowers that are completely dry.

Ingredients

egg white, lightly whisked
white caster sugar
edible flowers and leaves, such as whole roses or rose petals, violas, pansies, violets</

Garnish
Gluten-free
Vegetarian

Method

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Place the egg white in a bowl and the sugar in another. Hold the flower, petal or leaf at the base and paint with egg, ensuring you cover every fold. Gently sprinkle on the sugar, again making sure every surface is covered, then shake off the excess.

If crystallising whole roses, push a fine florists’ wire through the base of the bloom,