Friday, April 20, 2007

Making Sugared Violets and Pansies


Here are my instructions for making 'food safe' sugared flowers. Be sure to use non-toxic flowers for sugaring.

1. Bring 1/4 cup flax seed gel and 1 cup water to a boil. Stir occasionally and allow to cook for 3 - 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool. The liquid portion of this mixture will turn thick and have a similar consistency to egg whites.

2. Don't worry about straining out the flax seeds. I tried and it's too difficult and unnecessary for this application.

3. Use a soft paintbrush and gently wash each petal in flax seed gel. Only paint the top side. If the gel is too thick, stir in a small amount of water. Tweezers are needed to hold the petal without damaging the flower.

4. Once petal is painted, gently sprinkle ultra-fine sugar over the petals. Not much sugar is needed. I thought that about 1/2 the sugar would fall off when the flower dried, so added a little more sugar than really necessary. The sugar did not dry and fall off as expected! About 99% of the sugar stayed on the petals! Flax seed gel is very 'binding'.

5. Set flowers on parchment paper or a hard, flat surface. Do not touch. Allow to dry completely.

6. When ready to use, take a small, sharp object and/or tweezers and gently remove the blossom and place on cupcakes, cookies, or brownies. A lovely garnish!

7. Next time --- I will sugar a few leaves as well. I left a short stem on each blossom for ease in handling with tweezers. I will probably shorten them next time, although they snipped off easily with a pair of small scissors after blossoms dried.

3 comments:

  1. You are so smart to figure out how to do this! The flowers and cupcakes are beautiful!

    Katherine

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  2. You are so smart to figure this out. Like you I always wanted to try sugared flowers. Now I must get my pansy plants. I do have some violets I could try. Beautiful pictures.

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  3. I think mint leaves would be perfect for pansie leaves and still be eatible.

    ReplyDelete

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