Over my years as a cake designer, I’ve had a growing love affair with flowers. It’s probably my favorite way to adorn desserts, be it with a sprinkling of dried petals, pressed into a shortbread cookie, or an elaborate floral sculpture atop a cake.  Along the way, I’ve learned a thing or two about identifying flowers and knowing what can and can’t be paired with your desserts. In my last post, I went over some of my favorite edible flower varieties— you’ll see these sprinkled into my desserts as often as possible!

Now the less fun part: flowers that should keep some distance from your food. These aren’t necessarily the most poisonous plants, but they are all very popular in arrangements, and unfortunately varieties I’ve seen used to decorate food over the years. With wedding cakes, this often happens when a florist decorates the cake after the baker delivers. I get it— coordinating cake flowers to match the rest of a wedding can be tricky. Floral designs are often dictated by trends, color palettes, and seasonal availability, but your favorite centerpiece flower just might not be suited for desserts. Despite the frustration, using only edible varieties guarantees that your beautiful and delicious dessert won't send you to the hospital!

Sorry in advance for spoiling these beauties...
and if this list leaves you feeling disheartened, head on over to my last post all about the flowers that you CAN eat!

Hellebore
    This one makes me really sad, because I flippin’ love these flowers! They bloom in the late winter when everything else is far out of season, they are fascinatingly beautiful and come in the most wonderful shades of muted purple, pink and green. They are also CRAZY poisonous, like don’t even get it near your plate poisonous. The roots are the most potent, but the toxins are found all throughout the plant. While the level of toxicity has been reported in varying degrees, some have reported skin irritation just from physical contact. As much as it pains me to say it, these guys fall in the “don’t even let it touch your plate” category. In fact, the name “hellebore” comes from the Greek “elein” meaning to injure, and “bora” meaning food… so basically, it’ll hurt you to put this on your food.

Anemone & Ranunculus
    I’m grouping these two together for a few reasons: they’re both in the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), they are both very popular choices for wedding arrangements, and I see them all the time in cake designs. Nearly every member of the Ranunculaceae family is known for containing at least some level of toxicity, and these varieties are no exception. As it turns out, people don’t seem to be getting regularly ill from the frequency that these flowers are used in cake designs, but for me they fall in the “better safe than sorry” category, especially given the number of times I’ve seen a brazen child or a goofy uncle pluck a few petals off the cake for a taste. 

Hyacinth
    Okay, to be honest I’m mostly including this one on the list because it’s a great example of how NOT perfect I’ve been over the years. As it turns out, ONE variety of hyacinth is edible- grape hyacinth (also known as muscari). It looks a good deal different from the other varieties, making it easy to identify. But a few years ago, I mistakenly assumed that because I knew this one kind of hyacinth was edible, that the rest must be as well. While I did sample several hyacinth flowers without any negative repercussions, they have since been relegated to the “lessons learned” category in my mind. They're clearly not as toxic as some other types of flowers (given my continued health,) but this did teach me an important lesson about making assumptions and verifying information about these sorts of things.

Photo credit: Thanks to Pozie by Natalie and Wild Rye Farm for lending their beautiful flowers for this post.

Further reading & resources:

https://www.pfaf.org/user/Default.aspx
https://www.thompson-morgan.com/edible-flowers
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/flowers/edible-flower-guide.html
https://www.thespruceeats.com/do-not-eat-poisonous-flowers-1807692
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranunculus

As my love of cake design has grown over the years, it evolved hand-in-hand with an ever-growing love of flowers. But when we’re talking about cake flowers, there are more considerations than aesthetics to keep in mind. If something is being placed on food (as opposed to being in a bouquet) it’s a whole lot more important to understand the edibility of the flowers, in addition to their history and growing conditions.

Our sacred food pact
I know, it sounds a bit hokey or intense. But I do take this ish pretty serious— as a food producer, there's an implied trust between me and those that I feed: I prioritize your health and safety through sanitary practices and transparency, and you in turn trust that the food I give you will not make you ill. It’s a small and unspoken pact we all have with our food suppliers, but it is necessary for our entire system to work, and is worth noting and respecting. In my case, this means that if I want to adorn my creations with fresh floral elements (spoiler: I do!), it is my responsibility to research and educate myself about flower varieties, and when appropriate, pass that information along to you.
Over the years, I’ve eaten a lot of flowers, some of which I probably shouldn’t have— there has certainly been a learning curve! Several years ago, I planted a whole bed of sweet peas only to learn they are one of the few pea varieties that you actually can't eat. But I’ve learned from each misstep, and along the way have compiled an ever-growing bank of information around eating flowers. Now, I know, most of the time you wouldn’t actually eat the floral arrangements on cakes, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it even with the most harmless of varieties— because who wants a mouthful of raw foliage with their dessert course? And realistically, most edible flowers don't actually taste all that great. But at the end of the day, you just never know! Most people trust that if a chef puts something on your plate, it won’t hurt you to eat it. It’s a fair assumption, and while most people won’t actually, many (especially children) are curious enough to give it a try. Heck, I’ve eaten TONS of these flowers over the years, just because I can, because I’m curious, or because I tell myself it’s for “professional education.” To be honest, I just conceptually like the romantic notion of eating flowers, but I also have a healthy respect for the fact that not all varieties should be (literally) on the table.
Over the next few months, as local flowers explode back onto the market and as my personal flower garden grows, I’ll be doing regular installments of “flower food” highlights, where I really dive into the details on my favorite edible blooms. While my list of edible flowers is staggeringly long and ever-growing, I’ve compiled some of my favorites here. Some I’m sure you’re aware of, some are new even to me, and some I’m sure I haven’t even learned of yet and will have to come back and add in later.

In my next post, I’ll go over a few varieties that are best left out of food designs. They’re kind of a bummer, because these are also some of my favorite flower varieties in arrangements. But I see them all-too-commonly used in food designs and if I'm being honest, it kind of makes my skin crawl. Check back for the next installment to learn what NOT to decorate your wedding cake with.

Photo credit: Thanks to Pozie by Natalie and Wild Rye Farm for lending their beautiful flowers for this post.

Further reading & resources:

https://www.pfaf.org/user/Default.aspx
https://www.thompson-morgan.com/edible-flowers
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/flowers/edible-flower-guide.html
https://www.thespruce.com/cooking-with-edible-flowers-1809248