This weekend I made candied flowers. I have done it before with wild strawberries flowers and it turned out pretty good. So this time I decided to give it a try with rose petals. Candied flowers are great for cake decorations and if you keep them dry it will last for a little while. Just make sure to use flowers that are edible and that hasn't been sprayed with any chemicals, this is VERY important. Remember that all flowers you buy in the stores are sprayed so you can NOT use them.
So, this is how it´s done:
You´ll need lightly whipped egg whites, sugar, rose petals,
baking paper and a brush.
Perhaps a rose from the garden like this one.
Such a beauty or what?!
Lightly use the brush to stroke on the egg whites on the petal,
make sure you don´t use too much. Then sprinkle on some
suger on both sides and leave them to dry for a couple of days on the baking paper.
(Baking paper so it won´t stick).
When they are dry and ready to use you may want to use them
as decorations on a cake. My camera didn't manage to capture
the beauty, unfortunately, so this pictures makes it look rather
blend and boring. But it really looked better in real life.
If you want to make a cake using rose petals, but you don't have
the time to make candied flowers, you can use fresh
rose petals like I did on this cake. It looks very beautiful
(I even do think I like this look better than the candied) and the
smell from the roses are lovely.
So, how does this affect the taste of the cake you might think! And do you actually eat the petals or is it just for decorations! The candied petals taste mostly like sugar and the fresh petals gives a hint of roses, which is very good actually, the taste is like how it smells. And yes, you do eat them, it is not just for decorations, but of course you can remove them if you don't want to eat them. BUT remember that the flowers have to be ETIBLE and NOT have been spayed at all. The safest way is to use flowers from your own garden as long as you haven't sprayed them.
So, what are you waiting for? It is fun, easy and gives the cake a
"wow-factor"!
