Many of you have probably eaten edible flowers without even realizing it. There are many edible flowers that can be included in your cooking or used to garnish or decorate. The most popular would probably be globe artichokes, which are an edible flower bud in the thistle family. Or zucchini (courgette) flowers. Other edible buds include cloves, the spice used to scent desserts and curries, and rosella, an Australian native hibiscus commonly seen in syrups which can be added to a glass of Champagne to turn the bubbles into an even greater celebration. For salads, try popping in some nasturtium flowers or English marigold (Calendula officinalis), which should not be confused with French marigold (Tagetes patula) which is poisonous. Chive flowers also make a pretty addition. For cakes and sweets such as this, borage flowers, violets, roses, pineapple sage, rosemary, lavender, and dianthus are all suitable for decorating and even flavoring. [Editor’s Note: Can’t you just imagine these little lovelies strewn across a coconut layer cake?!]–Meredith Kirton and Mandy Sinclair
Can I make crystallized flowers ahead of time?
Fresh flowers are best eaten or crystallized immediately after being picked from your garden or taken home from the farmers market. Although you can store the flowers in a single layer in an airtight container for up to several months if kept in a cool, dry location.
Crystallized Flowers
Equipment
- A small, clean, new paintbrush
Ingredients
- 1 large egg white
- 1/4 teaspoon cold water
- Edible flowers, such as borage flowers, chive flowers, violets [not African violets], roses, pineapple sage, nasturtiums, rosemary, lavender, and dianthus
- Superfine sugar , (or just blitz granulated sugar in a blender until finely ground but not powdery) for dusting
Instructions
- Line a wire rack with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, whisk together the egg white and water until just foamy. Holding a flower by the stem or stem end in one hand and the new, small, clean paintbrush in the other hand, gently brush the flower all over with the egg white mixture. (Be certain to lightly coat each speck of each flower or the uncoated part of the bloom will wilt and wither and turn brown.)
- Carefully sprinkle the sugar evenly over both sides of the flower. Place on the paper-lined rack and repeat with the remaining flowers.
- Set the flowers aside at cool, dry room temperature for 12 to 36 hours, or until dried. Strew the crystallized flowers over cakes and other desserts and get ready for some oohs and aahs. (You can store the flowers in a single layer in an airtight container for up to several months if kept in a cool, dry climate.)
Notes
Candied raisins variation
One of our recipe testers discovered something brilliant when she had a little egg white mixture left over after painting flowers. Loath to waste food, she decided to try to recreate the beloved sugared raisins found in Kellogg’s Raisin Bran following the instructions above exactly but using raisins in place of flowers. It worked spectacularly well.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
I think there are two kinds of cooks—the sort who will make candied flowers and then use them to decorate beautiful cakes, and the type who won’t. I’m firmly in the second camp. I’ve never shied away from involved preparations, but I’m just not the kind of person with the patience to carefully paint egg white on a flower petal.
That said, this recipe works perfectly, and it really does preserve the flowers for some time.
I used nasturtium leaves, and I’ll admit I only did a few because this is not my thing. There simply is no quick way to brush egg on a flower. But I painted, dried, and stored them, and I’ve been checking on them over the past 2 weeks, and they are holding up beautifully. This is a great thing to do if you buy more edible flowers than you need or if you want to preserve some flowers from your garden for holiday baking in the winter. They are beautiful and taste a lot better than the sugary decorations you might buy at a store. If you’re a calm, patient sort of person and want the prettiest cakes and cupcakes imaginable, this recipe is for you.
My husband’s birthday was coming up and he’d requested the Tres Leches (“Three Milks Cake”) on this site. The cake tastes amazing, but isn’t anything special to look at, so I was so excited when these flowers came out great. They made a very white dessert lovely and colorful.
I decided to make the flowers before we left on vacation, so they would be ready when we returned. The process took a lot more time than I expected. I do have a bit of a perfectionist personality and was trying to do a really nice job, but 30 minutes into the process I had completely only 5 flowers. I decided to move much more quickly on the rest of the flowers and not worry about getting every little area covered with egg white. This turned out to be a huge mistake. The flowers were dry the next day, but when we returned at the end of the week, the areas that weren’t coated and crystallized had turned brown but the ones that I took the time to make sure I evenly coated with egg white were still perfect. So make sure you coat and sugar the blossoms everywhere.
I doubled the egg white mixture because I wasn’t sure how many flowers I could make, and even after brushing 24 flowers, I had a lot left. I thought about throwing it away but decided to try to recreate something I love—the raisins in Raisin Bran cereal. I coated a handful of raisins with the egg white mixture—not painting them but instead just tossing them in the egg white. I let them drain a little in a mesh strainer and then tossed them with some superfine sugar mixed with a little cinnamon. When they dried, they were amazing. I will definitely make both the crystallized flowers and the raisins again.
I picked and crystallized several hundred violets to decorate my nephew’s wedding cake. I set up a rack to hang mini clusters by clothespins upside down so they dried in their natural shape. It was time-consuming, but definitely a zen-like project. The end results were more than worth the effort–absolutely lovely, still hear comments years later.
Lovely, Pam!
Last month I taught a small workshop on baking with flowers and as a late (very late, I might add) afterthought I decide to throw in some crystallized petals as well. I had never tried my hand at them and set up for doing it at 2 am on the day of the workshop. [Feel free to insert as many yelling munch-like emojis as you find suitable.] It took a long time, yes, but after a few petals it turned into a zen-like activity and I was so deeply engrossed in it I did not even realized the day was breaking. I don’t really know if I’m ever going to make them again, but the results were worth every minute and I must admit my audience were much more interested in them than in any of my carefully crafted flowering recipes. 😉
Marcella, I love this story. So perfect. This is going to sound really corny, but each time you share something, it’s like a flower for its loveliness, and this experience is no exception. Thank you, dear.