Edible Flowers

Pretty & Tasty!

• Violas – scatter on salads and sweets
• Marigolds –  use in salads, soups or bake into bread
• Primroses – sugared, to add a delicate touch to any cake
• Borage – adds a fresh, cucumber taste to summery salads and chilled gazpacho
• Rose petals – perfect for scattering on desserts
• Chive flowers – subtle onion-like flavour, delicious in a salad
• Basil flowers – scatter over salads for a mild basil-like flavour and decoration
• Wild garlic flowers – peppery flavour, ideal on top of salads or pasta dishes
• Courgette flowers – ideal for stuffing
• Nasturtiums – strong, peppery flavour – perfect for adding to pestos or adding a savoury dimension to summer strawberries
• Elderflower – making ice cubes or decorating drinks
• Lavender – perfect in puddings and floral drinks

Be sure and use your flowers as soon as they are picked. To avoid dirt & bugs ruining your creation soak flowers in cold water and gently pat dry. Fresh flowers can generally be stored in plastic containers for a couple days. You want to be sure you are only consuming the petals. Be sure and remove stamen, stems and bitter petals at the base of the flower.

This carrot cake recipe is a great base for edible flowers!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, serves 8-10
1 cup soft butter
¼ cups oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 Tb Vanilla
2 ½ cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg
3 cups shredded carrots (I ran mine through a food processor)

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 ½ tsp vanilla paste (or a scraping of ½ a vanilla bean or just extract)
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 Tbs milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 3 8” pans (or two 9” pans) with circles of parchment paper and baking spray.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream the butter, oil and sugars.

Add the eggs and vanilla and combine well.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the mixer and combine.

Add the carrots and beat until you have a well mixed batter.

Evenly divide them between the three (or two) cake pans.

Bake them at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Let the cake layers cool on a cooling rack.

While the cake is cooling, make the frosting:

Beat all of the frosting ingredients in a bowl with a hand mixer until completely combined and light and fluffy.

When the cake is completely cool, frost the cake, adding frosting to each layer before adding the next cake round.

Garnish with flowers!