Sugar Flowers

Bringing dough to life by creating sugar flowers, also called “confectionary art”, started in England. What does bringing it to life mean? Well, if you've seen well made candied blossoms you would know...they really look real. They have a porcelain looking finish to them, sometimes incorporating the daintiest details of something real, like veins in a leaf for instance. Color can be added to the dough directly, or air brushed to create blends that are so right on, that you really can't tell if they're real unless you touch them.

So why not just use the real thing? When it was discovered that a lot of fresh blossoms were toxic at the end of the 19th century, the sweeter version were born. They can be any color, in any season, and there is no risk of poisoning, wilting or not being the perfect shade of pink that matches your bridesmaids dresses, tablecloths or whatever else you're aiming to match. Sometimes its not the blossom itself that is poisonous, but the pesticides used while it's being grown.

Many bakers prefer to use hand made blossoms, especially on wedding cakes, because they have more of a sophisticated and polished look. Using hand made blossoms also allows them to control the scale, color proportion and overall size of the display.

Hand made blossoms are made from a dough called gum paste or marzipan, and they are, of course, edible! Good pastry chefs hand make them themselves, and do not order them from a factory where they’re mass produced. An excellent pastry chef will also be able to create blossoms, leaves or fruits of such high quality, that they will look like the real thing. If you’ve seen these creations in person before, then you know that they’re true works of art.

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