Weddingbee PRO

Photo by Sarah K. Chen

As a floral designer, I've vowed to never stop learning. I still like to attend design seminars when I can, and I'm always asking other florists and my super savvy assistants if they think I could do something faster, prettier, or smarter. I might even go back to flower school to take some classes (and hopefully teach some classes someday.) In my new “Ever Wonder How…?” series, I'll be posting some neat florist tricks-of-the-trade addressing some questions that I certainly had before becoming a florist. And please, if you have an even better technique than what I am showcasing, leave me a comment!

Ever wonder how to decorate a cake with fresh flowers? That's one thing I didn't learn in floral school, surprisingly. I've seen and tried many different techniques.

• Some florists just stick the stems directly into the cake (after rinsing the flowers of course! A gentle fruit and vegetable wash works well for this.)
• Some actually wire and tape each flower, essentially creating a ton of little boutonnières to stick into the cake. Some wire and tape the flowers onto picks, and insert them into the cake. (Can you say time consuming?)
• Some use tiny floral foam cages, fill them with flowers, and lay them on the cake (with cellophane in between, to protect the cake).

Now, all those ways are fine and dandy. They work. I've tried them all. But something always weirded me out about sticking an ordinary flower stem into a gorgeous, priceless confection. First off, no matter how well you rinse, are you really getting off all the pesticides and preservatives? And I doubt that florist tape and wires are much cleaner. My issue with the floral foam is that sometimes the cages leak out water and tiny green foam particles, which could be toxic. And the foam is heavy- I do not want to see a cake collapse because I've just topped it with a 5 pound arrangement. A collapsing cake is one of my recurring nightmares. I'm serious; I can barely breathe when I put flowers on a cake.

The best and easiest solution I've found came from my assistant Montita, who spent most of her life in Thailand. She is full of snazzy ideas that she picked up from her home country. Basically, she's the bomb.

Step 1: Select the flowers you'd like to use. Now this is kind of a bummer- most flowers are indeed toxic to some extent. I think the only common wedding flower I didn't see on the on that list was roses. Hmm. That doesn't leave us with much, right? Keep in mind that there are some flowers that are considered more toxic than others, including ivy, delphinium and kangaroo paws, so try to avoid those. Thankfully, this method really reduces the flower-to-cake contact, so you don't have to lose sleep over this.

Some white roses from my garden.

Step 2: Cut off the stems completely, leaving just the flower head.

Step 3: Take a clean toothpick and poke it into the bottom of the flower.

Step 4: If you're really concerned about your flowers making any contact with the cake, you can cut a small circle of cellophane, a little smaller than the flower head. Then pierce it with the toothpick and shimmy it up to the flower head so it acts as a barrier between the cake and the flower.

Step 5: Simply insert the toothpicks into the cake and voila! Couldn't be easier! The best part- it doesn't leave a huge gaping hole in the cake like a flower stem would.

Thanks for joining me for my first “Ever Wonder How…?” I'll see ya next time!

And now, I'll leave you with some pretty pictures of florified cakes

Photo by Christine Marie Photography

Photo by Jasmine Star Photography

Photo by Jason Q. Tran

Photo by Jessica Claire