When we were at a friend's house last month, one of my friend's daughters entertained my son with a coloring/activity book. On one of the pages the child was supposed to identify what did not belong of four pictures: a rose, an apple, a daffodil, and a pansy. My son pointed to the daffodil and said it didn't belong because it wasn't edible. The little girl corrected my son and told him that the apple didn't belong. But my son stood his ground and said, “Apples and their flowers are edible. Daffodils are poisonous; it doesn't belong”.
Yes, my son is that kid. The one that feeds his friends flowers. Below is a list of edible flowers that your children may be served in my backyard.
Edible Flowers:
rose petals
pansies
hollyhocks
snapdragons
impatients
honeysuckle
I try to have as much edible landscaping as possible. Here is a more thorough list of edible flowers and a list of nonedible poisonous flowers in case you want to incorporate more safe flowers in your landscaping and remove dangerous flowers from your yard.
How to Make Candied Flowers
I create a syrup to dip my flowers in, rather than using the old-fashioned method of brushing the flowers with egg white. While I let my kids eat flowers, I do not let them eat raw egg because of the risk of samonella.
Since we eat our flowers, I do not use chemicals on my flower gardens. Any flowers that you use in your kitchen should come from a chemical free source.
- 50 - 100 edible flowers
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon rose water (optional) (How to Make Rose Water)
- 2 -4 tablespoons superfine or caster sugar ( How to Make Superfine or Caster Sugar)
- Rinse flowers in a gentle spray of water. Set on a towel to dry.
- Place water and sugar in a small pan. Cook over a medium heat until it begins to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until all of the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Dip flowers into sugar syrup using a stem or tweezers if the flower doesn't have a stem. If you do not want any droplets on your flowers, you can brush the syrup on with a small paint brush.
- Set flower on wax paper and sprinkle with fine sugar. Leave the flowers on the wax paper to dry for 2 hours.
Once dry, the candied flowers can be used to decorate cookies and cakes:
I used some of the candied flowers to decorate Gluten-Free Shrewsbury Cakes.
This post is linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop , Tasty Tuesday and Feed Me Tweet Me Follow Me Home.
Elsa says
July 25, 2011 at 2:42 pmhahaha! I love it! Your son is so smart!! I’ve never made candied flowers before, but they are gorgeous.
Troy says
July 25, 2011 at 4:22 pmI am going to stea… um, borrow this idea soon for my blog. The Rose is the Herb of the Year next year, and I want to be able to feature lots of ideas for how to use roses toward the end of this year.
Alea says
July 25, 2011 at 4:44 pmI am flattered Troy! I will have pictures of cookies decorated with candied rose petals tomorrow. If you are interested in rose recipes visit Hunger and Thirst. She has a few recipes on her blog and will be hosting a round up of rose recipes at the end of the month.
Tegan says
July 25, 2011 at 7:24 pmThat is awesome! I knew you could eat roses, but not the others. And I absolutely love that your son stood his ground and knew which flowers were edible and which ones weren’t! I will definitely be looking at the two links you posted and I want to try your recipe when I get enough flowers. 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Swathi says
July 25, 2011 at 8:33 pmAlea,
This candid flowers looks awesome. Nice idea sure i will try them.
Tadka Pasta says
July 25, 2011 at 10:12 pmYour son is so smart! Kudos to you for giving him such a beautiful environment to grow in. Thanks for the tutorial on candying the flowers, they look so sweet.
Vicky says
July 26, 2011 at 2:50 amThese look fantastic!
Jaz says
August 23, 2011 at 4:09 amThanks for the list you have provided, this really helpful. This is something interesting I can share with my friends and to their kids. It’s just so fresh in my knowledge and I’m sure they too will be ecstatic.
Beth @ Aunt B's Kitchen says
May 23, 2012 at 2:01 pmGreat story about your boy! 🙂 I’m glad to see a candying recipe that doesn’t use raw eggs. I’ve pinned it for future reference.
Donna says
February 27, 2013 at 5:15 pmdo you know how to make small hard candied flowers for cookies?
Thank!
Michelle@SimplifyLiveLove says
July 23, 2013 at 11:27 amI want to meet your son. Cute story and I love the edible flower post. 🙂
April @ The 21st Century Housewife says
July 30, 2013 at 6:25 amI love the story about your son, and your candied flowers are just beautiful. The Shrewsbury Cakes look so elegant too!
Honor Schulte-Usui says
September 4, 2013 at 7:12 amI’m trying to find out why my flowers always stay damp and wilt instead of turning hard. I’ve tried different recipes using different ratios of sugar to water and cooking to different temperatures but still can’t get it right. Can it possibly be the syrup coating or caster sugar is too heavy, if so how do I prevent that when dipping the flowers?
Alea Milham says
September 4, 2013 at 12:17 pmI dip the flowers, then let the extra drip off. Then I sprinkle them with sugar. They should stay firm, but not hard for a day, possible two. If you want your flowers to be harder, you may want to consider brushing them with egg whites instead of using the syrup, and then sprinkling them with sugar
sophia says
January 12, 2016 at 5:22 amHow long do the candied flowers last for? I’m making a cake for my friend’s wedding and they don’t eat egg so this would be perfect… but trying to get as much done in advanced as possible.
Alea Milham says
January 12, 2016 at 10:02 amThey only last for a day.
Lisa L says
May 24, 2017 at 12:41 pmhow long do the finished flowers keep?