Blooming Beautiful Floral Spring Bakes

Pressed flowers are a popular trend at the moment, and there’s no wonder – why wouldn’t you want to preserve the beauty of one of nature’s greatest gifts? So we thought we’d combine them with another thing we love – cake and biscuits. What could be better? We even have real edible pressed flowers to adorn your bakes with, making them as beautiful as they are delicious.

Wild Flower Cake

Want to have a go at creating our beautiful floral cake for yourself? It’s easier than it looks with the help of the Flower icing cutters.

1. Bake a cake of your choosing (chocolate, vanilla sponge, fruit cake – whatever you fancy); you’ll need a couple of layers to create a taller cake like ours. Either cover it in white fondant icing or use a palette knife to apply a smooth layer of buttercream (after crumb coating your sponge first).
2. To make your flowers, roll out white fondant icing or sugar paste to 4-5mm thick and press the Wild Flower Icing Cutter down into it. Separate each flower and lay out on a board, lightly dusted with flour to stop your icing flowers sticking to the surface.
3. Set up your colour palette (this can simply be a plate) by dotting on food colourings in your chosen colours. Make sure there’s enough separation between each colour to prevent them running into each other.
4. Using a food-safe paintbrush, add your chosen colours to your icing, cleaning the brush in a pot of water each time you change colour.
5. While you wait for the flowers to dry, paint some green stems onto your cake, and then stick on your flower heads with edible glue. Alternatively, if you find it easier, stick on your flower heads first and add the stems after.

Pressed flower cookies

Serve up these stunning pressed flower biscuits to friends and family and they’re sure to be impressed. Or you could pop them in a presentation box for a lovely home-made gift.

Start by making your biscuits with this simple yet delicious recipe:

Ingredients:

• 200g butter, softened
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 400g plain flour
• 2-4 tbsp milk
• Edible Pressed Flowers

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg yolks, sieve in the flour and mix until well combined.
3. Add enough milk to make a soft dough and bring together with your hands. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 20 minutes to chill.
4. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out to approx. 1cm thick. Use round cookie cutters to cut out as many cookies as possible, using a smaller cutter to make a hole in the middle of each. Re-roll any leftover dough and stamp more cookies. Transfer to the lined baking sheet.
5. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until slightly golden, then leave to cool on a wire rack.
6. Once your cookies are cool, make up some royal icing and spread onto each cookie. Before it sets, stick on your Edible Pressed Flowers. Then serve and wait for the compliments to roll in…

Containing up to 20 real pansy, viola and primrose flowers, which have been dried and pressed, you can use our Edible Pressed Flowers to adorn all manner of bakes, adding a pretty flourish to buttercream-topped cupcakes, traybakes; or you could even sprinkle some on top of ice cream for a simple dessert.