Wedding cake flower cascade

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Just did a wedding cake this past weekend (my niece's) The baker didn't want me touching her cake unless she was there to supervise! I did the topper then for the sides, I did small pieces and glued them to the little plastic oasis prongs (that look like those white things that come in a pizza box)---actually those work much better for larger flowers. The prongs get pushed into the cake and the flowers rest on top. It worked out very well.
 

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I got hardly any cakes to decorate in the last 2-3 years. Pity cos they are divine to see and I love wedding work anyway.Just different trends coming and going I suppose.Have done some great things though with all cake types- seperate tiers and stacked ones too.For a serious cascade I would do a long wired corsage style piece and fix securely into cake with pins at the reception.never had a problem and it's removed easily in one go for cutting.Just let the hotel staff know what to do .Cake flowers can be very profitable but some people find wired work fiddly and can't do it easily .
All the best to hard working florists for the busy wedding period.
Teresa
 
I know cakes adorned with flowers are beautiful, and I know that people have been doing this for millenia with no ill effect. However, I tell my students to wash their hands before they eat after handling the flowers, knowing what I do about all the chemicals and debris associated with flowers. I can't bring myself to eat a cake that has been decorated with flowers in direct contact. I'd no sooner lick a rose than gobble up cake with a rose stuck in it.
 
How nice if the cake decorators would put the flowers on the cakes! When we can, we get the cake makers to provide extra icing which we apply in small daps and insert the clean stems into that icing.
 
:) well I went to the source - Because my mom is a professional cake decorator I got her thought

and I also got the opinions of other professional cake decorators from another board I go to once in awhile.

First - Mom was mortified to hear someone would put a flower in direct contact with something your gonna eat. Some flowers do secrete a watery goo :)

also - cake does crumble and fall apart when you start to poke holes all in it. Some of you sound like your using the cake like a piece of oasis foam.

And like others we totally refuse to decorate the cake - we are not cake decorators,and if the cake falls over or falls apart or if something is not placed right then it is not our fault. Usually the cake decorator calls us, tells us what they need, we make it and add it to the bill the bride is paying for the flowers and deliver it to the reception hall and have it there for the cake people to do with what they wish.



and well -- here is the response from the other professional cake decorators


I don't like stems touching the cake so prefer them wrapped and/or use flower picks to stick them into the cake.

_________________
Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake.

miriel

My suggestion is flower holders or bent straws. If on top then wax paper underneath



If they are an edable flower and I know that their have been no pestisides on the flowers, I just poke them in... If either of the two above are issues, then I wrap them....





Hey countrypetal, I'm a florist too! would really like to talk business with you. I'm just starting to add cakes and cookies to my business.......soooo slow in summer months!!!!

As for placing fresh flowers, I always at least tape them and some times cut off stems and wire them first ( in fondant)


Even if they are edible flowers without pesticides, I still don't want bare stems stuck into any cake that will be eaten. That's just yucky IMO! I much prefer to have wrapped stems or flower picks.... some kind of barrier anyway.....
I wish more florists (like you) would leave the flower placement to the cake decorator, I've heard too many horror stories about florists who think they know best and ruin the decorator's beautiful work.




I would not be happy at all about bare stems being poked into one of my cakes.

I wouldn't go out to the garden, pick a flower and stir my iced tea with the stem, why would I want it in my cake?

Definitely those little plastic flower tubes or waxed/parchment paper if a flower bouquet is going on top of the cake.




Pesticides or not, the water in which the flowers sit may not be 100% germ free, you shouldn't put bare stems into the cake, I use water picks. The last cake I did had lika a small corsage so I inserted it in a plastic dowel rod cut to size. Your idea of the cello sounds good. I'd have to try it.
 
I'm confused. To me, adding fresh flowers as a garnish, is much the same as adding any other type of natural garnish. Strawberries on shortcake, parsley or rosemary on steak, lettuce under side salads .... they all were once growing in or on dirt, just like flowers. They all probably have been exposed to pesticides....

I understand the thoughts behind the food safety concern, but what is the reality of that concern. Do you know that the water tubes, as with most plastics, contain petroleum products? And I'm pretty sure they're not food safe, as they are not a food product. And stem tape, or green painted wire, or not painted wire? In your food? Nuh-uh, no way. Give me a moderately clean natural product in my food any day.

I agree with the thoughts that some florists are careless, as are some cake professionals I'm sure. But we don't need more unfounded reasons to dissuade someone from using flowers as a decorative element in their event.

All of the cake decorators that I've spoken with prefer if we place the flowers. And most times, the cake is in the walk in cooler in the hall, still in pieces to be assembled by the reception hall.

We ususally cut the stems quite short, place them on the icing, with minimal insertion in the cake as possible. Nothing hairy, or dropsy like plumosa, caspia. Nothing gooey, nothing poisonous or irritating like alstro. Stems cleaned prior to leaving the shop. If someone wants a cake smothered in flowers, like the popular open layer cake w/roses between the layers - we put down wax paper before topping with the oasis/liner.

tracy
 
I have worked with a great number of different cake makers. Some I just give them the fresh and they poke them into the cake themselves, others I make toppers and layers in polyfoil and they place them, a great many prefer me to place the flowers as they set the cake up, some I've had to make "level" with my flowers (those are always fun), and one of the last ones I did, I gave her a bucket of flowers and she proceeded to poke flowers, greens and baby's breath from the top layer to the bottom layer and across the cake table. That was a hoot because you really couldn't see much of the cake through the "river" of flowers flowing down it (I was decorating the tables as she was poking). I do believe the preference should be the cake decorator's and if that is me, I prefer not to poke and will usually advise the bride as to what needs to be done to her cake if she picks a style that gives that look. I don't think I'd want holes as large as a water pik either.
 
Tracypieface said:
I'm confused. To me, adding fresh flowers as a garnish, is much the same as adding any other type of natural garnish. Strawberries on shortcake, parsley or rosemary on steak, lettuce under side salads .... they all were once growing in or on dirt, just like flowers. They all probably have been exposed to pesticides....

I understand the thoughts behind the food safety concern, but what is the reality of that concern. Do you know that the water tubes, as with most plastics, contain petroleum products? And I'm pretty sure they're not food safe, as they are not a food product. And stem tape, or green painted wire, or not painted wire? In your food? Nuh-uh, no way. Give me a moderately clean natural product in my food any day.

I agree with the thoughts that some florists are careless, as are some cake professionals I'm sure. But we don't need more unfounded reasons to dissuade someone from using flowers as a decorative element in their event.

All of the cake decorators that I've spoken with prefer if we place the flowers. And most times, the cake is in the walk in cooler in the hall, still in pieces to be assembled by the reception hall.

We ususally cut the stems quite short, place them on the icing, with minimal insertion in the cake as possible. Nothing hairy, or dropsy like plumosa, caspia. Nothing gooey, nothing poisonous or irritating like alstro. Stems cleaned prior to leaving the shop. If someone wants a cake smothered in flowers, like the popular open layer cake w/roses between the layers - we put down wax paper before topping with the oasis/liner.

tracy
Click to expand...

Tracy:

Ditto those comments.

Also, how many of you florists have forgotten to wash your hands before grabbing and eating some munchie while busy at the design table?

How many of you have fallen over dead after eating that munchie while busy designing flowers at that design table? ;)

I just remembered one idiotic cake that I had to decorate. I think it was one of those nasty MS inspired wedding cakes that required the space between the cakes be filled in with rows and rows and rows and rows and rows of roses.

If I didn't have all those stems criss-crossing eachother I never would have achieved "Martha's Look".
 
cascade flowers on cake

i do alot of cake flowers... i mostly wire and tape so that all the cake decorator has to do is push them in... i make lots of smaller clumps, then little bit bigger, and so on... that way the decorator can have control as to where the cascade goes and how thick it is....
 
tracy...............I'M WITH YOU.............YEE GOD..........HOW ANAL HAVE WE BECOME..........DO WE EAT TAFFY APPLES/POPCORN/CHOCOLATE DIPPED STRAWBERRIES BECAUSE SOMEONE TOUCHED THEM.....AND HOW ABOUT THE COUGH....SNEEZE ETC..
IF ANY FLORIST OF ACCOUNT KNOWS .......... FLOWERS ARE TREATED TO A BACTERICIDE....FUNGICIDE.....ETC....ETC...PROBABLY CLEANER THAN MOST FOOD PROCESSED ITEMS...........I'M ASSUMING THAT THE NAYSAYERS ARE RINSING STEMS AND WASHING HANDS PRIOR TO INSERING INTO THE CAKE AND...........THE THE HOTEL STAFF IS WASHING THEIR HANDS WHEN REMOVING THE STEMS PRIOR TO CUTTING THE CAKE BEFORE SERVING.............OF COURSE IF ANYONE IS SUPER CAUTIOUS THEY COULD SUPERVISE THE CAKE-CUTTING IN THE KITCHEN AND MAKE SURE THE ONE INCH INSERTION WAS ELIMINATED FROM THE SERVING PORTION !

HOPE ALL THE NAYSAYERS CHARGE ENUF FOR ALL THESE ADDITIONAL SERVICES !
 
floraldesignson99th said:
IF ANY FLORIST OF ACCOUNT KNOWS .......... FLOWERS ARE TREATED TO A BACTERICIDE....FUNGICIDE.....ETC....ETC...PROBABLY CLEANER THAN MOST FOOD PROCESSED ITEMS...........I'M ASSUMING THAT THE NAYSAYERS ARE RINSING STEMS AND WASHING HANDS PRIOR TO INSERING INTO THE CAKE AND...........THE THE HOTEL STAFF IS WASHING THEIR HANDS WHEN REMOVING THE STEMS PRIOR TO CUTTING THE CAKE BEFORE SERVING.............OF COURSE IF ANYONE IS SUPER CAUTIOUS THEY COULD SUPERVISE THE CAKE-CUTTING IN THE KITCHEN AND MAKE SURE THE ONE INCH INSERTION WAS ELIMINATED FROM THE SERVING PORTION !
!
Click to expand...

The bactericides and fungicides I use in my greenhouses are considered poisons.

floraldesisngnson99th (that is a mouthful, btw) I don't disagree with your thesis, but all those chemicals sprayed on flowers are bad for us.

With that said, my dad, who will turn 88 in Aug, has used chemicals all his life in greenhouses. The "good" chems that he used in a pump canister sprayer, ( you know the kind, big pump sprayer with a canister set perpendicular and underneath the pump) got all over his unprotected body as a teenager.

After the WWII, there was a huge change in the hort business. Chemicals were used everywhere. In the 1970's things started to change. Luckily and hopefully today the chemicals we now use will have a minimal impact on our health in later years.
 
Have been experimenting with different cake flower techniques. My favorite for the top is the little silver plastic bowl (it looks good, not cheap) with the smallest bit of oasis needed to keep it light. Another favorite top, is to nest the flowers into a mound shape. For the cascade, I have stuck small stem flowers where needed.

I do what I am told or asked to do. I have seen one lousy cake decorated by a baker, who was supposed to have a very good reputation. This, I think would have been a bad reflection on me, but since this baker is known for placing his own flowers, I think most people know that it was his design. My personal 2 cents would be, I would have the florist do flowers and the baker do the cake.
 
Mmmmm cake. I love the cupcakes you guys have over there with all the frosting. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
 
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Leila....I just love your avatar....I've seen it on different sites before and I've copied it to my computer....I just says so much...I regularly send it to my brother in an email when he ticks me off......:fdevil:
 
Hi Lelia ,Have to say I don't really go for the cakes and chocolate in the US but I just love their ice cream -OMG I'd bring it back by the crateload if I could. Breyers vanilla and Haagen Daas Vanilla Swiss Almond are mY personal favourites .Have you tried those?And Cinnabons they're just so good I go into withdrawal symptoms everytime I come home .I'm totally forgetting about the flowers on the cake now and just thinking of the cake!!!!! Look what you started .
Greetings fom The Emerald Isle.
Teresa:)
 
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