Modern Cake Flowers: Innovative and Sustainable Methods to Design Fashion-Forward Cakes
This blog post was updated on June 25, 2024.
It was originally published on November 24, 2023.
Cakes have always been an important symbolic element and impactful focal point in wedding celebrations. Cake designers create incredibly detailed edible works of art that seem to get more impressive, intricate and artful by the day. What hasn’t moved forward in step is the decorative element that florists contribute to these works - the “cake flowers.”
Traditionally, cake flowers have often been an afterthought - hastily gathered and assembled. However, there is another way! With a little planning and by adopting innovative methods like the hydration chamber, we can use resources more sustainably and also elevate the artistry of our floral work.
I love sharing findings like this to inspire and equip florists to create with more artfulness and ease of process. Here’s what I have to share with you today:
FIVE FASHION-FORWARD FLORAL CAKE IDEAS
1. Mum Moment: This focused, impactful design celebrates the flower of the moment. Locally grown heirloom mums mingle with stems from the wholesaler. Most are simply inserted into the cake with wooden skewers. The cascading mums are supplemented with florists wire and finished with corsage tape. Heavy headed flowers like garden roses, dahlias and mums often break during processing; an unfortunate but expected part of working with perishable materials. This idea puts them to beautiful use.
A chic peach-toned cake becomes the canvas for a spread of chrysanthemums in shades of white, peach, and gold. The artful placement of these blossoms gives the cake a contemporary edge that's as stylish as it is sweet.
2. Cake Corsage: If you can wire and tape a corsage, you can make this crescent shaped cake ornament! Best part is, it’s made ahead and fitted with wire “arms” that insert quickly and securely into the cake.
This bright yellow cake offers a burst of sunshine with its adornment of yellow calla lilies, tulips, and delicate mimosa branches, cascading down its tiers like rays of morning light. It's a cheerful celebration of color that brings warmth to any wedding.
3. Hyacinth Cascade: I love to string flowers on fine wire, and have made many cascading hyacinth bouquets and headpieces this way over the years. To add a little more fun and versatility, I create these cascades so they can be worn as headpieces AND carried as bouquets! It occurred to me that a cake could also be adorned in this way. I just love how this striking but simple pink cake looks with its hyacinth “headpiece” and “bouquet.”
The pastel tiers of this cake are accentuated by a dramatic fall of white hyacinths, creating an effect of graceful play. This cake epitomizes elegance, with the cascading flowers adding a touch of natural luxury to the minimalist design.
4. Citrus Still Life: A collection of flowers and fruit in complementary colors spice up this clean deep blue two tier cake. A bit of wire supports the flowers on top, and the tabletop composition is supported with a large metal pin frog. An easy approach with a lot of potential.
A bold blue cake surprises with a vibrant arrangement of orange ranunculus, purple hyacinths, and playful kumquats. This design is a nod to the unexpected, marrying rich color with lively citrus for a cake that's truly a conversation piece.
5. Calla Curls: Flexible and dynamic, curled calla lilies make a beautiful cake decoration. I left these out of water for a day, trimmed and massaged their stems to make them bendable, and curled them over. A bamboo toothpick keeps the stem fastened onto the bloom. The other end of the toothpick is inserted into the cake, ensuring that the flowers float and dance beautifully.
Wrapped in a spiral of white calla lilies, with elegantly curled stems secured with unseen toothpick. The minimalist approach pairs the delicate beauty of the flowers with the cake's gentle hue for a sophisticated, modern look.
Each design reflects an exploration of how we can elevate cake flowers. By inviting curious eyes to pause and ( hopefully ) sparking interest, we challenge the public’s perception of what floristry is. This is one of my primary goals as a florist and educator: To encourage florists to see themselves as artists and to elevate our profession in the larger culture.
Thank you to Sweet Heather Anne for all the beautiful cakes!
PUSHING THE ART OF FLORISTRY FORWARD
REVOLUTIONIZING THE ‘CAKE FLOWER’ BUCKET
Event florists have so many details to check off the list when designing for weddings, and I know from experience that cake flowers end up low on that list. They are often treated as afterthoughts- hastily gathered and tossed together before running out the door on set up day. I propose that we elevate our contribution and reduce the stress of set up day by vowing to revolutionize the scrappy, sloshing "cake flower" bucket!
Every week, breakage happens during floral processing. I suggest placing all those broken stems and heads directly in a hydration chamber with wooden toothpicks or skewers and check cake flowers off your list!
PREPARING FLOWERS FOR CAKES WITH THE HYDRATION CHAMBER
By placing all those broken stems and heads in a hydration chamber ahead of time we make use of flowers that might otherwise go right into the compost. By quickly adding wooden toothpicks or skewers, we streamline our process, saving time and stress. This can be done as early as Wednesday for a Saturday event. Often, broken stems provide enough material for cake designs, but of course, you can cut and tuck any additional materials into the chamber to plump them up and prepare them for the upcoming wedding.
I use the hydration chamber process to plump up all floral elements that won’t be displayed in water: all wearables, wired bouquets, some installation components, and of course, cake flowers. This is a simple, natural way to extend the performance of flowers. In my tests, flowers that spend 24 hours in the hydration chamber last twice as long compared to their counterparts that were hydrated solely through their stems.
This traditional yet seldom talked about conditioning step is beneficial because flowers emerge from the chamber thoroughly hydrated from the outside in- much more hydrated than if they were left to drink solely through the narrow “straws” of their stems.
I invite you to replace that collection of little breakage vases that crowd your workbench ( I know you have one ) with a simple, tidy tupperware container! This simple shift will lend simplicity to wedding week preparations by allowing you to prepare materials ahead.
SHOWING UP THOUGHTFULLY AND ARTFULLY
Wedding set ups always feel like organized chaos. Sometimes as many as twenty different vendors enter into a ballet that must be precisely timed and performed perfectly. If you are placing the cake flowers yourself, the process I’ve shared will lighten your set up day workload and allow you to complete your portion that much faster. If you are handing off the flowers to the cake designer, this is an especially thoughtful practice that shows attention to detail, mutual respect, and care. The fact that the flowers are thoroughly hydrated, clean, picked and immediately ready to place into the cake will be thoroughly appreciated by the cake designer. These details match the level of care that they have taken to create their edible artworks.
This simple preparation process makes us florists look like the thoughtful, innovative artists we are!
READY FOR MORE?
My friend Sweet Heather Anne is a cake genius and a creative inspiration of mine. She and I are offering a new collaborative tutorial on modern cake flower designs - the images are the result of our joint testing session! If you’d like to know more about this tutorial, sign up for the waitlist on Heather’s site below.
Also, I’d love to connect on Instagram for more cake flower ideas and inspiration!
Wishing you artful ease,
Sue