I combed the supermarket shelves for crystallised flowers for a cake I was planning to make and could only find some rather garish sugar nonsense.
But the garden is full of primroses and violets so I decided to make my own.
It’s very easy but it is extremely fiddly and sticky.
I have the attention span of a gnat and a corresponding boredom threshold so I have to confess the last few violets ended up in the bin.
The results are pretty though. Bigger flowers, like primroses, are easier than tiny, fragile ones like violets and I might have another go in the summer when the roses are in bloom.
If you feel like giving it a try you will need, in addition to your edible flowers, some caster sugar, a lightly whisked egg white, a pair of tweezers and a fine paint brush.
Line a tray with some baking parchment, put the egg white in one bowl and the sugar in another.
Pick up a flower with the tweezers and carefully paint every bit of it on both sides with the egg white.
Sprinkle it with caster sugar, again making sure that it’s completely covered.
Put it on the tray and repeat until you’ve done all your flowers (except the ones you bin when you get bored).
Put the tray in a warm, dry place – an airing cupboard is ideal – overnight or until the flowers are completely hard and dry.
They’re very fragile, so either use them straight away or store them between baking parchment in a tin, but don’t layer them up too much or they’ll break.
Oh wow, you have more patience than me! So pretty though. What do they taste like, especially the primroses? By the way, I just realised I wasn’t following you any more; this was down to being cack-handed rather than anything deliberate…
To be honest, they tasted mostly of sugar but that’s maybe because I was a bit cack-handed myself (or have no palate). They look pretty though. Where the bee sips, there sip I ….
And thank you for the re-follow, much appreciated.
Very patient indeed. I would be tempted to put them back in the garden to get a few months out of them.
I don’t think I’d have made a very good Elizabethan housewife.
Oh, you did so well! I tried to candy some violets last year and it was a dismal failure. Sigh.
I think the primroses worked better. The violets are so fragile, it’s hard not to crumple them up. It’s an almighty faff though.
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