by Chiara Alberetti Milott

I’ve always loved the way edible flowers – or frosted, or gum paste, or marzipan for that matter – look on a cake. But there are always these two problems for me- I’m afraid I’m going to inadvertently poison my guests, and they’re not always readily available (I think I’ve seen packages at Whole Foods, but that was eons ago). This is a pretty simple way to decorate a cake inspired by that look. I printed out vintage flower illustrations (found copyright-free here), cut them out, stuck them on toothpicks and skewers, and voila! A pretty cake! The genius of it is you can pick and choose your flowers, colors, leaves, etc to create whatever you wish– I’m pretty sure there’s no way those leaves I used would go with the flowers I used. Artistic license!

Materials needed: vellum, scissors, toothpicks, and wooden skewers.

Step 1: Choose your flowers and print them out on vellum paper (I found a package of 50 sheets at my local office supply store). Look for ‘overhead’ or  ‘bird’s-eye view’ flowers, since a picture of the side of a flower won’t work as well.

Step 2: Carefully cut out the flowers. Always cut just inside the edge so no white is showing.

Step 3: Snip off one tip of the toothpick (leaving one side pointy) and cut down a few skewers to about 4-6 inches (again, leave the pointy side pointy).

Step 4: Take the sharp edge of your toothpick or skewer and pierce the center of the flower.  You can add a leaf if you want to the same stick, or just leave it a single flower.

Step 5: Arrange your sticks in the cake with the tallest in the center, shortest around the edges.

Step 6: Enjoy!