How can I prepare fresh lime slices to use with candied flowers on top of my cake? I tried candy-ing the slices, but cooking them caused them to turn from beautiful bright green to olive drab - taste good, but yucky color. Is there a way to retain their natural beautiful bright green and have a sugary appearance like the flowers? And if possible I'd like to prepare them a couple days ahead.
Suggestions please? Thanks!

My thought would be there's probably no way to make them ahead of time. I would think that's something that you would have to do last minute.

Unless...you could freeze them. Which I have no idea if you can or not.

Do it the same way you did (boil in simple syrup and dip in sugar) only you might add citric acid (in powder form) to the sugar which should help preserve it some.

seems like I read somehwere that if you crush a vitamin c and add it to to the water it helps keep the color...

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I have a little time now before the time crunch this weekend so maybe I'll experiment tonight. The cooking process was what caused the color change, so maybe I'll try adding some citric acid to the sugar water mixture I boil them in. Don't have any vitamin C, but hopefully it's the citric acid in the vitamin C that does the trick.

I had the same problem last time I needed to make them! I ended up just lying the just cut slices on a sheet tray of sugar and completely covering them with more. A day or so and they were quite lovely. Maybe not as nice for eating as the blanched ones but they're mostly a garnish anyway.

That sounds perfect! As you say, their main purpose is to look pretty and I just want them to hold up for a fairly short time. And if I can make them up a couple days ahead I'm ecstatic!
I tried the citric acid in the cooking water last night, but they still turned blah.
I'm actually more worried now about being able to find enough decent limes to make the cake with - the limes in our local stores have been pretty pitiful lately. Lemons are gorgeous but limes look awful. Go figure.

Another thing is have your water boiling before you drop them in and then get them back out in time. Getting them blanched doesn't take very long either. Less then two minutes and shorter the thinner your slices are. if you want them to stay nice and green then only leave them in about 30 seconds. Drop in an ice bath that stops the cooking process cold. I think you are suposed to boil in sugar water also. Then cover in sugar and let dry 2 days for a great look.

Fresh cut sliced need a few days completely packed in sugar for anything great t happen.

Thanks sadsmile - What is the advantage, if any, to cooking them?

Eating them-they are less sour. But if you want that bright fresh green just do them fresh. You can just soak them in room temp sugar water for a few hours and then leave them just damp and place burried in sugar crystals to dry a couple days and they will be beautiful. The advantage to using sugar water either blanching or soaking is that it tones down the sour and helps keep the sugar crystals glued on after they dry.

Thanks sadsmile! Sounds easy enough to accomplish even when I'm up way too late trying to get things done and crossed off the list!