I have a bride who wants fresh Gerberas on her wedding cake cake. Photo below. I have done some fresh flower cakes in the past but I was reading a blog from a CCer about how strange she found it for people to want to put something that is not food safe on their cake. What tools do you use to protect fresh flowers and stems from coming in direct contact with cakes? I have heard brides say they choose fresh flowers on wedding cakes because they heard from their wedding planner that it costs less.

Brides choose fresh flowers because of someone has told them they are less expensive, which isn't necessarily true.

With fresh flowers you need a florist that knows how to deal with flowers to make them food safe. You need to use a flower pick, or wrap the stems or something. And not all flowers are created equal, nor are grown in a "clean" environment.

FromScratchSF has a great blog post about this.

http://fromscratchsf.wordpress.com/tag/cake-2/

A lot of brides can't afford to pay someone to do sugar flowers...and I think fresh flowers look nice. A reputable florist who has experience with cakes uses flowers that are pesticide free. But you can always gently rinse them if you're that worried about it. I worked at a bakery that did weddings all the time with fresh flowers. Usually the florist would either provide the finished bouquets or leave the fresh flowers in a vase full of water for us to arrange. If you're setting them on top of a fondant cake, you probably don't have to worry about much since people tend to peel the fondant off. Anyway, the amount of exposure is so limited to such a small area...good grief...you get more contamination from an apple than a flower stem!

Put stems in the little water vials and if you're still worried about it, wrap that in fondant and insert into the cake.

I love the look of fresh flowers on a cake! Maybe I'm in the minority but I do. And I have never heard of anyone getting sick from a flower...unless they ate it...which unless you're under 5, you probably won't. The cake will be cut and served sans flowers.

Thanks read the article.No one here sells organic flowers. If they do, it will most likely be untrue. I don't know any florists that are skilled at preparing flowers for wedding cakes. They just spray them with water...

And of course, you don't want something that's overtly toxic, like larkspur, oleander, or Easter lilies.

I dont have a problem with a bride wanting fresh flowers. Its her wedding cake and in general they ARE cheaper than sugar flowers. The roses I used on my cigarello cake cost £1 each from a flower market. The roses I make would have cost considerable more and I definitely think fresh suited the cake better. I did read the blog post but I personally dont see it as a big issue and I dont think that there is a higg safety risk, unless they are poisonous of course.

I made a card circle and put it under the roses, smeared some melted white chocolate on it and sprinkled on some choc curls so that it would blend in. I think its easy to 'protect' a cake from a flower topper, a bit harder for the ones that sit on the edges.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Knowledge is power.