And of course I checked out the cake. Pretty lame, three tier, with plain bc sides with a shell top and bottom border. Cake 101 in my opinion.

What surprised me was the fact that they decorated the cake with flowers (gerbera daisies I think ... among others) and actually stuck the flower stems INTO the cake. I know, because they were giving the flowers to the kids, and my two each got a flower with a cake/icing covered stem.

Isn't that wrong? I thought you had to put them in picks, that it was poisionous or something to stick flowers directly in a cake. This was at a catering place too, not someone's back yard or something.

this happens alot, and it really shouldn't be happening at all. So in answer to your question the flower stems should be wrapped if they need to be inserted into the cake.

It depends. Some flowers you can actually eat (but they don't taste very good)

It must be a certain type of flower, and organically grown to be safe. However I'd still want to use picks just so they don't wilt.

Here's the 411..

http://www.cakecentral.com/article18-List-of-Non-Toxic-Flowers-for-Garnishing-your-Cake.html

I am so glad I found this post because I was just about to send out the same question. I just made a wedding cake this weekend and the bride wanted fresh flowers on it. Her florist provided the flowers, and after I set the cake up she put the flowers on the cake. I was shocked that she did not wrap the stems or anything. And I asked her about it. She says she does this all the time. I know that roses are edible, and I was fine with the petals, but she put rose stems in my cake. The mother of the bride called me this morning to arrange deliver of my cake stand and stuff, and did nothing but rave about the cake. But it still kinda bugged me. The stems should have been wrapped in something - right?

I was just thinking... wouldn't a drinking straw work well for this??? I have to put Lilies on a cake this weekend.

i bought some flower spikes for our star gazer lilies for this weekend.

The last time I put fresh flowers on a cake, I wrapped my stems tightly in cellophane because I didn't have any picks. It worked fine because it was just family, but I wouldn't do it for a client. I'd do picks just to be safe.

peacock place:

I think the straw idea is great!

The straw works fine, but I would still wrap the stem in saran first.

This may sound silly, but how would you get the straw or the saran to stay on the stems, and not get stuck in the cake when they get pulled out.

I haven't used fresh flowers on a cake myself, but I have three decorating videos and they use fresh flowers inserted directly into the cake (they do recommend using flowers from a florist rather than grocery store flowers). There are some flowers that are poisonous and can be toxic, and those need to be wrapped and kept from coming into direct contact with the cake. Janice

My experience with this is that many florists do not use any kind of wrap around the stems. I asked a florist about it one time and she told me she was using all non toxic flowers and she really was not putting the stems in the icing. She was more or less just placing them on the cake. I figured she knew what she was talking about...and never questioned it again! Anyway...if the florist seems unsure or you are doing the flowers yourself...then I would use the spikes...just to be safe!
traci

I speak to the florists at weddings all the time when they give me my flowers. They all seem to agree that it is pretty paranoid to worry about the flowers stems. You'd have to eat a phenomenal amount of the flower stem residue for it to have an effect. UNLESS we're talking something like orchids, which are toxic. But even still, only an unusual amount...practically like eating the flower itself!

I don't wrap. I place the flowers on top and secure into the cake with a little "bobby pin"-like piece of florist wire.

Florist can give you those little stem holers that you put water in, those can go into the cake, bit i would stillwrap the ENTIRE stem

I have been making cakes for 27 years and have always just stuck the stems in the cake. But I have never used anything that was toxic. there is a list of these as niki_10 has stated.

As a general rule of thumb, we carry in our kit to the reception site floral tape and wires, cutters and such...just in case there are fresh flowers there to be placed that we dont know about. We wrap the stems if they are going into the cake to take some precaution. If the Bride is insistant upon having flowers we know could cause a problem, we have the florist do it, because the florist should know 100% which flowers should be able to come in contact with a food product or not. Good Question, and knock on wood nothing ever happens!