does anyone here use silk flowers? I'm not good at making flowers and need to do a bridal shower cake. I was thinking of adding roses in the brides colors and wondered if I could use silk. If anyone has used them before, how did they hold up? I will be using all bc icing for the cake. TIA

I haven't but a lot of others have.

You could go with real flowers in colors that match the bride's theme? There is a list of non-toxic flowers here on CC (in the Articles section). Keep them refrigerated until time to set up the cake at the reception place. Some flowers are even perfectly edible (get your cake and salad too!).

Thanks everyone! I'm not getting paid for this one and as much as I don't want to be cheap, I don't want to put a fortune into this for someone I don't really know. I also want it to look nice as a lot of people will be seeing it. I'm going to have to do some pricing. Thanks!

I require my brides to provide any florals....silk or real.... and they provide silk just as often as they provide real.

I use silk on mine, and they work fine......just buy good quality ones from Michaels, Joann's, or somewhere that has a good selection.

I have used silk flowers many times on cakes with bc icing. Make sure you let the buttercream crust before you put the silk flowers on and don't put them on until the last minute you have to. If the flower's petals will be touching the buttercream, you may want to lay a small piece of wax paper under the flowers so the grease from the bc doesn't mess up the flowers. The wax paper is a must if your bride wants to keep the silk flowers. Sometimes the people that I am doing the cake for will provide me a small arrangement for the cake and I always ask for a few extras to add here and there if the cake is large in size. Best of luck!

dumb question??? I can't believe we have to ask to use silks!! There are some absolutely beautiful silk flowers on the market! I love royal icing and fondant ... but sometimes the SILKS win! They hold up great ... better than real or icing in the heat. They can be rearranged without wilting or breaking. They come in tons of colors without having to prick your fingers or dye your hands. You can stick them in the cake and not worry about them poisoning anybody or melting into your BC.

If I wasn't addicted to RI and MMF I would always use silks!! And if you are not getting paid for the cake you can save the flowers yourself or give them to the bride. I have some roses that are so realistic it's scary ... they used fresh rosemary so it smelled really nice and when they brought back the pillars they gave the flowers back! So I have them in a vase on my desk! Silks are great! (Now if you want to practice with gumpaste or RI -- go for it! And eat the evidence!)

I use silks most of the time--like pidge, I find the ease and convience as a life saver ! Sometimes the silks will come back with the other plates,etc. sometimes they wont, but I include them in the cost of the cake (if not provided by bride).
Now that I'm a CC'er, I want to try my hand at gumpaste & fondant flowers, but I will not give up the option of using silk or real flowers !!

Well, I'm a florist.. and I prefer using silks on cakes. Why worry about whether someone will try to eat them, or about what pesticides may have been used on them (and trust me - some are NASTY).. etc?

I tend to use hyper-realistic flowers, though. If you're going to use silks, spend the extra $$ and get the realistic ones. Nothing looks worse than dollar store flowers!

thanks for all the tips!! I guess in the interest of food safety I wanted to make sure it was ok. Now that I really think about it and in light of all the responses its like... DUH.. of course you can use them.. this is going to make this sooooo much easier!!