I’ve just launched a range of dried flowers which are perfect for stylists, stationers, cake makers and anyone looking to use these gorgeous guys.pl I’ve put together this blog post to go through some of them, give you some top tips on keeping them at their best and show you how they can be styled on cakes!
Pampas Grass
First up, let’s talk pampas. The go-to boho grass, with his 70’s vibe and wispy fronds. It’s not all plain sailing as anyone who has brushed up against it knows – it sheds! After a day of working with this stuff, I find it in my hair, mouth, clothes – EVERYWHERE. My top tip for banishing the fluff is to use hairspray. Not the nice, soft stuff you’d usually use on your hair – I mean the horribly crunchy, own brand stuff we used as teens that made our fringe go crispy. honestly, the cheaper the better I find! Give it a good spray and that will held reduce the mess. I always give mine a bit of a coating before I send them off to their forever home.
Bunnytail Grass
Next up, stylists favourite is bunny-tails! These gorgeous grasses are called laugurus ovatus in Latin and add so much yummy texture. They look great in a little bud vase and make the perfect additions to flat lays and of course, on top of cakes. They can easily be confused with the next grasses but if you’re looking for the soft, fluffy ones (hence the name…) these are the ones you want.
Phalaris Grass
Often mixed up with the bunny tails are these gorgeous phalaris grasses. They’re very similar from afar but where bunny tails have the softer texture, these ones feel more ‘dried’ and straw like, they have a lovely layered visual feel to them.
I thought it would be helpful to go through some images of gorgeous cakes that have used my dried flowers and let you know what they are! I know it can be a bit daunting if you don’t know the names of everything but hopefully this will help you create the boho cakes of your dreams!
Dried Flowers on Cakes
I should really cover the boring bit first though. I wouldn’t consider anything I sell to be ‘food safe’ – fresh or dried. Many of the dried flowers are actually bleached (the very white ones) and painted if you’re using any of the colourful ones – these aren’t going to be food safe materials. Therefore I’d recommend the same processes as you’d use for fresh florals in terms of coating them or only using them on non-edible layers. Boring bit over, onto the flowers!
This cake is absolutely epic. Made by Vaani at Sugar Plum Bakes, it’s the perfect boho design, with a few focal flowers on the front. Like many boho designs, Vaani mixed fresh with dried flowers. I don’t sell fresh flowers on the shop yet (they don’t like being posted!) but I’ll share the names with you and you can order from your local florist who I’m sure will be happy to get them in for you (and impressed that you know the names!) I’ll start from the left and go clockwise. First up, on the far left we have a fresh carnation – this variety is called Legge Marron. Squeezing in next to it is a fresh O’Hara garden rose. Peeking at the top left is an apricot coloured Stacice and above and below that are two little snips of bleached ruscus. Further right we have a beautiful tulip called ‘Brownie’ with some spiky fluffs of pampas grass on the top right. With pampas, the whole stem will be too big and overpowering. But you can pinch off individual pieces (from the bottom) like Vaani has done to create little mini versions. Coming round to the right, we have some beautiful seagrass and nestled in between the carnation and the rose is a little bit of draping, dried amaranthus.
This gorgeous cake by Amalina at Amalina Bakesv has a real modern feel, especially with the amazing, detailed decorations in the front. For the bouquet, we had lots of fresh florals with dried elements and we used the to tie everything together. Added to this cake were bleached ruscus with a slightly pinky tinge and painted eucalyptus in gold. There are also some teeny tiny sprigs of miscanthus grass in there too which follow the curves just perfectly.
Last but not least is this boho beauty by Sweet Olive’s, a sunny cake in tones of peachy orange. In the background of the floral elements is a gorgeous spear palm. In front of that, in orange we have some fluffy wheat grasses, some adorable little bunny tail grasses and also some of these really light, whispy grasses which add lovely depth. The texture in the foreground comes from these lovely seed pods in orange and the black and white helichrysums.
So that’s a run down of some of my favourite dried flowers used on cakes. Hope that gives you a little more knowledge to know your spear palms from your bunny tails! If you have any questions or there’s something you’ve seen and just can’t seem to find, let me know!