Crystalizing flowers

I think it's cool that when I tell Luke that I've been learning about edible flowers, and now I want to use little paintbrushes to paint individual flower petals with egg whites and then sprinkle them with sugar, not only does he not think I'm an idiot, but he wants to do it with me. We candied/crystalized about a hundred little flowers, both cherry blossoms and forsythia. After the painting/sugaring, the flowers have to dry for at least twenty-four hours.


A lot got ruined trying to take them off the pan the next day (next time we'll use wax paper), but we still had enough to make spring cupcakes for some friends. Paired with cupcakes and frosting, you couldn't really taste the light floral flavor, and they just tasted like sprinkles (for a full tutorial on crystalizing flowers, go here).



I think it'll take a few more times before we really master it, but I'm excited to try crystalizing other flowers (like johhny jump-ups!), and just exploring edible flowers in general. Tulips supposedly taste kind of like cucumbers or fresh peas, marigolds like saffron, bachelor's buttons like clove, etc. etc. There's a lot to learn.