I would like to ask for your advise about flowers and applying them to wedding cakes When it comes to putting flowers on cakes; should the florist handle the application or the baker?

I have a 5-tier wedding cake this summer in which the client is wanting real roses to cascade down the cake ~ is there a particular way to apply them that a florist may know? Otherwise, I would normally think of snipping the ends and sticking them right into the cake Also, the client’s florist is very close to the bride’s mother who mentioned the florist having netting with the roses (to keep them straight), which I’m not familiar with. I hope you can offer some advise

Thank you so much

I typically want to put the flowers on a cake when I deliver it; unless the florist is on site doing set up work, they usually just send a delivery driver who drops things off and leaves.

If the florist in your situation is a family friend, you might want to let them take the lead in placing the flowers.  If the cake is a buttercream finish, the florist is going to have to deal with that.  If you were putting the flowers on a buttercream cake, you would probably have extra buttercream for touch ups if needed.  If the cake is a fondant finish, you can apply a thick rope of fondant cascading down and put the stems into the fondant rope.  Most florists that I work with - if they know it’s a buttercream cake, they won’t touch it because they know if the buttercream gets mussed they can’t fix it!

I would stop by the florist and talk to them about how they want to apply the roses or how they will supply them.  It’s not a big deal; I do the same thing with florists I’ve never worked with and no one thinks it’s odd at all.  I always have a “kit” with me that contains straws, scissors, floral tape, pins, a small offset spatula, some floral sticky tape (like silly putty) and whatever else I might need for that particular days’ deliveries.  That means I can snip the rose, put the stem into the straw and put the straw into the cake.  The straw is a little longer than the stem and gives me a little more support.  There’s a lot of discussion about whether just inserting the flower stem into the cake is sanitary or not; I’ve asked many of the higher-quality florists I work with about it, and they’ve all said that anything in the water is taken up into the stem but when it is cut within a few inches of the flower itself, the stem poses no problems.  So I don’t worry about it, but if someone is militant about it, the straw treatment usually takes care of that.  If I’m using the fondant rope, I don’t normally have to worry about the straws because the stems are in the rope and not the cake.  But for some of the more fragile flowers that don’t have a strong stem like a rose, the straw helps.

I would urge you to try it yourself with a test cake (make a 9 and 6 play cake) and buy some cheap flowers and try the straw thing.  You don’t want to cut the straws too long (because even inserting the flowers at an angle, you’re going to run into the cake board or the supports at some point).

Thank you so much for your advise ~ I will certainly try the straw method & I’m thankful that the wedding cake will be fondant   I will indeed speak with the florist beforehand & take a look at the roses as well   I’m excited to hear about a roping method, that is very ingenious and should work great since the roses will cover it up anyway   Thank you again!

http://www.shockleyssweetshoppe.blogspot.com

absolutely, when the florist is present, and specially if it is a close family member or friend of the wedding party, it is a common request to have the florist place the flowers.

HOWEVER, if the baker is delivering the cake, we try to talk them out of that idea, and it works 99.99% of the cases.  no florist, regardless how skilled or meaningful, will know more than the baker how to handle the cake, what is inside, how to touch it up.

now, placing flowers on the cake needs some skill, too, so if you don’t have practice, then let the florist do it.  you don’t need any fancy florist equipment or special techniques, just snip the flowers to your liking and place them on the cake.  stick the stems about 2 inches or so, etc.  yes, there are some pesticide residues, but really, nobody cares nowadays of using tubes or straws.

the flowers are almost always provided by the florist, so it will match their design theme, and sometimes the flowers are already precut and/or prearranged.

good luck.

Bring the straws with you; they’ll help if you cut the stems too short and the flower doesn’t have enough to stem to push into the cake and stay in place.  They are also useful for flowers that leak or ooze (calla lilies) because their stems are not woody like rose stems are.  No harm if you don’t need them or use them but it’s better to have something and not need it than to wish you had it and have to substitute…..