Edible flowers – decorative too
There are pansies, violas and violets flowering in my garden at this time of year, which are all edible, so I thought I’d have a go at crystallising some of them.
How to make crystallised flowers
I simply made sure the flowers were clean, then painted them with beaten egg white and sprinkled them with castor sugar. They were then left in the airing cupboard overnight to dry.
When the dried flowers came out of the airing cupboard, the castor sugar had almost turned like glass and the flowers were very prettily preserved.
Eating crystallised flowers
The pansies were a little tough to eat, but the violas were softer. And I was really surprised at quite how strongly the tiny purple violets did taste of flowers. Beautiful! The violets tasted just like the flavoured sweets. The violas and violets would be absolutely perfect on the top of a cupcake.