Exquisite sugared flowers.

My last post was about the decorations I made from pinecones and gum nuts which were all things I found and collected for free. They turned into really pretty decorations. And a huge saving, I don't need to buy decorations for my parcels or my home.

Today I am following on with another collect for free craft. At the moment I have pansies, violas and roses in my garden. It is a beautiful time of year.
About two years ago I found two large urns on the side of the road! I couldn't even lift them but someone helped me... and now they are filled with pansies and violas...

To me they look so cheerful.

In March for Chloe's Birthday I covered a cake with sugared pink roses. It was so pretty and so easy. She loved it. I posted about it in March but here is a quick reminder...

Sugared flowers are so easy and quick yet look spectacular. And they last. They look lovely over a cake, cup cakes, nestled amongst a desert platter or even as a table centre piece. 

All you need (if you are going to use them on food) are non poisonous flowers, like roses, pansies, violas or flowers from herbs. You can easily check if a certain flower is safe or not online. If in doubt don't place it on food and maybe use as decoration somehow instead. 

Pick your flowers when they are in good condition and gently wash them. In a deep dish mix up a couple of egg whites until the mix is well mixed. Gently immerse your flower into the egg white mix and rotate to get a coverage of egg white. You want it to go into every nook and cranny. A cotton bud or small paint brush will help. Then lift up your flower and let it drip a bit so it is coated evenly and thinly with egg white.

Next lay your still wet flower on a bed of caster sugar. A large dish covered in a layer of sugar is great. Then sprinkle more sugar over your flower and rotate so that all sides are covered and even inside the flower is covered as well as possible. Shake gently if it seems too clumpy. 

This is very forgiving. It all looks wonderful when it dries, you don't need to be too fussy.
When you are happy you simply let them dry.

Gently rotate thicker flowers so they dry on all sides and if they loose shape you can carefully "arrange" them as they are pliable when still moist. When they are dry they are hard and more brittle.
They keep for days! So you can do this the day before you want them and they will look lovely on what you are decorating and hold up well.

For the price of two egg whites and about a cup of castor sugar I ended up with a tray of sugared flowers. Here they are still damp and drying and still look lovely.

As they dry they get sparklier and sparklier! 

In the end they look as if you bought them from a cake decorating shop and so pretty.

As I did this I kept thinking of uses for them. Over a cake for a gift, on coconut ice to give away, topping for cup cakes for a birthday or baby shower... ooh just so nice! Imagine red rose on a chocolate cake... Yellow roses on an orange cake...

And so exquisite, so easy and practically free if you have flowers in your garden or access to flowers.

Beautiful, beautiful things to not have to be expensive! These look heavenly.

You could cheat too. Chloe's cake, I confess, was a purchased sponge. It was so inexpensive and I whipped cream to fill it and used jam I had made in summer. The entire thing cost about $5. 

When you have fresh flowers they look beautiful on a cake just as they are but sugaring buys you some time and additional sparkle.

I hope making or decorating your own cake is a major saving sometime soon. And when needing a gift what is better than making someone a cake? Really it is a gorgeous and thoughtful gift and can be made for a few dollars. For added effect pop it on a pretty plate or cake stand and it will be spectacular!

We are having a very warm week. I am watering and gardening in the evenings which is very nice.

I have managed to finish another Christmas present and get quite a lot done. I will keep my savings and  things I've done to make things nicer for "Feather your Nest Friday". Thank you to everyone who joined in with that.

And thank you everyone who added ideas of small gifts to post that standard postage will cover. Between us all I now have a fantastic list of things that can be posted with only the cost of the card. This is a big help to many as postage is a big expense. I am amazed at the ideas we can come up with when we put our heads together! xxx