So you would like to have flowers on your cake! Flowers are an elegant way to dress up a cake but there are so many choices, it's hard to know what to choose. Let's look at some of the options you have.

Gumpaste Flowers

These creations are made from a sugar dough. Although they are safe to place on (or into) your cake and are edible, they aren't flavoured or really meant to be consumed but used rather as exquisite examples of beautiful sugar art. They are time consuming to make and quite delicate. A good sugar artist can make these look very life-like. They may or may not have some inedible pieces on them such as picks, wire or other support methods. Your decorator should let you know what inedible parts they'll be using so your cake servers can remove them as they slice and serve.

Gumpaste flowers range in prices based on things like size and complexity but you can expect to pay the same as a high quality real flower from your florist. Obviously, the more abundant and intricate the flowers your require, the more you'll need to budget for this part of the cake design.

You'll need to give your cake decorator plenty of time before the wedding to create your gumpaste flowers; these cannot be produced on short notice. Since wedding cakes typically get ordered months before the wedding day, this is not usually an issue. However, if you're looking at mere weeks before the wedding, gumpaste flowers may not be a possibility. In that case, you may want to consider other flower types.

Silk Flowers

These are also safe to use on a wedding cake, they can be purchased from various stores and you can have your decorator arrange them for you on the cake or have them arranged by your florist. If you choose to have the designer add them to the cake, you'll need to confirm who supplies the silk flowers and schedule when they'll be delivered to them. Because these are fabric, they can easily be sent to the designer long before the cake itself is made which lets you check off one more thing off your list well before the wedding day.

Real Flowers

If real flowers are a potential choice for you, be sure to talk to your professional wedding florist regarding possible toxic real flowers before you make your final choice of what kind of flowers (real, silk or gumpaste) to place on your cake. The final decision is yours so be sure you get informed.

There are many safe fresh flowers but there are also unsafe ones that would otherwise be fine for the rest of your wedding needs. Once you've decided what flowers you will use for your wedding (bouquets, decorations, etc.) your wedding florist, as your floral authority, will be able to let you know if your specific flower choices are safe to place on your cake.

One reason why most cake decorators stay away from real flowers is because of the chemicals, whether natural to the flower or added as preservative, that may reside on the stem and petals which can be toxic if ingested and possibly transfered on to your icing. Many decorators will also not use organically grown flowers because the fertilizer used on organic flowers is often manure based and well... who wants that touching your cake.

When meeting with your cake decorator, you'll want to confirm such things as who procures the fresh flowers (typically the wedding florist). Be sure all parties are 100% clear on who is picking them up and delivering your flowers as well. The last thing anyone wants is to show up on their wedding day and not have their flowers on their cake!