Foliage and greenery has never been so on trend in wedding cake decorating.
We have a collection of some of the most beautiful greenery decorated cakes for you this week and whilst most are decorated in gumpaste foliage, there are some decorated in fresh greenery so we have tips for you on how to select safe foliage for cakes.
For those of you interested in making leaves, you can check out our tutorials on how to make fondant leaves on wire.
Safe Greenery For Cakes
When deciding on foliage and greenery for cakes, we often tend to overestimate the leaf size needed when a smaller leaf size often looks much better on the cake. Most common foliage and greenery tends to have a leaf size that is too big to look good on a cake.
For this reason, and because they are edible and guaranteed food safe greenery for cakes, herb leaves often work best. For instance, bay leaves, sage, thyme and rosemary all look amazing on cakes.
Citrus leaves such as those from a lemon tree, as well as fig leaves and olives leaves are also good choices and considered food safe greenery.
All of these can last for hours on end out of water so you don’t need to worry about inserting water tubes/florist’s vials into your cake.
(If you do need to use water vials for fresh flowers on your cake, see our Baby’s Breath Wedding Cakes feature here for guidance on how to do so.)
Little white jasmine flowers and foliage are a beautiful and safe decoration for wedding cakes. Check out what it looks like in our Croquembouche Wedding Cake recipe feature.
As for what are the options when it come to edible greenery for cakes, Peruvian marigold leaves, pineapple sage leaves, purple sweet potato leaves, mint leaves, fennel, lemon verbena and blackcurrant leaves are all great edible leaves for cakes. And all work well for creating the very on-trend boho style pressed flower wedding cake. You can check out our tutorial here: Wildflower Wedding Cake Tutorial with Pressed Flowers
If you need to insert foliage stems into the cake instead of just laying them on the cake, first poke a hole in the cake with a cocktail stick then wrap the stems well in sarin wrap/cling film before inserting them into the cake.
One of the most common questions we are asked here at Cake Geek (and probably because it’s a bridal favorite) is: can you put eucalyptus on a cake? Is eucalyptus safe for cakes?
Eucalyptus is NOT considered food safe to put on a wedding cake and in fact, the tiny black sprays of “berries” on the berried eucalyptus is poisonous. There is a work-around, however, for the non-berried eucalyptus. Wash the stems & leaves thoroughly and then spray with edible glaze spray which acts as a barrier between the eucalyptus foliage and the cake. There are some very high quality faux eucalyptus stems that you can buy online. Lamb’s Ear is another type of foliage loved by wedding florists which is also that beautiful grey/blue/green shade and much easier that eucalyptus and easier to arrange on wedding cakes and in bouquets. Dusty miller is another example of this shade of foliage also available a faux stem to buy online and it has a very pretty leaf shape to boot. Both Lamb’s Ear and Dusty Miller are NOT considered food safe so either take the precautions above (spray with edible glaze spray) or use faux/artificial stems.
The same applies for common ivy. It’s not food safe but use the above technique and you can still use it for wedding cake decor in a safe way, making sure it is removed from the cake before serving.
For the avoidance of doubt, the following common garden greenery and foliage are considered TOXIC and therefore NOT SAFE to use on a cake in any shape or form: laurel, mistletoe, privet, yew, horse chestnut, broom, laburnum, cherry tree, plum tree, peach tree, elder leaves, bracken.
See Wikipedia’s fuller list of poisonous plants for further information.
Also it’s worth bearing in mind that there is some very good quality artificial greenery and foliage now available which just might do the trick as well.
Foliage & Greenery Decorated Wedding Cakes
Building on the current woodland and nature-inspired wedding cake trend, gumpaste foliage and greenery no longer have just a bit part in wedding cake decorating. Foliage takes on not just equal billing with sugar flowers, but works beautifully as a stand alone color choice on its own paired with simple whites.
As to how to decorate a cake with greenery? Take inspiration from the masters below (and use the tips above for safely using and inserting fresh foliage) and you can’t go wrong!
DeVoli Cakes showcase just this with their elegant lace and roses wedding cake above paired with trailing greenery. On the right above, PetalSweet demonstrate just how close to nature gumpaste foliage can get with an amazing array of gumpaste greenery.
For tutorials on creating gumpaste foliage, see the following features:
