Juliet Sear - Botanical Baking: Contemporary baking and cake decorating with edible flowers and herbs

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HELLO AND WELCOME TO BOTANICAL BAKING. THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING MY BOOK!

Im Juliet and Im a baker, cake maker and food stylist, among other things. Ive been lucky enough to be immersed in the food world, specialising in baking and cake decoration for the last two decades. Ive worked with all kinds of decorating techniques and recently the trend for working with edible flowers has really grown (pardon the pun!). For the past few years Ive been working with them in my baking to create lots of lovely eye-catching designs.

Im certainly not claiming to be an expert in edible flowers, but I do love using them to create really pretty cakes and bakes. Im lucky enough to have a couple of fantastic growers who supply me with edible flowers, and Ive been working with the fabulous Jan Billington (a brilliant organic flower farmer) for a few years and also the team at Nurtured in Norfolk. One day maybe I will try and grow my own... In the last few years some supermarkets have also been selling them in their salad selections, which is brilliant!

There are so many wonderful blooms to choose from, and Ive been exploring lots of different ways to use them. In the past Id have made intricate sugar versions of many flowers, but it is lovely to use real flowers. They really are stunning. Not even the most skilful sugarcraft artist can replicate the beauty of a fresh edible flower. And using fresh has the added bonus that nature has done all the work for us no need to spend hours upon hours creating chocolate or sugar ones!

I love creating modern designs, and really have enjoyed putting this book together. I hope youll be inspired. For example, using edible flowers to replicate those cool floral structures you might see at events... Ive created a version that is a cake topper! There are lots of ways you can preserve and use edible flowers, and in this book I explain how, and suggest good ways to use certain types of preserved flowers, along with fresh.

What I really love about edible flowers is that even the most novice baker can create stunning wedding-worthy designs by creatively placing or decorating with flowers. And if you are time poor, they are the perfect solution too. Edible flowers are easily available to order online from fabulous suppliers, and even some supermarkets. You can always substitute different varieties depending on whats available to you or alter designs to fit your colour scheme. Maybe youll beat me to it and grow your own!

Ive absolutely loved working on this book and really hope you enjoy baking and making the designs, but more importantly, that you are inspired to include edible flowers in your baking.

Please share pictures of any of your bakes Id love to see them! Use the hashtag #botanicalbaking and tag me on social media, instagram @julietsear, tweet me at @julietsear_ or find me on facebook @julietsearbakes.

ENJOY!

Before you get started, please have a glance through the following points, which explain how this book works and will give you some general advice about how I achieve my results.

• Throughout this book youll find repeated elements, such as sponges and frostings, that form the base of the individual cakes and bakes. So to save boring you and repeating the recipe each time, Ill refer you back to the Baking Basics section when youre making the later designs.
• In the same way, some decorating steps or techniques apply to several cakes, so for some designs Ive given instructions for how to decorate the cake but Ive referred back to any general techniques.

IVE GOT A GOOD TIP IF YOU NEED TO WORK OUT HOW MUCH CAKE MIX YOU NEED: WEIGH YOUR CAKE TIN, ZERO YOUR SCALES WITH THE EMPTY TIN ON THEM, AND THEN FILL THE TIN WITH 4CM (112IN) in WATER. THE WEIGHT OF THE TIN AND WATER WILL GIVE YOU A PRETTY GOOD INDICATION OF THE TOTAL CAKE BATTER WEIGHT YOU WILL NEED.

• The idea with the larger cakes is that you can make any size cake you want, so you dont have to stick to the set sizes that I have done. Ive given you a guide to the sizes I have used and approximately how many people they would serve. For example, the Electro-pop Drip Cake is a four-tier cake which will serve around 80-100 small portions, but you might want to make a mini version, for example a two-tier.
• When filling cake tins, I like to weigh the batter (see for a rough guide), but also take a look at the tip above to help you work out how much you will need for your particular cake tins.
• All eggs are medium size unless stated. Or in some cases, I suggest weighing beaten egg to be precise.
• All oven temperatures given are for fan ovens.
• Test cakes for doneness with a metal skewer, sharp knife or cake tester; it should come out clean from the centre when the cake is cooked unless the recipe states a cake should be fudgy.
• I suggest using cake drum or boards for each cake tier, but its a good idea to have additional boards larger than your cakes as it makes crumb coating and icing less messy. In addition, you can easily place your cakes in the fridge to chill, lifting them by the boards so you dont damage them.
• When considering how long your cake will stay fresh, the recipe of the sponge determines the storage time. The preserved flowers last for ages so once the cake is iced and decorated it will keep for as long as your sponge allows.
• Of course you can swap recipes and use any flavour cake bases that you like (see ). I think Ive got some yummy recipes in here and I hope youll agree, but ultimately my goal is really about inspiring eye-catching cake decorating using edible flowers displayed in different ways. I hope it will give you ideas and you can change anything to suit your needs. Ive loved writing this book, and I hope you are inspired to create some masterpieces of your own!

Ive used many wonderful edible flowers in this book and in the following pages I have suggested ways to choose, store and preserve them so you can create your own selection to use on your cakes and bakes.

Im incredibly lucky as here in the UK we have so many beautiful edible flowers to choose from, but many of these also grow in other places around the world. If you cannot get hold of certain varieties that I have used in the designs in this book, you can certainly substitute them with others and achieve a similar look.

I do not claim to be an expert on edible flowers, but I have been using them as baking and cake decorations for a few years now and have included many of my favourite ways to use them in this book. As you will see, in some cases, I have used flowers inside the filling or occasionally in part of the bake (see my ). Edible flowers have been around for centuries, often used in both sweet and savoury cooking, and I think they are the best type of cake decoration you can buy.