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Edible Orchids Are New Wedding Cake Trend

May 13, 2011

Edible orchids are one of this year’s hot new trends in wedding cake design for spring and summer weddings. Brides are turning their noses up at traditional, ho-hum icing roses in favor of gorgeous life-like sugar orchids. Made from bakery fondant, a sugary gum paste, edible orchids can be carefully sculpted to look exactly like the real Phalaenopsis Orchids that decorate the bride’s bouquet.

Phalaenopsis Orchids are a perennially popular wedding flower. Their ethereal beauty adds a touch of romantic elegance to bridal bouquets and floral displays. Large, showy petals make Phalaenopsis Orchids a stunning choice for the groom’s boutonniere and mothers’ corsages. Available in nearly every color of the rainbow, Phalaenopsis Orchids are frequently used to unify church and reception decorations and carry the bride’s color scheme throughout the festivities.

When used to decorate wedding cakes, Phalaenopsis Orchids made of baker’s fondant are as breathtakingly beautiful as the real thing. Colored and shaped to mimic their natural counterparts, fondant orchids bring the wedding theme and colors onto the wedding cake, creating a beautifully coordinated look. A skilled baker can create life-sized sugar orchids or combine fondant orchids in various sizes with real Phalaenopsis Orchids to create a uniquely beautiful wedding cake.

Brides who choose orchids over roses to decorate their wedding cake should expect to pay a little more. Fondant orchids are considered moderately difficult to create by bakers because of the complex structure of orchid flowers. Unlike roses which can be created by repeating the same simple petal shape over and over, Phalaenopsis Orchids have petals and sepals of somewhat different sizes and shapes with a protruding lipped throat and column. While edible orchids may be more difficult and time-consuming to create than roses, they also make for a more elegant and stunningly beautiful wedding cake.

Photo by: Madalina Lesan Photography