Recipe - Crystallized Flowers

1 ounce Gum arabic crystals (or
powder)
4 tablespoon Rosewater
Superfine sugar (castor
sugar)
Fresh edible (unsprayed)
flowers** or leaves
Wax or silicone paper
small Paintbrush
small Screwtop jar

(from _Cake Decorating_ by Judy Kelsey, with modifications suggested by
Martha Stewart, who uses egg whites to do this)

1) Place the gum arabic and the rosewater in a screwtop jar and leave for
two or three days for the gum arabic to dissolve. When the crystals have
dissolved, the mixture will look like thin honey (viscous and pale gold).

2) Prepare a shallow bowl filled with superfine sugar (which is much finer
than regular granulated sugar and looks prettier on the flowers).

3) Cover a tray with waxed paper or silicone paper.

4) Hold a flower (or leaf) by its stem and very carefully paint it with the
gum arabic mixture. Don't coat it too heavily. Paint both sides.

5) Hold the wet flower over the bowl of sugar and (using a teaspoon)
sprinkle it evenly with sugar. Turn it over and do the back side, too.

6) Shake off the excess sugar (tap your hand on the side of the bowl) and
then place the coated flower on the wax or siliconepapercovered tray.

7) Leave to dry for 34 days. I leave mine in my gas oven. With the pilot
light's warmth, they are usually ready in a couple of days. BE CAREFUL if
you do this. I foolishly preheated my oven without thinking and blackened
a batch of lovely pansies and johnnyjumpups. :( Now I tape a sign on the
oven control to remind me that I have "FLOWERS IN OVEN!"

8) After the flowers or leaves are dry, clip off their stems and place them
in an airtight container. I use a shallow Rubbermaid container and put
layers of waxed paper in between the layers of flowers.

9) Stored away from light and heat, these are supposed to stay usable and
retain their color for a year. I have only kept them for a couple of
months, so I can't say from experience. They are VERY FRAGILE, however, so
be careful not to drop them or the container they are stored in.

These look absolutely wonderful on a frosted cake, but they can be served
as little (fatfree) treats on their own with a nice cup of tea or coffee.
Depending on what type of flower you use, they can either taste like a very
exotic perfume, or like little sugar candies. Mint leaves are fantastic
this way!!

**Some edible flowers suitable for candying include pansies,
johnnyjumpups (viola tricolor), violets, primroses, and dianthus. Many
people candy rose petals, too, but I haven't had any luck with these
looking good.

Other edible flowers for other purposes (salads, etc) are daylilles (buds,
flowers, and tubers), marigold (calendula officinalis only!), nasturiums,
sunflowers, and zucchini flowers. Posted to fatfree digest V97 #178 by
"Lisa T. Bennett" lbennett@coe.uga.edu on Aug 13, 1997