Blooming Chocolate Cake Cups
The cold, gray winter is about give way to a brighter spring. Get a head start on the season with these flowering treats. Only specific varieties of flowers are safe to consume, so be sure to consult with your florist or nursery on the right ones to use. Of course, if your kids are anything like my kids, they wouldn’t even think about eating the flower. The cake would be gobbled and the flower would return to the vase to sit prettily in their room for way too long. But food-safe flowers make a striking and beautiful addition to your dessert.
Be very careful in choosing flowers that come in contact with your food. Some flowers that are considered food-safe may trigger allergens. Some more popular flowers that are considered edible (again, be sure to consult your florist or nursery) include carnations, dandelions, lavender, gardenias, marigolds, pansies, roses and freesia. Shown here are carnations, roses and freesia. You can also use herbs, such as mint, to decorate your treats. For a helpful article with a list of flowers, their safety, pictures and links to more resources, click HERE.
How to make blooming cup of chocolate cake
You will need:*
Chocolate cake
Chocolate frosting
Kix cereal
Jars or any preferred cup containers
Knife or circle cookie cutter
Disposable decorating bag or ziptop bag
Scissors
Milkshake straws (optional)
Food-safe flowers
*Use any chocolate cake and frosting recipes or boxed mix and store-bought you prefer. You may also use any glass cups. Shown here are 6-ounce mason jars. Find milkshake straws in specialty stores, such as Sur la Table (as those here), or online.
Prepare a 9 x 13 inch chocolate cake according to recipe or packaging instructions. Let cool completely. Cut the cake and layer a piece (or pieces) in the bottom of the glass container. Here, I used a 2 ¼ inch circle cookie cutter to cut the cake. If you don’t have a circle cutter to match your glass container, you can cut small cubes of cake and layer those in the container. “Dirt” isn’t supposed to be perfect.
Next, add a generous layer of chocolate frosting. Tip: Fill a disposable decorating bag or zip top bag and snip the corner to pipe the frosting in the jar.
Cut your milkshake straws so they are just shorter than the glass. Insert a cut straw into the center of the cake and press to the bottom. Fill in around the straw with Kix cereal “stones.”
Place cut flowers that have been washed and dried with water into the straw. Serve!
IMPORTANT TIP: Make sure the kids know the straw is NOT edible! For younger kids, or to be extra sure, the straw is not necessary. But it helps to arrange the flowers more easily.
Meaghan Mountford, author of Sugarlicious: 50 Cute and Clever Treats for Every Occasion, has been creating crafty sweets for 15 years. She is especially fond of decorating cookies, marshmallows and putting sweets on sticks. See more on her blog, the decorated cookie.