I had the pleasure of talking with Molly J. Wilk, a pastry chef and Le Cordon Bleu graduate from Austin Texas. Molly lives in Versailles where she teaches pastry making in her enchanting French apartment. 

I’ve followed Molly on Instagram for about a year now, and I sincerely love seeing what new confection she will bake up next. I started to notice the thing that really sets her incredible creations apart is her use of flowers on her pastries. 

She’ll make lemon tart with a dusting of lavender, cakes dotted in bright flowers, or macaroons glittering with crushed petals. I finally reached out to her, and she was nice enough to call from France to share with me some of her secrets to using edibles.

When working with edible plants on food, you need to make sure that they are culinary grade. This means they were grown in such a way that they can be safely eaten. Flowers, unlike food, are often cultivated with less regard towards chemicals and cleanliness because they were not grown with the intent to be eaten. Flowers from your local grocer are probably not clean enough to put on food, so use caution.

Growing edibles yourself is ideal because you can control the way in which they’re grown and make sure that they are clean and safe to be used around food. Molly has a little grow box on her balcony where she gets a lot of her herbs and blooms. 

Another place she sources from is a little market in Versailles called Potger Du Roe which was created in the 17th century to supply fresh produce for the King’s Palace. It is available to be toured, which Molly would highly recommend if you’re ever in Versailles. There, she buys a barquet, which is little bundle of edible flowers that are grown with the intent to use on food. A barquet will include marigolds, calendula, lavender, or a few other herbs. 

Herbs are one of Molly’s favorite edibles to use such as Oregano, Rosemary, and Pineapple sage. Herbs are highly scented which adds another dimension of beauty and flavor to pastries. 

One rule of thumb Molly has is to only use plants on her food that can actually be eaten. On occasion she might top a cake with a non-edible flower for decoration, but not without taking preventative measures to protect it such as wrapping the stems with florist tape, using aluminum foil, or painting on a clear glaze you can make that preserves your delicious dessert. 

The easier thing to do is simply decorate with edibles. And there is a large array to choose from: Marigolds, elderflower, dandelions, lilacs, chive blossoms, calendula, acacia. Some of the real beauties are roses, peonies, daisies and pansies. 

I asked Molly this question: Are the flowers meant to be eaten? She says that it depends, and in some cases the flowers are very much meant to be a part of the pastry flavor and texture. Dried flowers tend to be a good way to add a different dimension without overpowering the flavor of the confection.

If Molly chooses to dry her flowers, she washes them and sets them on a paper towel to be left on the counter for a few days until they are dry. You can also hang larger bundles of herbs and flowers with twine until they are dry enough to store in a jar or paper sack.

Drying flowers can be a really good way to preserve memories: a bouquet from a wedding, a favorite party, or some herbs snipped from home. Every time you go to use them the memory of their origin will be there for you.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to make French pastries and using edibles, Molly offers online pastry classes. She also does surprise Bake Alongs and posts recipes on her Instagram @mollyjwilk and her website. Huge thank you to Molly for sharing with us her knowledge and know how!

If you want to grow your own edibles for drying and baking, we have plenty of beautiful herbs which can be found here or various varieties of flowers which you can find in these links: calendula, pansies, stock, and snapdragons.

Also, be sure you know which flowers are edible and which are not because some are poisonous such as foxglove and sweet peas.