You can have your cake and eat it – but not the petals on top
Plant experts warn that fashion for sprinkling flowers on food risks illness and even death
THE trend of sprinkling petals on food could prove poisonous, a botanist has warned, after a food magazine printed an image of a lemon cake adorned with toxic flowers on its front cover.
For Mothering Sunday, food writer Tamal Ray, the runner-up in The Great British Bakeoff and a Channel Four presenter, recommended a cake which had been embellished with ranunculus blooms. But science writer and plant expert James Wong warned that the flowers were poisonous and called for people to take greater care when selecting inedible and potentially deadly decorations.
Plants in the ranunculus family can cause blistering in the mouth and intestines and an upset stomach. Even if removed, cultivated blooms often contain dangerous pesticides which could contaminate the cake topping.
Mr Wong said: “I am 100 per cent sure this lemon cake is spectacularly delicious. But, and I have said this once or twice before, please be careful when using edible flowers on food that they are actually, well, edible. As these toxic ranunculus flowers definitely aren’t.”
According to the Royal Horticultural Society, flowers which can be eaten include violets, geraniums, roses, marigolds, primroses, lavender, daisies, elderflower and nasturtiums. But plants such as Daphne, foxglove, daffodils, and hyacinths are highly poisonous and should be avoided as decoration. Flowers such as daffodils contain toxic crystals which can cause painful swellings and sores, while catharanthus contains alkaloids so toxic they are used in chemotherapy.
Some plants, such as rhododendrons, can even be life-threatening, lowering blood pressure to dangerous levels and causing irregular heart beat.
Daily Telegraph food writer Xanthe Clay said: “I hate inedible garnishes. These days it’s so hard to tell, too.
“Mugaritz give you ash-baked new potatoes which look exactly like pebbles, but at a lunch at Noma I was given a single oyster in a huge bowl of pebbles which, I discovered, were actual pebbles.
“At a less illustrious restaurant I had a garnish of an ivy leaf: not clever.”
Mr Ray had not commented at the time of going to press.