Sugar, fresh or silk flowers on my wedding cake?

Flowers are synonymous with cakes, and it can be overwhelming what type of flowers to have on your cake.

Whether you choose sugar flowers, fresh flowers or silk flowers they are all beautiful, colourful and elegant and are sure to add a touch of romance to your beautiful wedding cake.

90% of wedding cakes we make have flowers on them. During all our wedding cake consultations we give our couples who want flowers the option of sugar, fresh or silk flowers. Some cake makers will insist on you having sugar flowers – we’re not those cake makers. It’s your day, your budget and your choice.

Here we outline our advice on which type of flowers to have on your cake. Scroll down to see examples of cakes with different flower options.

Sugar flowers

Sugar flowers are the most expensive but most traditional option. Being made of sugar they fit in with the cake look and feel so everything on it is edible.

We sell premade sugar flowers in-store, they come in a wide selection of colours and styles so suit lots of themes.

Or we can hand-make them if we don’t stock the flowers you want, however, this will obviously add to the cost.

Sugar Flower Advantages

• They are impressive and look beautiful!
• At weddings couples want the best of the best, it is the one time in your life when you splurge and go for options you might not usually have, which often makes sugar flowers the preferred option.

Sugar Flower Disadvantages

• We cannot make every flower out of sugar. Certain flowers such as roses, peonies, and gerberas can be made or we can buy them in premade. However, if you want tulips, alliums, bluebells or hydrangeas we cannot make these from sugar, you’ll have to opt for silk or real flowers.
• They are not cheap. Large sugar flowers are made by hand, they are time-consuming so you’re paying for the time it takes to make them as well as the ingredients, equipment and our expertise. If you want a lot of flowers, cascading down the cake, for example, the price is going to go up rapidly.
• You can’t eat them For cupcakes and smaller cakes, we do smaller pressed flowers which are softer and edible. But for larger roses and peonies, we use gum paste, which when set, goes hard and brittle. They often have a polystyrene centre and wires in the petals. So while they are “edible” and you can eat them they aren’t exactly a treat to eat.

Fresh Flowers

Fresh flowers have increased in popularity in the last few years, couples opting for a natural or rustic theme tend to go for fresh flowers.

Simple foliage or fresh flowers look amazing on cakes. The naked cake trend has shot up in popularity and fresh flowers match their simplistic beauty.

Fresh Flower Advantages

• They look stunning, they are the real thing, after all, silk and sugar are both imitations, but fresh flowers are the real deal.
• More budget-friendly, they cost a little more than artificial flowers but a lot less than sugar.
• You can match your bouquet and any other flowers you might use to decorate your venue, making it a more consistent theme for your wedding.
• We can source fresh flowers from our trusted suppliers or you’re welcome to use your florist to guarantee they match your bouquet.

Fresh Flower Disadvantages

• Some are toxic. Yes, you read that right, some flowers cannot be put on your cake. All fresh flowers are wrapped in florist tape so the actual flower stem will not touch the cake, but things like the petals and leaves will. Certain flowers are a no-go: Foxgloves, hyacinths, lily of the valley, rhododendron and gypsophila are too toxic to use on your cake.
• They don’t last long. Indeed some flowers won’t last at all; things like tulips, daffodils, bluebells and iris will wilt and won’t last the day.
• Much like fruit and vegetables, fresh flowers are seasonal and peak during certain months of the year – lilacs are a good example. It has become easier to get any flower at any time of year as they can be shipped in from around the world, but this can mean that the cost goes up for certain flowers at certain times of the year.

Artificial / Silk Flowers

Silk flowers are the most economical option. They come in a huge variety of options and the quality has improved significantly in the last 10 years and they resemble real flowers with surprising accuracy.

Silk Flower Advantages

• These can be bought ahead of time so finding the right one doesn’t need to be rushed. They also come in a wide variety of colours, if you want blue roses you can have them.
• Good value. We appreciate how much weddings cost, by offering silk flowers as an option allows many of our couples to have a dream cake with large or exotic flowers but at a more affordable price.
• Certain flowers will only be available as artificial flowers. If you wanted a woodland wedding with bluebells, you cannot use real ones, they wilt quickly once cut. They are also very difficult to make from sugar.
• You don’t have to worry about seasonality, wilting or toxicity.
• You can have other options, such as paper flowers. We made a cake where a couple brought in their own paper flowers from sheet music. How unique is that?

Silk Flower Disadvantages

• Depending on where you buy them, some silk flowers can look cheap, but there are lots of high-quality realistic-looking silk flowers. Quality Cake Company always use higher quality flowers which look more natural and are still cost-effective.

Wedding Cake Examples

Here are some of our wedding cakes with sugar flowers, fresh flowers and silk flowers:

Sugar flowers

Fresh flowers

Silk or artificial flowers

View our floral wedding cake gallery for more ideas and inspiration

Your choice!

So, what type of flowers should I have on my wedding cake? We say – choose what you want! Don’t let other people influence your decision. Besides whichever option you choose, sugar flowers, fresh flowers or silk flowers, Quality Cake Company will make sure your wedding cake is beautiful and photo-worthy.