Spring Flower Natural Confetti Cake

If you need a confetti cake for that special birthday or tea party, but don’t want all the commercial dyes and sugars, this spring flower natural confetti cake recipe is for you! Foraged spring flowers add just the right pizzaz to this natural confetti cake!

Which Flowers to Use?

Any edible bloom will be a worthwhile addition to this natural confetti cake but, where baking is concerned, not all edible flowers are equal. If you’re foraging for flowers in the spring, here are some simple ones to look for:

• Red Bud
• Violets

If you’re making this cake in the summer, try:

• Calendula
• Pineapple Sage
• Bee Balm
• Rose Petals

Fresh or dried blooms can be used – see my note on color below. You can also use blooms that have been sugared – as an example, here’s our article on Low Carb Sugared Violets. However, you can sugar pretty much ANY edible flower.

You can also add small, rounded seeds like:

• Poppy
• Chia
• Flax

These will add a nice dimension, not to mention a little extra health benefit!

Dried or Fresh Blooms?

Part of the answer to that question will be found in your personal preference, so let me just mention what I do.

1. To begin with, I use the brightest blooms I can find with the most robust petal structure. Something ethereal like a lilac is going to wilt a lot faster than something beefy like a calendula petal.
2. The darkest colors seems to hold the best color – reds and purples. To get the color even darker, I find that drying the flowers before hand works nicely. For example, for the cake baked for these pictures, I have a mixture of fresh and sugared violets, with dried red bud blossoms. We brought the red bud branches in to use for our Easter tree, let them dry on the branches and then harvested them for our cake. Easy peasy. You can use fresh red bud blooms, but they never seem quite as dark to me once baked. Dried retains a more noticeable color.
3. Except for violets – fresh violets usually do better for me. Keep part of the green stem attached – just a smidge. The green color will usually show up in the finished cake.

The Colors WILL Be Different

We need to stop an manage expectations a bit here. If you’re hoping to reproduce the look of a boxed confetti cake mix, then you will be unhappy with this recipe. This natural confetti cake recipe is NOT meant to be an even swap for your favorite box mix. The bright colors that result from commercial dyes will simply always outshine something like a violet when baking.

As I said, the hot, damp conditions of a baking cake will alter the color and texture of pretty much any flower used in your cake batter. Having said that, however, you can duplicate the fun of a freckled cake batter using more natural ingredients if avoiding commercial dyes is your goal.

I really enjoy the almost marbled look of these flowers in my natural confetti cake. Plus, I love that I don’t have to worry about chemical dyes making my kids sick. I’m not a total foodie snob – I’ll let my kiddos eat birthday cake when visiting friends’ parties, if they want to. However, those blasted commercial dyes are almost a guarantee that one of them is going to get sick, should they indulge. I’d rather not mess with the mess at home, ya know?

If you simply MUST have colorful, candy confetti in your cake, I can highly recommend these natural sprinkles from India Tree:

Foraging is Fun!

Please don’t discount the fun of foraging for these blooms – especially with the kids! If you’re new to foraging, please visit this article that will teach you the basic ins and outs.

If you’ve been introduced to the idea of foraging, but would like to learn more about the uses and benefits of foraged plants, please Herbal Academy below to investigate their Botany and Foraging Course.

The last time we made this cake was for a party. We practically had a party BEFORE the party as we took of with a basket to look for these early spring blooms. Of course, the secret to making any task more magical is to take a long a few homestead kids, right?

Spring Bloom Natural Confetti Cake Recipe

Use fresh or dried red bud and violet blooms to make this natural confetti cake free of commercial dyes. Make your next birthday or tea party unique with this floral twist on a favorite treat!

Spring Bloom Natural Confetti Cake

Use fresh or dried red bud and violet blooms to make this natural confetti cake free of commercial dyes. Make your next birthday or tea party unique with this floral twist on a favorite treat!

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 1 hr

Total Time 1 hr 20 mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 ½ Cups of Butter Sliced in Tablespoon increments
• 1 ¼ Cups of Organic cane sugar Or 1 – 1 ¼ cups of xylitol or erythritol
• 6 Eggs Room temperature
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Sea salt
• 3 Cups Flour
• 4 ½ tsp Vanilla
• ¾ Cups Whole Milk
• 4 Cups fresh flowers Or 2 Cups of dried

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350F/177C.
• Grease a bundt pan; be sure to get in the grooves. Use coconut oil or cooking spray, as butter can tend to make cake stick more to bundt pans. You may also use a 9” x 13” pan, or two 9” round pans.
• Mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Mix together dry ingredients in a small bowl.
• Alternate mixing 2 eggs and a few tablespoons of the flour mixture; mix until each item is fully incorporated, but do NOT overmix. Be sure to alternate the eggs, then the flour.
• Once the eggs are mixed, alternate the rest of the flour with half the milk until both are gone. Mix well between each addition, but do NOT overmix.
• Gently fold in the flowers until mixed.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean and the top of the cake is golden brown.
• Remove from oven and allow to rest for ten minutes.
• Gently loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and, if using a bundt pan, the center, as well. Quickly and gently turn out the cake onto a baking rack or cake plate. Allow to cool completely. Garnish with powdered sugar, glaze or your favorite frosting.

Keyword confetti cake, foraged food, natural

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