Book Review - Cooking With Flowers

Book title Cooking With Flowers
Author Miche Bacher
Publisher Quirk Books
Price/RRP $24.95
Where did I get it? Received a review copy

The blurb on the back: Sweet violets, spicy orchids, savory sunflowers, who knew flowers were so delicious? Here are more than 100 recipes that will bring beautiful flower-filled dishes to your kitchen table! This easy-to-use cookbook is brimming with scrumptious botanical treats, from sweet violet cupcakes, pansy petal pancakes, daylily cheesecake, and rosemary flower margaritas to savory sunflower chickpea salad, chive blossom vinaigrette, herb flower pesto and mango orchid sticky rice. Alongside every recipe are tips and tricks for finding, cleaning and preparing edible blossoms. You'll also learn how to infuse vinegars, vodkas, sugars, frostings, jellies and jams, ice creams and more with the colour and flavour of your favourite flowers. Fresh from the farmers' market or plucked from your very own garden, a world of delectable flowers awaits!

Overview of book A really pretty book with lovely photos and some of the most unusual recipes I've ever come across. I had no idea that so many flowers were edible, and there are useful sections on how to prepare flowers for eating, how to make flower syrups and candied petals and so on. There's a good mixture of cakes and other things like bread, ice cream and drinks; to be honest I don't know how many of the recipes I will actually make as I don't have many of the flowers in my garden and unless you're a regular at the garden centre you probably can't get hold of them so easily, but it's a lovely book to have. I also think that you could make some of the recipes and leave out the flower component - not that you would particularly want to, but I made a cardamom, raspberry and rose petal cake that I think would have been just as gorgeous without the rose petals as they weren't one of the main ingredients.

First recipe in the book calendula cornbread

Last recipe in the book sparkling geranium limeade

Random recipe from the middle of the book Hollyhock cream puffs

Quality/ number of photographs Beautiful photos (the flowers on each bake obviously help) though in some cases the photos are a full page and in other cases they are a small picture on the same page as the recipe. It looks like every single recipe has a photo whether it is large or small.

Number of pages 190

Have I made anything from this book? A cardamom, raspberry and rose mascarpone layer cake which was absolutely amazing.

Overall impression in three words Unusual, impressive cakes