Sugared Flowers

I have been fascinated with crafts that you can do using items from the garden.  Since one of my favorite spring flowers are pansies and I knew they were edible I decided to try making sugared flowers.  To begin, I went to the garden and snipped a few flowers, leaving a bit of stem.  Of course, if you plan on eating them them it is a good idea to be relatively sure that the garden is free of pesticides and herbicides.

Next, I bought some egg whites - I used the ones from a carton for ease of use plus then I know that they've been pasteurized.  You also need icing sugar.  Basically you just paint the egg white onto the flower petals, both sides, and then press into the icing sugar, both sides. 

I found that as long as I used the flowers right away that the petals had enough strength to keep their shape, but that after a couple of hours they started to get limp.  Then you place them gently on a piece of wax paper and let dry.  I live in Calgary, which is known for being quite dry, so mine took about a day to dry.  Then I used my sugared flowers to decorate vanilla cupcakes.  I think that they would keep for a while, but mine were gobbled up in less than a week- they are quite tasty!  I've also heard that mint leaves work well.  Enjoy!