PRETTY PRESS ISSUE #3
VOGUE AND THE PRESSED FLOWER TREND
I can remember it like a bolt out of the blue. The first time I came across Blushing Cook ( IG @blushingcook) in 2017. Sammi Jo is the creative force behind the first generation of the Pressed Floral cakes that came out of the UK back then. I remember being in shock and awe at the sheer spectacle of the natural “meadow”. I also vibrated as if I been hit like I was a big old brass gong. I realised I was looking at a service that I could provide as an edible flower farmer and it was a way forward to build shelf life and permanence to the most transient and ethereal of all fresh products.
So I started doing trials immediately and I called this side project “Pressed Edibles”. I made some pretty significant constructions to house the most epic of flower pressing on a truly large scale. 1m x 1m boards that housed large sheets of butchers sheet paper. I set about pressing everything and everything to see how it responded and the quality of the outcomes. I even mucked about with brushing edible glitter on pressed items before and after conventional “cold” pressing to see how things responded to glitzing up.
I found that there was continual issue with wild yeast/bacterial and fungal blooms and so I let the project go cold for a while.
Fast track to 2021. A chef in Brisbane city had put my name forward for judging in the state heats for the national Delicious Produce Awards. I took a big leap of faith and thought …..this is the kind of innovation that is called for with the kind of produce I grow. So I submitted a range of pressed flowers and leaves.
It BOMBED. I got feedback that the judges admired my passion but the items that I’d submitted were shit. Oh Well… back to the drawing board.
And then it happened as these things do sometimes. A well known cake maker living on Tamborine Mountain (with a substantial insta following) contacted me and asked if I had any pressed flowers to dress a cake? Eureka!! Of course I had pressed flowers…I had a large surplus of all the pressed items that I’d collated from the submission for the Delicious Awards.
BOOM! It took off like a rocket. I suddenly had the strong intention that my pressed range of flowers and garnish were indeed “portfolios” and that I could start to collate them very specially for colour palettes and looks that the clients were after for weddings or other kinds of special events. I understood edibility and I understood seasonality. So I began to plan a range of edible plants that I could press to see if I could satisfy a range of colours and textures to start to build a niche.
With a Best Before of 12 months due to a new developed hybrid process that involved pasteurisation, I started to offer the Pressed Portfolio Sheets or Books out to cake makers around Australia and the world.
Recently a client of mine was featured in Vogue Australia. It was a moment that I sat back and let the sun shine into my heart and soul. I have always believed the time honoured and highly sentimental nature of pressing flowers. I pressed flowers and leaves as a child. And it always felt like a gift when I tripped over them years later in old books.
Recently I received an order from one of the most celebrated cake creators in Australia and the world – Katherine Sabbath. I cannot wait to feature her incredible work with my flowers. Stay tuned for that blog.