The Cricut Cake Machine along with several cartridges.

Just a note to let all of you know that in the coming months you will be seeing more on the Cricut Cake Machine. I recently purchased one in hopes of making elegant edible decor a little faster than what I can do it by hand. I have tried to use this machine once and found out that it takes a little playing with to get cookie dough stiff enough for the machine to cut – even frozen.

Be sure to keep an eye out here for tips and tricks. I will make posts as I learn the best way to get the most out of this machine.

This should maybe be named how not to cut your head off when making your own home video! LOL! I like how the video itself turned out except for that one flaw, so I am uploading it! The salad contains a variety of greens, lettuce, red mustard, purple basil, rose petals, dill and parsley – all organically grown in my early spring garden. Enjoy!

Pansies and violas are often some of the first flowers of spring. In mild winters you may have some varieties of pansies that make it though the winter.

These beautiful flowers are easy to press for a multi-tude of floral crafts including book marks, candles, natural decorated lamp shades and potpourri. Besides being a popular craft flower, they make lovely garnishes on food, can be candied, added to salads and eaten in a variety of other ways. Be sure, as with all edibles, that you have properly identified the plant before consuming it. African violets are not edible and are not considered viola.

If you make homemade popsicles add a few pansy or viola flowers to them. For a real treat, add a flower or two to each ice cube tray when you freeze ice cubes.

Make a tea out of violets. Use 2 teaspoons of the dried leaf and 1 teaspoon dried violet flowers. Put this mixture in a tea bag or strainer, pour boiling water on it, cover and let steep for 10 minutes. This will make one cup of tea.

To crystallize either pansy or viola flowers, get a small paintbrush, one made for use on edibles which you can find in the candy making section of more stores. Whip an egg white until it is frothy. Paint the flowers with the egg white, then dip them into the sugar. Lay the flowers out to dry. These can be used to decorate cakes, cookies, etc.

Try dipping these edible flowers in chocolate or add them to a bowl of sugar. In a few days you can remove the flowers from the sugar and set them aside to use like crystallized flowers. The remaining sugar will have a violet scent to it and can be used however you wish.

Nasturtiums are not only colorful additions to your garden, but are beneficial in the vegetable garden. Nasturtiums are known for deterring bean beetles and aphids. They are also edible and are often grown for their bright colored flowers that make a great addition to salads, however the leaves are also edible. The flowers can be chopped up and added to butter, seafood sandwich fillings or added to salad dressings.

Lemony Nasturtium Butter

½ cup butter

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons finely chopped nasturtium blossoms from unsprayed, organically grown plants

Place the butter, lemon zest and lemon juice in a medium sized mixing bowl. Using a fork, blend the ingredients well until the lemon zest and juice are evenly distributed throughout the butter. If you are real big on the taste of lemon, use a bit less. You can taste the butter as you go to see if the lemon taste suits you. The peppery taste of the nasturtiums will increase the longer the butter sits.

Add the diced nasturtiums and blend gently with a fork. If you prefer smaller pieces of nasturtiums, feel free to grate them or combine the ingredients in a blender. Note however that the nasturtiums may change the color of the butter if you do this.

If you are going to use the butter in a few days, you can put it into a glass or plastic container with a lid then refrigerate it.

If you are going to freeze the butter for future use, roll it into a small log, snuggly wrap it with parchment paper making sure to twist both ends to secure the paper tightly around the log of butter. Place the sealed butter in a freezer storage bag, then put it in the freezer. Thaw the butter in the refrigerator prior to using it. This may take several days.

Serve the butter with corn muffins, biscuits, steamed vegetables, boiled or roasted new potatoes, salmon, or chicken. It makes a pretty spread for chicken or ham salad sandwiches.

Making your own butter is not hard, even if you don’t have milk animals. Butter can be made from cow, goat and sheep cream which comes from their milk. You can also buy heavy whipping cream at the store and make butter from it.

If you are using raw or home pasteurized milk instead of store bought, the easiest way to separate the cream from the milk is with a cream separator. However if you do not have one, the other way is to sit the milk in small containers such as canning jars in the refrigerator, once the milk is cooled. The cream will slowly rise to the top. This process can take several hours to overnight. Use a spoon to dip the cream off. You will not get as much cream, but you will get some.

To increase the amount of butter, feel free to add store bought heavy whipping cream to the cream you skimmed. You will get some milk in the cream you skim as well. Leave it in the cream. It will not hurt anything and will make the butter easier to churn.

Regardless of the type of cream you use, the easiest way to make butter is to use a standard kitchen blender.

Sit the cream you are going to use on your kitchen counter about ten minutes before you intend to churn it. The warmer the cream, the easier it will turn into butter.

When you are ready, put the cream into the blender and turn it on. If there is too much cream and not enough milk the blender will have trouble churning it. Simply add more milk to solve this problem. The butter should float freely in the liquid.

Once the butter is made, remove it from the blender with a spoon. The remaining liquid is buttermilk. It can be strained and put into a glass jar for use in biscuits, breads, pancakes or other recipes that call for buttermilk.

Once the blender is empty, rinse it with cold water, put the butter back in it and cover the butter with cold water. Blend briefly, dump the water off the butter and repeat.

Continue this process until the water runs clear. The more of the buttermilk you can remove, the longer the butter will last. When you are satisfied that the butter is clean, add salt to taste. You can also add herbs at this point.

Mix well with a spoon to distribute the salt and herbs. When you are satisfied that the ingredients are well distributed, put the butter in a covered container in the refrigerator and use as needed.

An easy way to add an elegant touch to any meal is to dress up the butter. A plain glass dish will work fine for this. If you have a fancy butter dish, that will work too.

I use an ice cream scoop to dip the butter out of the large butter dish. I prefer the round shape, but if you have chocolate molds or candy molds, you can mold your butter into any shape you prefer.

Once the butter is molded, add edible flowers, leaves or even a sprinkling of your favorite spices. For the butter above, I chose lavender buds, dried dill weed and a sprinkling of chili powder. Since the butter was being used on dinner rolls, this combination of spices worked fine.

Experiment with your favorite combinations. Be sure to keep your butter refrigerated until time to serve it. You wouldn’t want to go to all that work to make an elegant presentation and find out it had melted before anyone got to see it.

My design above is random, but another idea is to use the flowers, herbs and spices to make a design. Have fun with this, don’t stress and remember if it doesn’t turn out right, no one will ever know. Part of the fun of edible art is eating your mistakes!