If you have ever tried candied or crystalized violet fragments, did you like the taste?  I got some to use on eclairs, and I think the scent is heavenly, but it has a slightly soapy taste to me.  I wondered if it was one of those things like cilantro, where you and your taste buds either love it or hate it.

My eclairs are filled with vanilla pastry cream, and topped with a lavender (colored) poured fondant.  I love the look of a few of these violet fragments scattered on top, but just not sure how many people would enjoy the taste.

Thanks.

Liz

the ones i've had just tasted like sugar

They taste like sugar to me, too. I used to put one on each piece of chocolate fudge.Maybe it depends on where they come from and who made them.

OK, MB and I taste soap, howsweet and K8 taste sugar!  A tie!

These were from France via the UK . . . all natural, but two interesting "natural" listed items on both the violet and rose fragments: gardenia extract and natural color (cochineal).

I don't think it is those items giving it that taste though - I think the Violette candies from France taste kind of soapy too.

Liz

if they were combined in a shipment shipped anywhere along the line with soap--y'know like lavendar soaps--that soap taste leaches out into the entire shipment--just a thought--who knows

plus if you overdue the lavendar in any edible item it's soap-a-rama and it's easy to use too much--low threshold for that--

so one way or another-- that's too bad

Soap. 

ruh roh it's 3-2 isoap's ahead --we need some more sugar!

hahahaha

They taste like sugared violets to me, but I've only eaten them in France.

AThey just taste like slightly floral sugar to me.

I'm going to try to tamper with the 'Sugar' vote.

If it only taste like sugar, and you can't taste the real violet under the sugar, that why waste time and money?  Just make fondant violets.   BoomShakaLakaLaka

They are elegantly luxurious. :)

People are so much more impressed with, 'imported Parisian violets crusted in sugar', than they are with, 'violets made of sugar'.

Yes that's true.  When you're in business it makes sense to impress.

Sometimes people with tons of money are just silly, but as long as they are spending $$$ on YouAll, it's AOK.

'crafted by the delicate hands of angels and superbly dusted by the wings of butterflies with essence of ice castles and stardust.'

You guys are all making me laugh!  I got the idea from a cake magazine from the UK - I can't remember the name of it though.  It had lovely skinny little eclairs, frosted in lavender poured fondant, with a very light sprinkling of "violet sugar sand", which is just the broken up crystallized violets that they couldn't sell whole.  So they sell bags of it which are pretty good sized little chunks, maybe the size of extra large chunky sanding sugar.

Yes, they would definately up the elegance/fancy factor of my eclairs!  And I need some reason to jack the price up on something in my case so I can use the comparative pricing model that Jason linked to in Stitches thread about the cake buying experience. :)

Liz

Maybe try sugaring a couple of your own, and see if they still taste like soap?

Yes, I will try that.  Are violets very hard to grow?  I don't have much of a green thumb.

Liz

I currently have 2 dead ferns on my patio, so I am probably a bad one to answer, but apparently they are relatively easy.  As long as don't forget about them for months at a time, like some of us would.

My sister studied horticulture and she said they are simple, and pretty hardy once you get them going.

AI have loads of them growing all over my yard (where the grass is supposed to be!) every Spring. You are welcome to them if you'd like to make the trip to Canada and can wait a few months. They are all under about 3 feet of snow right now. :D But they must be easy to grow, because I can't kill them when I'm trying!

Glad to hear they can be easy.  Unfortunately my level of commitment to plants spans the 3 or 4 weeks it takes an amaryllis bulb to bloom, and then I'm done.  But I absolutely love flowers, and always think someday I'll plant a beautiful garden.

Liz

Do not get distracted by African violets in stores. They are NOT edible (and are considered houseplants in the US and probably a lot of other places).

Thanks Shanter!

Liz

howsweet, if you want to try them and see what happens, go ahead, but leave a note for the doctor/coroner.

Here's some éclair inspiration, http://www.caplanmiller.com/blog/2011/10/17/must-have-monday-fauchon-eclairs/

I LOVE ECLAIRS!!!!

Oh, and I've never tried real candied violets, just those little violet sweets that were around when I was little. Hated them. I think it might just be one of those flavours you either love or hate.

I watched a video of them making the striped ones - they have two large bars, for lack of a better word, that they set on the left and right of an eclair, really tight/close.  They pipe the stripes, alternating colors, and then they take each bar, and slide them in opposite directions.  That gets the poured fondant to move in the wavy pattern on each edge.  I have pinned a bunch of those beautiful eclairs on Pinterest.

Liz