Deliciously Ella criticised by botanist who claims flowers on her wedding cake are 'highly toxic'

But Ella insists the flowers are fine, as long as you don't eat the sap or the rest of the plant

Rachel Hosie
Thursday 01 June 2017 14:39 BST
Comments
(Instagram/deliciouslyella)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A debate has erupted about whether a certain type of flower is edible or poisonous, and it all kicked off thanks to a picture of Ella Mills’ wedding cake.

Mills - the wellness guru and blogger behind Deliciously Ella - celebrated her birthday yesterday and reposted a picture on Instagram from her wedding last year.

The picture shows the beautiful wedding cake and Mills with her friend Olivia Wollenberg - another healthy foodie whose brand is Livia’s Kitchen - who made the cake.

But this resurgence of the picture caught the eye of botanist James Wong.

He shared a picture of the cake on Twitter, adding that the flowers decorating it are in fact toxic:

“I'm sure wellness bloggers are nice, well-meaning people, but those are highly toxic Plumeria flowers on that #CleanEating #GlutenFree cake,” Wong wrote.

To this, 26-year-old Mills responded, explaining that the flowers are in fact edible:

“The flowers are edible - the rest of the plant and the sap isn't, but we wouldn't use that in a cake.”

She shared a link to a guide to edible flowers, which says of plumeria flowers: “Blooms may be used raw in salads, steeped into a tea, fried, or as an ingredient in making sweets.”

It prompted a debate as to who was right.

Wong, it appears, stands by his words, posting a further reminder about the flowers.

The Independent asked Wong, Mills and Wollenberg for comment, and whilst we heard Mills is unavailable for comment at the moment, we are yet to hear back from Wong and Wollenberg.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in