Prior to the “Mother’s Day,” the second Sunday of May in Japan, a number of new goods have been available in the gift market of the country. They are appealing a collaboration of sweet cakes and edible flowers with a catch phrase such as “How about flower cakes as your Mother’s Day gift?” According to a survey on the most favorable gift on Mother’s Day, conducted by a private company, sweet cakes rank first, followed by flowers.
Cup tarts containing edible flowers are sold as “Mother’s Day gifts” at a flower shop of Hibiyakadan. (Minato-ku, Tokyo)
Hibiyakadan Company, based at Minato-ku, Tokyo, one of the largest flower shop chains in Japan, is now selling special sweet cakes containing petals of edible rose flowers and “rose water” which are directly supplied by a rose flower firm in Shimane prefecture.
The cream of a cup tart, seven centimeters in diameter, one of the special Hibiyakadan sweets, conceals petals and “rose water” of a fragrant rose variety “Sahime,” (Princess-Sa) which is named after the nature, history and climate of the Shimane prefecture.
A package of six tarts of three kinds, including ones with flavors other than that of “Sahime” rose, is offered at a cost of 4104 yen. “We expect young customers will increasingly grow their interests in flowers since they enjoy the taste of our flower sweets,” a spokesperson of Hibiyakadan said.
In Hakata-shi, Fukuoka prefecture on the island of Kyushu, edible flower mousses debuted this year as a “Mother’s day gift” at Hotel Okura Fukuoka.