Artificial rainbow colored cake Why do we use food coloring? The answer is simple, right? To make our baked/ cooked goods look more vibrant and fun! And also to make some elements lifelike. To achieve a natural leaf color, for instance, you can mix green, red and yellow food dyes that are sold widely from different sellers. What if you already extract a beautiful great looking color right form an actual leaf?
Let's talk about artificial food coloring fist.
Word artificial indicates that it's synthetically produced, not natural, chemical. It makes my heart hurt when I see a child with super bright lollipop! Especially blue, black or purple. I don't know why other colors on a child tongue don't bother me that much but that three I can't stand. Scientific studies in 1970s showed a connection between red food dye #2 with cancer ( here is a list of food dyes that are banned due to the studies).
That red velvet cake doesn't look that attractive any more, right? Even if many artificial food pigments are considered safe to consume I don't want to add any chemicals to my cakes, cookies, cupcakes, fondant, icing and just hope it is ok for my family, friends and clients!
Let's talk about artificial food coloring fist.
Word artificial indicates that it's synthetically produced, not natural, chemical. It makes my heart hurt when I see a child with super bright lollipop! Especially blue, black or purple. I don't know why other colors on a child tongue don't bother me that much but that three I can't stand. Scientific studies in 1970s showed a connection between red food dye #2 with cancer ( here is a list of food dyes that are banned due to the studies).
That red velvet cake doesn't look that attractive any more, right? Even if many artificial food pigments are considered safe to consume I don't want to add any chemicals to my cakes, cookies, cupcakes, fondant, icing and just hope it is ok for my family, friends and clients!
Spinach juice squeezing When starting my cake business I knew I will use only natural ingredients and make sure to deliver healthy finished products. That meant no store bought food dyes, no pre-made fondant and absolutely no cake mixes.
My grandma always used beet juice to add more color to her specialty cake frosting. So I called her to find out what she knew about other fruits and vegetables for that purpose. After making a list of what roots, leaves and berries can help me in the "natural coloring" journey I decided to test the veggie juices first. As I didn't have a juice maker back then it took me forever to squeeze few drops of spinach juice. I froze it and used as a painting on my cakes.
My grandma always used beet juice to add more color to her specialty cake frosting. So I called her to find out what she knew about other fruits and vegetables for that purpose. After making a list of what roots, leaves and berries can help me in the "natural coloring" journey I decided to test the veggie juices first. As I didn't have a juice maker back then it took me forever to squeeze few drops of spinach juice. I froze it and used as a painting on my cakes.
Beet and carrot juices can be boiled to achieve thicker consistency and used as actual coloring. But spinach and red cabbage ones are changing their pigments when heated.
My research lead me to discovery of red cabbage! It's a magical plant! You can create three different colors with it's juice – purple (as it is), blue (by adding egg white) and hot pink (by adding lemon juice).
It was all rainbows and unicorns until I was specifically asked to make a very bright cake for a child's Birthday party. It was quite challenging as juices can't give bright colors when making a big batch of fondant to cover the whole cake. I only got bright colors on figurines using fresh squeezed or frozen juices as paints.
My research lead me to discovery of red cabbage! It's a magical plant! You can create three different colors with it's juice – purple (as it is), blue (by adding egg white) and hot pink (by adding lemon juice).
It was all rainbows and unicorns until I was specifically asked to make a very bright cake for a child's Birthday party. It was quite challenging as juices can't give bright colors when making a big batch of fondant to cover the whole cake. I only got bright colors on figurines using fresh squeezed or frozen juices as paints.
Frozen spinach juice paint Water makes it impossible to create fondant in right consistency and make it workable. My motto is 'never give up!" so I kept searching the web for vendors who are trying to make the sugar art products that would be safe, bright and natural! Either my inner researcher was not doing a great job or there were not many places out there with natural food colorings but I only found two! One was Indian Tree brand which didn't have good reviews. I tried them anyway and truly agreed with all the reviewers – blue color was gray with odd smell, red turned out to be just a very light pink and yellow had an odd smell too... Another place I found was not trustworthy according to several comments ( my bad I didn't save the name of that brand!). Now it's time for my confession – I used artificial food coloring twice in my career! That were clients' requests and my job was and is always to make my cake eaters happy!
Who is seeking will always find it! Every six months I was repeating my research and here she was! Peggy Alter at Confection Crafts (http://confectioncrafts.com/). Her colorings are vibrant, made out of vegetable and fruit juices, smell amazing and give the best looking color!
Who is seeking will always find it! Every six months I was repeating my research and here she was! Peggy Alter at Confection Crafts (http://confectioncrafts.com/). Her colorings are vibrant, made out of vegetable and fruit juices, smell amazing and give the best looking color!
Natural powder colors form Peggy That was such a happy moment for me! No more mess to clean up after squeezing juices, no more runny icing dripping from a cake! Hooray! From now on it's so much easier to create gum paste flowers, brightly colored fondant, perfect icing, beautiful figurines and lovely drawings! No more compromises with myself on using artificial dyes by request. My heart is happy and my soul is singing!
I love to share my passion and philosophy with you, my dear mindful readers! Hope my post will inspire you to read more about artificial food colorings and really appreciate the natural choices; look closely at the ingredient label and stay away from any chemicals in your food, cosmetics and household cleaning solutions.
Mother nature provides us with so many amazing shades of different colors so there is no need to pay with your health for bright colors on your cake!
Happy baking, decorating, cake eating and cookie making with fantastic natural look!
Have any thoughts, ideas, comments, suggestions, stories, concerns? Leave you comments below and let me explore the world of sugar art with you!
Always inspired,
Dasha
I love to share my passion and philosophy with you, my dear mindful readers! Hope my post will inspire you to read more about artificial food colorings and really appreciate the natural choices; look closely at the ingredient label and stay away from any chemicals in your food, cosmetics and household cleaning solutions.
Mother nature provides us with so many amazing shades of different colors so there is no need to pay with your health for bright colors on your cake!
Happy baking, decorating, cake eating and cookie making with fantastic natural look!
Have any thoughts, ideas, comments, suggestions, stories, concerns? Leave you comments below and let me explore the world of sugar art with you!
Always inspired,
Dasha
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