Free from cake decorations and colours

[mumat39]

Hello

We are approaching my family's birthday season. In the past I have managed to make a hello kitty cake, using white icing, raspberry juice o make sort of pink icing and chocolate to make eyes, whiskers and the outline of a bow.

I've also made a monkey face cake with buttercream, and made the eyes with choc buttons i made from melted chocolate.

Dd will be 6 in a couple of weeks and DS will be 4 about a month after that.

So I'm looking for safe decorating options so I can make something 'girly' for.

Some food colours like the silver spoon ones have egg in them. Also, some of the dr oetker ones aren't suitable.

So, can anyone recommend another brands that might be good, or point me in the direction of how I can make my own cake decorations please?

Many thanks in advance.

sugar flair are marked as vegan, which must mean egg free.

Avoiding, E numbers and getting really vibrant colours is difficult.

Blueberries would give an amazing purple. I've no idea if saffron or turmeric would give yellow, but both would taste weird for more than flower centres.

You can get allergy/free from sweets which might make decorations and give you colouring ideas.

Thanks will check out the sugar paste ones. I have looked at those before but am certain that those were not vegan. Good to know that vegan ones do exist.

I made pink by cooking raspberries and then straining them. The pink wasn't great and seemed to start to fade after a while. I think you're right that turmeric and saffron would give yellow/orange, but would definitely affect the taste. With blueberries, would you cook them down to get the colour?

Re allergy/free from sweets, would you tell me which brands would work. I know haribo ones contain kiwi, which we avoid. I'd be quite happy to have a go at making some but can't see anything online about sweet making.

Thanks for your help.

I use Sugar Flair food colourings (from local cake decorating shop). Have never checked to see if they are 'properly' vegan (?), but they certainly don't have milk or egg listed in the ingredients, and egg allergic DS has never had a problem with them.

When I am too lazy to use 'butter' icing, or when I want to make a fancy decorated cake, I use Dr Oetker Regal-Ice Ready to Roll icing (dyed with said food colourings). It doesn't have an egg warning that I can see, and again, DS has always been okay with it.

We usually use Fruit Factory sweets for decorating (DS is avoiding Kiwi too, after a bad vomiting reaction). You can get stars, strings and heart shapes, and they are sold in our local Co-op home baking section. They are pretty much just fruit concentrate with a bit of starch and gelatine. 'Bear' yo-yos are also okay, and can be chopped up into funky little rectangles - available from Holland & Barratt and some supermarkets. Think Skittles might be okay (haven't checked in ages) and also some stuff from the Natural Confectionary Company - but can't remember if I bought that in M&S or the Co-op

Good luck with your cake-baking

Hi green bananas.

Thanks for replying. I wonder if we live in the same area. We have a brilliant sugar craft shop not too far from us.

I'll have a look at the fruit factory stuff. Thanks for the tip.

The Bear range of stuff has an odd nut warning, so I've avoided their stuff. I'll also check out skittles.

Sorry to hear about the kiwi allergy. Vomiting is horrible but i guess its the body getting rid of the offending item, so hope your DS felt okay afterwards.

Thanks again for your help. :-)

School bars have no nut warning and their blackcurrant bars and raspberry bars allergen warning is just "contains sulphites" so they may be usable as food colouring. They have other flavours, hopefully all are suitable. Easily found in Sainsburys and often part of our emergency food stocks.

Thanks tatt.

Is school bars a brand or the actual item? I've never heard of it before.

We only have a small sainsburys nearby, but I'm wondering if I should make a trip to one of the larger ones. They seem to have quite an extensive free from range.

Any ideas what sulphites are? And what is the problem with them? Is it something to do with salt.

Thanks again.

It says fruit bowl but that's in smaller print with the School Bars bit in large letters. Sulphites are preservatives than can be a problem for some asthmatics but have never been an issue for my child. The bars are basically fruit, fruit juice and preservatives pressed into hard bars so good for times when real fruit would squash or go off. Claims to be 5x as much fruit by weight. Can't remember which bit we find them in but it's not the free from area. Contain vegetable oil but shouldn't be rapeseed. Pic www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco-price-comparison/cereal_bars/fruit_bowl_school_bars_strawberry_5x20g.html

To digress a bit - Sainsburys sometimes has good (and cheaper) food outside the free from area, like some own brand beefburgers that are beef with no wheat in. Think they are the quarterpounders or Aberdeen Angus ones. The bigger ones also stock things like frozen gluten free pizzas, but we don't have any in the freezer so I can't say if they have other things that would be unsuitable for you. Their "free from" products often aren't nut free.