To feel sick when I watch cake making programmes.

[mrsmillsfanclub]

There are lots of programmes on featuring very successful businesses (mainly American) charging a fortune for OTT cakes that have been overly manhandled by at least two or three different people, none of whom wear gloves.
I love a bit of cake but would flatly refuse anything highly decorative or sculptured because the chances are that it will be covered in germs from many manky hands.

YANBU

I'll eat my own cake but Not Keen on other-made cakes

I'm a cake maker. I do wash my hqnds, honest

But but but LOADS of people handle food you eat. Sandwiches, meat, all sorts.

I watched choccywoccydooha the other day for the first time and it did look revolting, all the chocolate icing (strangely bendy, I don't know what they add to it) being moulded and pulled.

And the cakes looked awful, but can imagine they cost a fortune.

I think it is best not to think about it. Watching Masterchef etc when they go to professional kitchens shows how much your food is handled before it is given to you

You make a point, when decorating a cake, to keep your hands scrupulously clean. Mainly for hygienic reasons, but also because if your hands are messy, your finish will be too.

Those cakes always look impeccably finished. And I'm sure they're very clean.

Choccywoccydoodah on the other hand... Have you SEEN their kitchens?

You are quite right, lots of people must touch all types of food. Think it's just these programmes show cakes that have such a lot of manipulation that they are only useful for decorative purposes rather than cutting them up and eating them .

Ooh cross post with gerrof. Glad it's not just me who's noticed.

Main issue I have with those cakes - not enough sponge and filling!!!!! I don't want all that icing even if its in 10 different colours in a farmyard scene that looks 'lifelike'

More buttercream and more sponge

Choccywoccydoodah cakes are amazing, I had one for my engagement party. I'm usually quite weirdy about germs but this wouldn't bother me at all.

The choccywoccydooha cakes look really amateurish, all the little details on it look half finished and ugly. How much would those cakes cost do you reckon, best part of a grand or something?

I have got a Peggy Porschen cake book here somewhere, which scares me, the cakes in that look like artwork. I would never attempt to make anything out of it.

Yes definitely more sponge and filling. Hate bloody cupcakes that are all frosting with a flat tasteless fairy cake underneath.

The really tall ones are mindblowingly expensive. All from chocolate though, so not surprised about the cost. I agree, the attention to detail is way off. They kind of sculpt it and chuck a load of glitter on it and be done, or paint it from filthy looking food-colour trays...

I'm not a fan.

And the cakes look proper burnt!

I'll shut up now

what about a birthday cake at a kids party after they've blew their germs and saliva all over it..? :)

Party cakes are mainly for effect over taste. My kids normallyntakenthe icing off anyways.

In 'Down and Out in Paris and London' George Orwell describes his life working in hotel kitchens, and the way the top chefs licked their fingers and arranged food just so on the plate. He comes to the conclusion that the cheaper the establishment, the better, as your food's likely to be scraped straight from pan to plate with nobody touching it at all!

I make cakes but wear those surgical gloves, as well as good hygiene practice it stops icing and buttercream getting under my nails.

Ooh, golden, I hope none of your customers have a latex allergy!

YANBU because the hygiene practices shown in those programmes, particularly choccywoccydoodah, are appalling.

However, most cake makers (I am one) may not wear gloves but are rigorous and very particular about hygiene and cleanliness. Most cake makers are also sole traders, so only one person would be making your cake.

So don't watch the programmes?

::misses point::

I've never noticed before but that's true. Anyone seen Ace of Cakes though/ That's awesome!

Apparently choccywoccys cafe is absolutely shite and highly overpriced.

Surgical gloves are no longer latex.

I have just watched choccywoccydooha again and just stared at the filthy, messy kitchen. The oaint trays they use to paint the food colouring are utterly grim - they look actual artists paint trays. Not what you would expect from a commercial kitchen. And it is all so bitty looking, nothing looks finished correctly. Which may be the style. But it looks daft imo.

I always think when I watch Carlo's bakery that the cake creations look impressiv e but I wouldn't want to eat them - all that marzipan colour and butter cream, just yuk IMO