kfeusse Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 I am going to start being very careful about the kinds of foods we eat and try to rid our diets of all food coloring and preservatives and other stuff we can't pronounce. But my one son is having a birthday in 2 weeks....how do I decorate a boy's cake without breaking our diet??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizaG Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 (edited) Small plastic toys/figurines Dye-free candy from health food store Raisins, currants, or cut-up fruit leather White icing (or tinted with spinach juice, turmeric, or other natural dyes) ETA: Fresh berries, cut-up melon, etc. Edited February 5, 2012 by Eleanor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Chocolate frosting is tasty! We decorated several cakes with toys or non-edible decorations. One of dd's favorite cakes had Ponyville figurines on top. We washed them off and they became play things. One year, dd wrote her name with mini chocolate chips. Can you choose some type of action figure your ds likes, and put them on the cake? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Is there anything particular that you *want* to do? Is there a theme or something? For instance, you could just do chocolate and vanilla icing for contrasting colors and decorate that way. I'll put up the photo of a cake I made last week that I thought was fun to look at, but doesn't require any artificial colors. You just make a batch of very dark homemade chocolate icing and a batch of vanilla butter icing and then mix the two at different proportions to make progressively lighter shades. Decorate the bottom of the cake with the darkest icing, then move to the lighter shades as you move upwards. (The cake itself is basically the same -- a batch of dark chocolate and a batch of white chocolate cake, then mixed at different ratios before baking.) I know people who've used beet juice and turmeric, etc, to color icing -- but it matters what you have in mind. They do also impart a flavor (even the marketed "natural" colors have a bit of a taste to them), so I tend to prefer to skip the coloring all together unless there's a very particular look you're hoping to achieve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 I can get a good beet-based red dye at the healthfood store out here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*lifeoftheparty* Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Whole Foods sells a set of Natural Food Dyes... Or just use chocolate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizaG Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 One of dd's favorite cakes had Ponyville figurines on top. We washed them off and they became play things. Just wanted to add that in case anyone is thinking of doing this for a girl, you can use grape juice to make lovely fruity-tasting pinkish/lavender frosting for the ponies to play on. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Lovely cake, Abbey! We have found beet juice to work well for frosting, but I figured your ds wouldn't want pink! Raspberries make purple. The natural food dyes do impart a strong flavor if you try for a dark color. The naturally colored sugar sprinkles taste fine, but are expensive. I think chocolate is the way to go! :thumbup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 I have always used berries to decorate our cakes. I make my own frosting and put strawberries or blueberries or raspberries on the top as decoration. It looks quite lovely. Sometimes I add a sprinkle of clear decorating sugar to the fruit. It adds a nice sparkle. I have also used edible flowers. My grocery store sells small packages of edible flowers in with the herbs. I have made chocolate leaves (paint melted chocolate onto lemon leaves, chill, then peel off) chocolate curls or shavings. Chocolate chips look fun as well. I am good with a decorating bag and have done things like swoops and swirls of frosting. And, there is always the fallback: a nice dusting of powdered sugar just before serving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Just wanted to add that in case anyone is thinking of doing this for a girl, you can use grape juice to make lovely fruity-tasting pinkish/lavender frosting for the ponies to play on. :) We used blended raspberries, which left polka dots (seeds). :lol: Dd was happy, but I bet grape juice would have been prettier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfeusse Posted February 5, 2012 Author Share Posted February 5, 2012 thanks for these ideas... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetMissMagnolia Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I either make my own frosting or try to find the most natural one I can find..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elfgivas Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 canadian smarties (like M and M's) are artifical flavour-free and dye-free. made by nestle. they are available on amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Smarties-5-Pack-100g/dp/B004VD37QQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328502579&sr=8-1 you could make a sheet cake, cut out the number of his age, ice it with chocolate icing and cover the top of it with smarties. :001_smile::001_smile: ann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnomeyNewt Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I have been experimenting with different foods to try to color our sugary treats, but not always getting the exact color. Some colors are really hard! I found these natural food dyes at the Natural Candy Store: http://www.naturalcandystore.com/category/natural-baking-decorations They are a little pale/light in color. Mixing them doesn't really give the results I'm used to with the food dyes from the grocery store. I haven't been able to make the colors very vibrant or bright, but they have come in handy this past Christmas and my kids enjoyed having colored frosting to decorate with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I'm attaching a pic of the cake I made my daughter. If you left off the "grass" and the candy corn construction cones it would be dye free. Well...I used yellow frosting to write 2nd B-Day, but you could use plain white. I dug out part of the cake and put in some cookie crumbs, used pretzels for logs, and real truck toys. (target). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sputterduck Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I was just thinking about that because of the turmeric thread. I wanted to make a dye free cake for my son's 2nd birthday. So I made a test cake and I wanted it *really* yellow. **GAG** Let me tell you, it makes things yellow, but don't put too much in! It tastes awful in cake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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