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Food

Chuck it out and go to Waitrose?

(56 Posts)
jinglbellsfrocks Fri 12-Feb-16 13:08:32

DD's birthday is the day after Valentine's Day so it has always been a tradition that I make her a heart shaped cake coloured pink all through - cake and icing. I have just made a mixture using best free range eggs. Added pink colouring (like wot I always do) and it has gone a muddy beige colour! Looks totally gross.

Looked on the bottle of colouring and, in tiny letters it says, "not bake stable". Looked on Internet and apparently you can only use artificial colourings for the actual cake. And guess what? You can't buy artificial colourings any more. hmm

So, shall I just have a nice little trip to the shops and buy a cake? Baking is over-rated, isn't it.

Elegran Wed 17-Feb-16 18:53:57

It was on the vegetables galore thread. (If you click on the blue "I'm on' button near the top of the page, it shows a list of threads you have posted on - useful for finding lost posts))

Victoria08 Wed 17-Feb-16 18:30:02

Can anyone please remind me how to cook swede in the microwave.

Can't remember which post it was on originally.

Thanks.

Greyduster Wed 17-Feb-16 11:17:45

I stand in awe of anyone who can produce things like that! It puts my minion cake to shame! (But GS loved it!). I'll have to step up my game considerably!

CariGransnet (GNHQ) Wed 17-Feb-16 11:10:46

WOW!!!!!!!

granalogue Wed 17-Feb-16 10:27:25

My current obsession cupcake grin

CariGransnet (GNHQ) Tue 16-Feb-16 17:05:23

I can't buy from a shop - or at least I can but then DD can't eat it anyway I like messing around with icing

jinglbellsfrocks Tue 16-Feb-16 16:45:04

Tesco do a birthday cake with dolly mixture and jelly sweets on top of the delicious looking buttercream icing and when you cut it smarties tumble out of the inside.

#topthatthen. #shopisgood

CariGransnet (GNHQ) Tue 16-Feb-16 16:09:49

Love it Baubles!

Yes I'm a big one for doing things inside a cake. I like the element of surprise

baubles Tue 16-Feb-16 15:59:39

Apart from the pics being sideways hmm

baubles Tue 16-Feb-16 15:58:29

That cake looks delicious jings we should have a 'yum' emoji.

Cari I used the gel on the tip of a cocktail stick for this one. Your colours look brighter though.
Spot the not so deliberate mistake blush

WilmaKnickersfit Tue 16-Feb-16 15:16:53

jings and Cari wowee! Really wowee! shock Fantastic cakes! flowers

I had no idea about bottles of food colouring not being suitable for baking and wouldn't have known where to turn for alternatives. I wonder what contestants use on Bake Off? They always have to do a cake with coloured insides.

There's some talented peeps on GN. wink

Teacher11 Tue 16-Feb-16 14:56:47

My goodness me. That is an amazing looking cake. The modesty is entirely unwarranted.

Indinana Tue 16-Feb-16 14:35:23

Your cakes are impressive Cari! And, actually, rather inspiring too. A friend of mine put a picture on FB of a Battenberg cake she'd made, using gels to colour the mixture. So what with that, and the cakes on here, I think I'm going to have to get some of these gels everyone's talking about!

CariGransnet (GNHQ) Tue 16-Feb-16 13:18:58

The purple one is using the same gel in varying amounts for different depths of colour <I quite like talking about cake can you tell?!>

Btw both cakes were gluten free so DD could eat

CariGransnet (GNHQ) Tue 16-Feb-16 13:17:38

grin thank you

Yes butter cream

To be honest I now only use gel (either the Dr Oetker ones from supermarket or bigger bottles from specialist baking shop (online)) as I find the regular bottles of food colouring very unreliable

Here's a cake with the supermarket gels (the photo doesn't show it clearly but the pink at the top and the purple at the bottom were very pink and very purple - they look a bit similar on here)

Greyduster Tue 16-Feb-16 13:08:16

Stunning cake by the way!

Greyduster Tue 16-Feb-16 13:07:46

Cari, is that buttercream icing you've used the colour on? I've always find that colouring buttercream gives very hit and miss results especially if you want anything approaching blue - which usually turns out green - but if the gel colours work I might get some.

starlily106 Tue 16-Feb-16 11:32:30

now i have just seen carigransnets and that looks great too!!!!!

starlily106 Tue 16-Feb-16 11:29:27

jinglbellsfrocks, that cake looks great!!!!!

inishowen Tue 16-Feb-16 11:06:08

Just wanted to say, my hubby's birthday is the day after Valentines too! He doesn't like cake, so I have not got your problem!

annodomini Tue 16-Feb-16 10:52:20

Cari, how impressive! I'm sure MiL was thrilled with her cake.

CariGransnet (GNHQ) Tue 16-Feb-16 09:54:03

I bake a lot grin and use colours a lot but find gels miles better for sponge than bottled food colouring. You can get little tubes in most supermarkets - the colour is way more intense. Works for the icing too (cake made for MiL's recent birthday - pic of inside not v clear but you get the drift)

whitewave Mon 15-Feb-16 21:07:45

How pretty.

jinglbellsfrocks Mon 15-Feb-16 20:27:37

Thank you. It was polished off pretty quickly too. smile

Indinana Mon 15-Feb-16 20:16:11

Wow, I came back to this thread to see how the cake had turned out. It looks fantastic! Great work Jings