There’s been a trend cropping up in my recent consultations. It’s not color, shape, or even flavor related. Nope, it’s a trend of brides who have been fed a line or two (or many!), and ask me for the real deal. Probably about time to blog about it!
There is a certain cake company out there – who shall remain nameless here – who has the nasty habit of outright lying about the offerings of their competitors. I’ve never understood why – they have their fingers in everything, pretty much saturate the market, and really have nothing to fear from small, boutique custom cake outlets like my company.
I’d like to clear up some of their statements, as told to me by a prospective client of theirs:
1. “You don’t want to do the outside of your cake YELLOW! (Yes, she very much did want a yellow cake) It can look GREEN under some lights!”
Sure, it can.. if you have green lights shining on it. Blue lights, even. Why anyone would do this as a default is beyond me, but whatever. Bizarre reasoning for trying to talk someone out of their dream cake. Sure, any cake can be made to look any color with external lights… that’s why it’s always good to have your cake area well lit. You know, with something other than green/blue lighting (unless that’s what you want!).
2. “If you do any color other than natural colored, it will stain your guests’ teeth for 2 weeks!”
Uhm, no. At worst, you may stain them until the next day, but that would be under extreme circumstances. Let me elaborate!
- Color that is incorporated *into* fondant will not stain teeth, period.
- Most colors that are incorporated into buttercream will not stain.
- Black or very, VERY dark colors incorporated into buttercream *may* stain teeth, but only for a very short while. This is assuming that a large amount of the colored frosting is eaten – piped accents will not do it.
So, it’s not the best idea to frost the entire outside of a cake in a deeply colored buttercream. Oh well! Fondant is an excellent alternative, and as a side benefit, will keep your cake moist and fresh!
3. “Fondant is (insert disparaging remark of choice here).”
Can fondant be nasty? Sure, if you buy the wrong one. Is it appropriate to blanket all fondant with that label? No. Click here for a past blog entry about fondant, which explains everything.
4. “It’s bad to color frosting, because coloring is UNNATURAL!”
The most amusing thing about this statement is that the bakery that makes this claim bakes their cakes from mixes – you know, full of unnatural stuff!
Here’s the deal. While there are plenty of people who would like to keep certain dyes, etc out of their diet, it takes only a very, very small amount of coloring per serving to achieve any particular color. Definitely not harmful in the slightest!
When coloring fondant, even less color is needed, and fondant is easily peeled off to avoid the dyes if necessary.
Finally, there are many NATURAL food dyes available. Frosting can be colored with anything from berry juice/extracts, to beet juice, to squid ink. Not wanting to deal with “unnatural” ingredients really is no excuse to just avoid color altogether.
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The thing is, none of these comments really need to be made to anyone, much less a bride who is looking for her dream cake (whether it involves color, fondant, or both!). No one is saying that this bakery – or any, really – need to deal in fondant, OR color. Just be honest about the reasoning. It’s not about being unnatural, or what color it can look under lights.. it’s that it doesn’t fit the business model of this particular bakery. Things like fondant and color take a lot of time, and specialized attention. When you’re churning out multiple dozen wedding cakes every week – definitely concentrating on volume – dealing with all a single color / lack of color can make a lot more sense. Assembly lining cake has its drawbacks when it comes to ability to customize!
More power to them, though. Personally, that’s not what I’m about, so we service very different brides. I just wish that they’d stop misinforming brides about products, techniques, and their reasoning behind not offering. There is nothing wrong with color or fondant!
I believe that every bride should have the option to have the cake of their dreams, regardless of what that is. Color, fondant, crazy, elegant, whatever – without being told lies about why they “don’t want that”. As a cake vendor, if I come across a bride whose dream cake is something that I don’t really do (fountains, stairways, whatever!), I’ll refer them on to someone who does. It’s not my job to change their mind on what their dream cake is – it’s my job to facilitate that. EVEN if it means passing them on to a caker that is a better match for their dreams!
