All Natural Baking: What a Difference! (Part 3)

Have Vibrant Color on your Wedding Cake: Naturally!

A wedding cake should taste as good as it looks. That’s my mantra. But do you have to sacrifice a bold color statement if you want to go all-natural? Or sacrifice all-natural goodness in order to have bright color on your wedding cake?  

Heavens, no!

Photo Courtesy of Marneycakes, Inc.

How do you get bright colors in icing? Well, not all icing will accept color without changing it. The icing you can render any color at all is “decorator’s icing” – which is artificial “buttercream” that’s snow-white, made with Crisco. Real buttercream is pale yellow, and you can’t just make it any color at all…for instance, you can’t make it any shade of blue, since pale yellow with any blue at all added will create some shade of green.  

The other kind of icing you can make any color at all is white rolled fondant – which is made of glycerine, gelatine, sugar, and other ingredients. It’s known for its flawless, velvety smooth appearance, but it sure isn’t known for its flavor or texture. Most people remove it from wedding cake before eating it. In fact, in his book Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes, Chef Duff Goldman remarks that taste isn’t why you choose fondant for a cake. Fondant is useful when the cake will be displayed in high humidity and heat; real buttercream won’t withstand those elements.  

Photo Courtesy of Marneycakes, Inc.

Photo Credit: Susan Sims Photography

How can you have a delicious icing on your wedding cake, and still incorporate lively, bright, elegant color? The answer is simple. Find an artist who uses authentic buttercream from scratch, made with actual butter, and keep the colors natural in the icing. Then add panache with hand-sculpted gum paste decorations! Not adding artificial color will keep your flavors amazing, provided only the best natural flavorings are used. If your palate is at all sensitive, you’ll be able to detect the chemical aftertaste when artificial colors are used. You can go crazy with color by incorporating gum paste into your wedding cake design, though. Choose designs using just a dash of floral color here and there, or go completely nuts with a graceful cascade of flowers spilling down your cake. (Obviously, the more flowers you choose, the more labor is involved in creating them, and the price per slice will reflect that appropriately.)

But, what is “gum paste”? Gum paste (called “sugar paste” outside the U.S.) is completely edible, although I’m not sure why anyone would want to eat it – it doesn’t taste like anything, and dries hard as a rock. But technically, is it “edible”? Yes, technically, it is. This is where you can incorporate bright colors, since no one eats the gum paste, but instead, prefers to preserve their decorations. The catering hall doesn’t even plate it with the cake slices when they’re served.

Photo Courtesy of Marneycakes, Inc.

Photo Credit: White Pear Photography Studios

With gum paste, a skilled artist can sculpt any flower found in nature and give it a life-like appearance, as well as fashion people, or even animals from a little sugar dough and a lot of creativity. There’s no limit but your own imagination to what you can design. Moreover, there’s another incentive to use gum paste to make your wedding cake spectacular: creating a breathtaking keepsake.

I’d be remiss if I finished this article without mentioning that live flowers are indeed another option for decoration, of course. But there are a few issues to be considered in association with using live flowers on your wedding cake. Most importantly, regular live flowers are choc-full of pesticides, and must not come in contact with food because they could make you really sick (you’d want to be especially careful about this if you plan on having any pregnant wedding guests who will be enjoying your wedding cake). Any flowers put on a cake need to be certified organic to avoid this serious food safety issue. Next, you’ve got issues of potential wilting. But finally, you can’t preserve live flowers from your cake exactly as they will look on your wedding day. Of course, you can dry them, but that completely changes their appearance. However, gum paste flower art will remain well-preserved indefinitely in an airtight container, as a showstopper of a keepsake!

So, for a wedding cake that’s colorful, chemical additive-free and as delicious as it is enchantingly beautiful, choose pure perfection for the part you eat, and add your show-stopping color in the gum paste ornamentation!

Written by Marney White, Owner of Marneycakes, Inc.

Read other blogs by Marney White: All Natural Baking, Part 1 and All Natural Baking, Part 2