I have a friend who wants me to make her daughters 1st bday cake + smashcake to feed 100+ppl hotpink zebra striped theme with hotpink present cakes as center pieces.

Now heres my problem the smashcake she wants to match the big cake but the little baby cannot have red dye especially red dye 40 which is in black.She has a kidney problem and it will cause them to shut down if she has it. Is there anything out there that i can use to make pink and black without red dye in it? I told her i couldnt think of any but I would ask y'all bc everyone on here is always so helpful and knowledgeable.. Any suggestions?

Is the red dye 40 in blue and brown dyes? Maybe you could combine them and a few other darker colours if needed to get black? Maybe also start with adding cocoa to get the colour to a brown to start with so you don't have to add so much colouring?

I'd suggest chocolate. It's food so no worries there. It makes a great contrast to the white. But I mean a baby on a special diet shouldn't be getting too much sugar anyhow.

You can use beet juice too for some pink. I mean if the wee one can have that.

personally -- I'd just advise mom -- no can do theme with diet restriction.

to think -- she's knows the kid can't have the dye and that the dye is in BOTH colors she wants!

uh-hello!!!! think! mom, don't be selfish and get the idea the party is really about you and your sense of style!

advise for some other theme, more kid appropriate and that can be in colors child can have.

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I suppose you could use red beet juice or some other red juice (strawberry, cherry? ) to get the pink.

large quantity of cocoa powder would get near black but....

beets and cocoa at those concentrations? ICK!

Thanks I will start experimenting with the beet and cocoa pder. I was also think of just making the baby's smashcake white with white buttercream but for pics make a dummy cake and use paint and paint zebra and hotpink on it and it will be dry and not life threatening for pics and when time comes to eat she will have a safe cake!?!

You could model a little zebra with a pink bow for on top of a white smash cake - that way it could be taken off after the pictures, and looks cute for a 1yr old too.

Or use black and pink satin ribbons to tie in the colours?

They sell natural food colors at stores like Whole Foods. I've never used them so I don't know how well they'd work.

Another idea would be to cover the smash cake in fondant to match the big cake and then peel it off before it's given to the baby.

Both of those sound good as well im writing it all down to tell the mommy

Could you do a plain white (or other matching color) cake with a matching fondant accessory(ies) that could be easily removed before the baby got hold of it?

Could you make the zebra and presents out of gumpaste so that it could just be removed from the cake before giving it to baby. Maybe seperate from cake with a cake board cut to size. Just a thought

I like this site. It tells about how to use natural things such as raspberries and blueberries to get the coloring you want. Raspberries would make a nice pink and I bet if you used blueberry juice and add in some raspberry juice it would make a nice dark color. If not I would check on possibly using fake cut outs for your black. It would be great if you could use the chocolate for your black. The raspberry and chocolate sounds like a great combo to me.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2302808_make-natural-food-coloring.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

This is pretty awesome too. (oh Lord, I just reverted back to 198

http://www.naturesflavors.com/default.php?cPath=72

Good ideas thanks everyone!

i'm with Doug on this one.

"My kid can't have red coloring or she'll die but I want a pink cake and YOU get to figure out how to do that."

Uh, mom, allow me to bend over to make it easier for you to kiss my big behind on this one! What kind of idiot mother even makes a request like that. If it would shut down my kid's kidneys, I wouldn't even let red dye in my HOUSE let alone on some edible food that my child MIGHT manage to get ahold of and swallow before I see her ('coz god knows kids NEVER do THAT kind of thing, do they?)

Some people just shouldn't be allowed to pro-create.

Just remember that if you do use black/red fondant on the cake, even if you peel it off, that forbidden dye touched the cake the baby will be eating. If it works the same way for that as it does for my son's gfcf diet, that would be a HUGE no no! Cross-contamination is something to consider with that as well. I vote for suggesting a different color scheme that is safe. The gumpaste figurine on top would work, too. As long as there was a barrier between it and the cake the baby would be eating.

If you are willing to work with this mother make sure you charge extra for all this work you're doing to make sure it's a cake the child can eat. It will also cost extra either in buying fruit to color the icing or going out and buying special coloring.


If you do that she might decide it isn't worth the extra cost and pick a theme that's far easier to do for special dietary needs.

Well, I can't believe that I am the only one who knows this, but.... Country Kitchen Sweetart carries NATURAL food dyes. They are a wee bit more expensive, but totally worth it! I have a step son who has food issues, and I bought them for him. They work like a charm!

Satin Ice Chocolate is very, VERY dark brown - and could probably pass for black in a zebra pattern. I just looked at the ingredients, and there is no Red 40. The only coloring listed is caramel color.

I just made my own zebra cake with it, and added about 2 drops of AmeriColor black to it just to make myself feel better. But it didn't really change the color much.

I haven't posted my zebra cake pic yet (won't be done until tomorrow), but if you do a search for chocolate Satin Ice, you can see just how dark it is.

If you make a raspberry puree (I use Raspberry Puree filling from this site) and fold it into the buttercream it makes a gorgeous pink color, plus it tastes divine! For black I would either try using Hershey's Dark Cocoa or the natural food coloring mommyle suggested. Good luck!

At first I thought I was the only one that was thinking this way. I am fully with you Doug and Indydebie. Some moms are just unbelievable. I would have to say no to this order. Just imagine if this little tot gets some of the colored frosting by accident. If you do it make sure you have something specifically in your contract stating child's condition and that you are not responsible in anyway by accidental ingestion!!

I'm with Doug and Indydebie and many others on this too. I don't know if you have kids of your own, but I know what my kids get into at parties. And SOMEONE at the party is bound to be uninformed about the dietary restrictions and think its cute to feed the baby some more cake. I don't even know this mother, but I have absolutely no respect for her. I would never put my child at risk for a party theme. That's just my two cents.

I will definelty be adjusting my contract , it already has that im not responsible for other ppl at the party with food allergies.
I will be adding alot more to this one and make sure she understands ever possiblilty that even if i make white cake with white buttercream, and the natural food color for the zebra stripes that she is aware that im not responisble if someone feeds the baby the big cake or if another child has it on their hands then touches her then her placing it in her mouth. I would be devistated if that happened.
I do have children and one has a peanut allergy and I would never order anything that even sat next to peanuts go in her mouth much less have a cake made with everythign she cannot have.

Its a while til the birthday January, Im going to see if I can get with her and see if I can talk her into letting the big cake coloring be made with the all natural color too. The more I think the more Im leaning towards not doing the cake for her.

I would insist both cakes be done all natural or no cakes at all.

Yes to doing both cakes with natural food dye. Even then I would stress that you can't be 100% sure, and that she is risking her own kid's life. Brown and pink are cute together, and can be done naturally with no worries.