Hello, I just realized that Crisco shortening has citric acid in it, a no-no for this cake I'm making since one of the guests is allergic to citrus. I'll be trying to find palm shortening at the store and don't really want to use butter since I'd have to decrease the liquid and the recipe was reported as "greasy" when butter was used. Would using Coconut oil (the kind that is hard at room temperature) or is there a conversion for regular vegetable oil? I do have to avoid coconut oil once a year for another lady's allergies (we only see her at the Christmas party). The shortening called for is 1 cup. Just trying to find a good substitution for future uses as I'm going to have to use palm oil (if there is no citric acid in it) if I can still find it at the store (was on clearance out a few weeks ago). By the way, no time to order from the web, cake is for this weekend. Thank you!

Does the guest typically avoid everything with citric acid in it?  More than likely the citric acid in crisco is made from corn, not citrus, as that is the cheaper method.  You may be able to do some research and find out for sure, but companies can change the source of the citric acid without making any changes to the package, so you might have to find out what the citric acid source was for a specific batch of crisco.  I have a corn allergy and react to LOTS of stuff with citric acid in it, along with a million other things you would never think are derived from corn.   Not a fun problem to have, but I digress.

I don't think you can use coconut oil in the place of shortening, but I believe you can use it to replace vegetable oil.  I've done it in brownies.  It did give it a slight coconut flavor though.  I believe Spectrum Shortening is all palm oil.  They have it at Target and grocery stores in my area, but you can also get in on Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/Spectrum-Organic-Shortening-24/dp/B004WOMWWE

I posted a reply, but it is being held for review since I posted a link to a product and mentioned another website.  Oops.  Long story short, the citric acid may be from corn, not citrus, but you will have to research that with the company.  Probably the easiest alternative is to go with Spectrum Organic Shortening, which I believe is all palm oil.  I find it at Target or my local grocery store, but you can also get it on the website that starts with "A" and has fast shipping if you have Prime.  :)

Thanks, yeah my local Target had it, that's where it went on clearance. Not sure if they got rid of it or just getting a different size. I will look when I'm there again. :) And the cake I was using it in, well it just flopped majorly so that recipe is out the window! But I will use palm if I use it in icing for decorations now. :) I know oil is a no-no in icing, so at least that part's covered.

I've tested 4 recipes so far and only Kakeladi's original wasc is working. I was concerned there might be citric acid in the cake mixes, but it looks like I can use the vanilla Betty Crocker with no problems at least. :) I want to get a scratch regular cake recipe down though for carving, but I'm afraid we are getting caked out around my house so it will be a while, ha ha.