Almost a "cake disaster" story but not quite.
I was making a Jeep cake this weekend for a 16th birthday party. The jeep was to be all black. So I wore gloves when mixing up the fondant so to not end up with black hands. I didn't think I would need the whole batch black otherwise I would have dumped color in when making the fondant. I also used lemon extract in my fondant instead of vanilla to save my vanilla.
Question 1: Does anyone know of a chemical reaction between lemon extract (i'm guessing the citric acid) and airbrush black? I left the fondant white when I applied it to the cake then sprayed it with KromaKolor black and after it dried, even after spraying again, the color had a green irridescence to it.
Question 2: I wore gloves, latex I think, when mixing up the fondant to be black. I used Americolor and there was some pinking of the fondant. Has anyone else experienced a reaction between gloves and the fondant/color like this? This was also using the lemon extract flavored fondant.
Question 3: After thinking about the gloves, while they were tremendously wonderful for keeping the heat from my hands from transferring to the fondant/chocolate and the color from getting on my hands, I worried about anyone eating the cake that might have a latex allergy. Do you think/know if the latex irritant would transfer to the fondant/chocolate that I work with?
Question 4: Anyone know of snug fitting vinyl gloves? 
I hope someone can answer some of my questions! It was an interesting weekend cake-wise. To see the Jeep cake and the color I mentioned, go to the bottom of this page: http://home.comcast.net/~diahopp/cakes2.htm
TIA!
Dia
All food grade gloves are primarily latex. I know they have vinal ones as an option, so I would assume that the latex doesn't transfer to the food since every restaurant ect would have to use vinal gloves or put a disclaimer in their restaraunt. Knowing that, there would be no food grade latex gloves if that was the case becasue who wants to put up ANOTHER disclaimer? (Ya know, one like the hot coffee is hot...or the peanut butter cookies contain peanut products...gee I could go on forever couldn't I. LOL)
I just read on a latex allergy information site that latex proteins can transfer to food but are not of a traceable amount to most. Only the most severely allergic would have a reaction.
I did find a snug fitting glove made with nitrile, which is non-latex. Vinyl gloves are available too but aren't snug fitting and would most likely only be good for chocolate work, not fondant work.
Ya know i'm wondering if the gloves really had that effect or not. I mixed some Black americolor with vodka a few days back and around the edges its was that kind of greeny color you are talking about. I wonder if using it in a sprayer just let the green color stand out more. Did you try going over it again? Just my thoughts.
Ya know i'm wondering if the gloves really had that effect or not. I mixed some Black americolor with vodka a few days back and around the edges its was that kind of greeny color you are talking about. I wonder if using it in a sprayer just let the green color stand out more. Did you try going over it again? Just my thoughts.
Yeah, I sprayed the cake twice. I use KromaKolor in my airbrush. I used the same bottle of black on the guitar cake on my site and it stayed fairly black. I wonder.
I don't think you're dealing with chemical reactions. Black is usually made up of a blend of many different colors. Under the right circumstances, one or another of those component colors will "weep" out of it. I made a cake with an edible image a couple of weeks ago - it was mostly black. Because I've had such problems smoothing my icing lately, I made that batch of buttercream really soft. After about 24 hours, magenta had started bleeding out of the black - apparently due to the extra moisture in the buttercream beneath the image. I'm getting a bit of green-looking seepage out of some black fondant I've had stored for a while. I've had both magenta and blue weep out of purple icing. I think it's just the icing breaking down into its component colors and not really something to worry about. It's aggravating, though - especially when the icing in question is in place on top of your cake!
As the wife of one who has a severe latex allergy, I commend you for being aware of the issue, Contessa. I use nitrile gloves and love, love, LOVE them. They're available at Wal-Mart and are inexpensive.
Mushbug, your assumption that latex proteins do not transfer to food is incorrect. My husband has been made very ill by eating food handled by people wearing latex gloves. The allergen is in the powder used inside the gloves, as the powder absorbs the latex protein responsible for the allergic reaction. Despite the misnomer "powder-free," all latex gloves have some degree of powder in them because without it, you couldn't get the glove on.
For those of us who live with this scary allergy, "one more disclaimer" would be a godsend.
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