Hi,

My son has food allergies (milk and egg) so I started making my own cakes. To make them nicer I'm taking the Wilton courses at my local Michaels. Well, I'm up to course II which is primarily royal icing flowers. I have not been able to find an eggless royal icing that worked for flower making (tried gelatine and Ener-G egg replacer recipes, not stiff enough). Since the primary reason (I think) to use royal icing is to be able to make flowers/decorations ahead of time, I was wondering if there is a way to make buttercream flowers ahead of time. Could you make them and freeze them to apply later? Does anyone know what bakers for vegan wedding cakes do?

Thanks for any help,
Maggie

You can certainly make roses ahead of time and freeze them. Make a stiff buttercream icing for the roses, make sure they are well covered and put in the freezer until you need them.

I do this. It's the only way I can get them on the cake without smooshing them! Those little sicssors don't get along with me at all!! LOL

Could you give me an example of what "well covered" would be.? I'm really a newbie at cake-decorating. Also, in the class, you use flower formers to curve the flowers. Could those be frozen with say a buttercream daffodil?

Thanks,
Maggie
"Girl of many questions"

Should be no problem. Put them in a tupperware type bowl.

Just wanted to mention that a lot of folks have an issue with some darker colours like red or royal blue type colours. When these defrost they can bleed out onto your cake. Many the horror story I have heard of a bride making red buttercream roses that bled out onto her white cake, so you might want to watch for that.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Do a test run first. Slab some white icing on a piece of wax paper and place a dark tinted frozen flower on it.

I'll never understand the bleeding concept. Some folks have this problem, others never do. We had this discussion on another board recently. Nearly identical l recipes and different results. I've never had a problem with bleeding, even a little. But others have had major issues. Who knows...

Definitely do a test run.

I agree Dawn. Strangest thing. For example I had bleed out with Alice's Cookie Icing recipe, some others did, some didn't. I have had three brides doing their wedding cakes, two had bleed out, the other one didn't. Of the two that did, one used the half butter half shortening recipe, the other one used the class buttercream. And the list goes on and on. Like I said, red, royal blue oh yes and black. So go figure!
hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Is your son also allergic to meringe powder? This is a good option for egg replacement and gets a very good consistency.

The recipe for this royal icing is in Wilton.com. Here is the URL http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/icing/royal.cfm

Good luck!

Gisela

I know this involves egg whites in some form but, as I understand, the yolks are the part that cause most allergies. Maybe you could consult your physician in this case to see if it could be an alternative. I was just trying to help.

Hi Gisela,
I know you were just trying to help and I was really trying hard not to offend you by the response and I am sorry if I have. I just meant that Royal Icing is made either from regular egg whites, fresh or meringue power, dried egg whites.
And you are right, some folks just can't have the yolk part. Others, the whole darn thing is a problem.
A lot of people don't realize meringue powder is dried egg whites. This has come up on the Wilton site many times and really, if you aren't a regular baker, how would you know?
Regardless, my apologies if I offended you. I know on a lot of sites it seems like when you are new to baking or new to a site, sometimes people correct or critique everything you say.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Actually, I believe that egg white is the more common and often more serious problem. My son tests positive to egg white but no longer to egg yolk. Thank you for taking the time to make a suggestion, though. But if the situation ever arises for you, it is very hard to separate the white from the yolk (even commercially) without some cross contamination. For the curious, a good site for information about food allergies is foodallergy.org. Food allergies in westernized nations are for some reason on the rise. It is a huge issue for all schools now. We have no history of food allergy in our family, I nursed my son (almost, except for 6 wretched oz of formula) exclusively for 6 months and continued nursing with solids until he was 16 months old and still he wound up with it. Hives on contact. His older sister has no problems whatsoever. The good news is that the docs expect him to outgrow it in a few years. But in the meantime I bake for the whole family so that he can be included. And as you can see I'm enjoying baking enough to delve further into it.

Thanks again for trying to help,
Maggie

BTW. Meringue powder is a very scary thought for me. Concentrated powdered allergen. One spin of the mixer, and a poof of allergen spreads into the air and contaminates my kitchen surfaces, tools and exposed food. AAACCKK! That would be BAD... really reallly bad.

PS My Mom's best friend is named Gisela. Very pretty name.

PPS. I do have some eggless royal icing recipes that would work for painting cookies or gingerbread houses. I just don't have a stiff one for royal icing flowers. At least, I haven't been successful with them. I could be doing something wrong.

Would you be so kind as to send me the royal icing recipe for cookie icing?

Thanks, by the way, I like my name too, it is really uncommon, at least here. I have only met another Gisela in my lifetime...