I Really Am Becoming A Food Purist
Decorating By berryblondeboys Updated 2 Jan 2007 , 7:39pm by emmiepeterson
We try to eat pretty healthy with as little perservatives and unnatural ingredients as possible. Now I didn't grow up this way, but I'm becoming and more this way as I get older.
I realized that I'm beginnign to get turned off by cakes/cookies/desserts that look "fake". For some reason, I still can handle food coloring, but I don't even use that much any more!!!
I guess that doesn't make me much of a cake decorator because the idea of using luster dust and some of those sparkly sprinkles, gumpaste and even fondant are just not appealing. What are we putting in our body?
And if people are just expected to scrape it off, what's the point of making it "edible" if it's not going to be eaten?
I LOVE looking at these creations, but I wouldn't want to eat it and not because it's too pretty to eat but because it doesn't look like it SHOULD be eaten..
Am I the only person like this? I'm so contradictory. I LOVE these cakes and find them inspiring, but they don't inspire me to eat them... does that make sense?
Melissa
The gumpaste flowers aren't to be eaten, they are to be saved (or so I tell the customers...) But really, gumpaste is edible but not recommended as such. Besides, I've told other food purists who inquire about my cakes that I make fun party cakes because for those occasions (the very special ones) people like to indulge in something a little "sinful" like real sugar! People are health conscious these days but cake decorators make their livings in sugar. And it's funny too, I love making and decorating cakes, I just hate eating them (I'm not a fan of sugar myself.) 
I am the same - I only eat organic food and spend a long while making considered choices about everything we buy thinking about what we put in our bodies and our environment.
I make pretty outlandishly coloured cakes and would never consider eating the fondant or decorations and am faintly horrified when I see people shovelling it in. However I think it's like a gorgeously wrapped present; I wouldn't worry about people throwing away the paper and decorations then!
I do think it's important to be aware that there is a big difference between eating sugar, fat etc. and eating unnatural chemicals which may cause cancers etc, - such as sunset yellow colouring. I always advise clients that although the decorations are 100% edible that I personally wouldn't eat them as they are chemicals. People do think this is odd, but it doesn't seem to stop anyone scoffing all manner of glitter etc!
My focus is on eating healthy too, but aren't special occassion cakes usually ordered for the purpose of serving a number of people and therefore not consumed by one? Now a load of sugar shouldn't be consumed every day by anyone but, with some exceptions, most of us can stand to have a nice piece of cake, pie etc once in a awhile without compromising our health and wellbeing. Unless there's an allergic reaction I doubt the amount of luster dust and like colorings on one piece of cake is going to do much harm. I don't need the fat and sugar in a big piece of cake but I sure do enjoy a really yummy piece once in a while. I'll make what a customer wants, within my ability, and what they do with it after delivery is their business.
I think it's important to seperate the two:
Sugar is 'bad' but only because too much of it is a bit unhealthy
Chemicals are genuinely really very bad - a bit in a cake might not seem much but how about a bit in your toilet paper (bleaching chemicals), your shampoo, washing up liquid, air freshener, carpet cleaner, fabric conditioner, mascara, lipstick, moisturiser, cereal, water, lemonade, car exhaust etc. etc. etc. These chemicals really do add up and they really do kill people. I make decisions in my life to avoid as much of these as possible which includes using organic tampons, never using sodium lauryl sulphate or eating foods with aspartame in them etc. These seriously unpleasant and unecessary chemicals are in a totally different category to 'bad' fat and sugar in foods.
Melissa makes a really valid and intelligent point that we need to question how much a part of the chemical world we want to be part of and I applaud her for that.
I've never really left the '6os. The only place I use things like food coloring is in the frosting, and even then I like to use juices, etc as much as possible.
I reduce chemicals in my cakes by using unbleached flour (I usually grind my own); feeding the hens non-medicated chicken feed; milk and butter from animals right down the road(I know what they eat); etc.
I add fruit purees from my unsprayed trees for additional nutrition. My sparkles are coarse sugar. The fondant I'm trying to get to work has a natural peanut butter base.
I hope this helps you not to feel like you're the only one...
I feel that when someone orders a decorated cake or dessert from me, they're not doing it for everyday consumption. They're ordering a specialty item that they're only going to consume a few times a year--and a serving or two at that.
So, with that in mind--I don't take special measures to insure "organic" or "natural" or whatever. I do offer a complete line of sugar free and diabetic cakes/desserts/cheesecakes. But I only did that because the tourist market here was screaming for it---and I'm the only one who caters to their needs in the cake biz here in the mountains.
However--for marketing purposes--I can see where there certainly would be a good market for naturally prepared/organic foods! And to eat at home as healthfully as possible just makes good sense. 
--Knox--
Well, since I'm not really selling much (not advertising as I just can't bake often). I'm talking about consuming chemicals. Sugar is one thing, I have no problem with sugar (though I wish it wasn't processed so much), but the chemicals in things.
I make almost all our food (we don't go out much), I buy from the farmer's market to get fresh and try to do as chemical free as possible. I don't use air fresheners or sprays or anything like that. I use free range eggs not only because they are healthier, but because they are healthier. Same with milk. I buy unbleached flour and if I had a better source for wheat, I might grind it myself.
So, it's just so against my ways of doing things to add artificial ingredients to cakes, so for at home use, I don't add these things.
And, if I were to go to a party or an event where they had a stunning cake, I wouldn't want to eat the shimmery, sparkly, colorful icing period. It doesn't look like something I would want to put in my mouth and then I would wonder what chemicals are they putting in this to make it look so?
As a "paiting" or sculpture, that's fine. I wish I had such talent, but for eating? I'm in the scrape it off crowd and would just hope that the rest of the cake is more wholesome. Natural just tastes better too. Even with cookies.
A friend of mine just tried to pass off those pilsbury sugar cookies as homemade. I could tell immediately that they weren't as their flavor is "off"... something artificial about it....
Melissa
I've been called "granol-y" and a tree-hugger, so I can relate with what all of you are saying. I've actually been flamed on this site for saying that I only bake from scratch, use eggs from my own chickens, etc! The way I see it, you truly are what you eat...garbage in, garbage out...and the diet of most Americans is just wretched. I grow almost all of the vegetables we eat and buy what I can't produce myself locally from people that I know and trust. As for my cakes, I only use the best also. Dyes are kept to a minimum, I use as much organic stuff as possible, I only use good chocolate - and you know what, the right customer will pay for the added expense because they what goes into it! The wrong customer will say that it's not worth it because there isn't a difference in eggs (boy, are they WRONG!) and the other ingredients. Oh well...it's their loss and it's their bodies that they're destroying in the process.
we eat all organic AND do "eating clean",which is eating the food closest to its pure form.BUT....when we have a birthday or some other cause for celebration we will eat a slice of cake.We don't eat it everyday and we don't consume half a cake as a slice.
I feel that 95% of the time,we are eating healthy and pure,the ocassional slice of cake will not kill me.And really,how boring would my life be if I knew I could never have a slice of cake again?Bah!
I think you have to do what is right for you.
Emily
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