I'm really stumped about how to make this cake. I have a friend that wants me to make her son's b-day cake.
They are very health conscious about sweets and dyes and pretty much everything.
Although, they have decided they want me to make this cake. She tasted one I made before and liked it well thought it would be okay since most of the people coming to her son's party aren't as health conscious as their family.
So, here is what she wants:
Carrott Cake
Cream Cheese Frosting
and a Rainbow Fish (from the children's story book) She does not want MANY dyes at all, so requested the fish be in white and that I use fresh or frozen fruit to decorate the fish and that the eyes, mouth and a few scales can be colored.
I am at such a loss here! The type of carrott cake I make isn't solid enough to mold or cut into the shape of the fish, so I thought of doing something on top, but not sure what.
AND how in the world would I use fruit? Just draw an outline and fill in with fruti??? SIGH this is why I could never make a business of this. LOL I would want to always do the cakes my way. LOL
Any help you all can give would be greatly appreciated! OH and I'm not sure if I will do a round cake or sheet cake.

Well, just a couple of quick thoughts - since it's carrot cake - could you use the red, yellow and orange carrots to make the scales? Or maybe candied orange, lemon or lime slices? They're not too hard to make and would be colorful.

And, I don't remember exactly, but someone suggested once to me that you can make a shape out of heavy duty tin foil folded a bunch of times into a strip to make a custom shaped cake. Just set it down inside another pan - sort of like a springform pan concept. Then you could get the fish shape without carving.

I just looked at rainbow fish; it has such beautiful colors that really should be duplicated as close as possible. Fruit just won't cut it to capture the beauty. What fruit would you use to match the colors? Using fruit to make the star area and stripes on a flag looks real nice, but this...I don't know.

Maybe you could do a edible image on white fondant or iced cake, white borders with seashells, star fish and coral in the colors of the fish around the sides of cakes and some here and there on top of the cake. This way they could be removed and the guests can have them. If the image isn't too big there would be enough cake around it so that the customers family doesn't have to eat it. HTH

Forgot to ask can't you carve the fish shape if the carrot cake is semi frozen?

I also thought I heard somewhere you could buy all natural food coloring - maybe do a search on that. Would probably be expensive, but maybe she'd be ok with colorings if they're natural?

Here is an image of the Apple logo done in fruit. Maybe you just have to make an outline of the fish on your cake (use a skewer/knife to put it in the icing, then fill it in with the fruits like that apple.

http://caribbeanista.blogspot.com/2010/01/healthy-living-week-color-your-health.html


Or maybe a fruit carving would be better. Here are some ideas. Also, if you google 'fruit carving' you will find tons of images and instructions.

http://www.ahstuff.com/2008/06/incredible-fruit-and-vegetable-art.html

Good luck! Please post your final creation when finished..

Maybe use fruit roll-ups? You should be able to find some that are natural and would give you better color and be pretty easy to cut into circles. I know I wouldn't try to carve my carrot cake its way to soft. HTH

I'm pretty sure too you can buy natural food coloring, maybe even somewhere like Whole Foods.

http://www.seelecttea.com/index.php?cPath=41

Maybe just see if she'll pay extra for you to buy them? It probably won't give you a dark bright color since they are not gels but it will dye it lightly.

With the carrot cake, try refrigerating/freezing the cake so that you can carve it.

There are several companies that make natural food dye.

ChefMaster has its own line.
India Tree--I've used these, they work pretty well as long as you don't want a true red.
Seelecta

When I used them I left out a little bit of the liquid from my icing recipe, and that worked great, I got nice bright colors that way. They are expensive, but I didn't use as much as I thought I would.

Am I the only one that thinks it's funny that she picked carrot cake w/ cream cheese icing...........that is like the most fattening ,UNHEALTHY cake ever.

Just because it has carrots in it, doesn't make it healty......it has at least twice as much oil as other cakes, whole eggs (more fat), she'd have been better off using a white cake (using egg whites) w/ a whipped icing! lol

Well for what it's worth, here's a tutorial on a pink fish cake -- perhaps you could paint it rainbow with lustre dusts? (I'm just thinking out loud here) http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=6642190#6642190

I purchased some powdered beet food coloring, but haven't tried using it yet. It's not that expensive. $3.75.

http://www.niblackfoods.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1497

Here is the spinach powder. Not sure if it would leave a taste though.
http://www.niblackfoods.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=301&products_id=1501

Also, you could make a pink color with strawberry or raspberry juice. I would just get some frozen fruit and microwave it a bit, then squish it up and strain. Just replace any liquid in the frosting with the juice.

I think the blue is going to be hard, but for Rainbow Fish, you really need blue. There isn't really a blue fruit. Blueberries would give you more of a purple color.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the feedback, it definitely inspired me! Yeah, you're so right not sure why she chose the carrott cake LOL. Maybe she thought that was the closest I could come to make something healthy since it has carrotts in it lol !

I think I have changed her mind on the type of cake. I just emailed her and made this suggestion. Crossing my fingers she says yes.
A sponge cake cut into the shape of a fish, covered in a light Chantilly Cream and fruit I found it on this site:

[/url]http://www.cocoandme.com/2007/07/10/childrens-birthday-cake-in-shape-of-a-fish/[url]

It looks nothing like the rainbow fish from the story, but hey it's a fish and has fruit on it. Also, won't be nearly as sweet as the carrott cake and cream cheese frosting.

Someone suggested fruit roll-ups, you can make homemade fruit roll-ups with a food dehydrator or possibly in the oven.

Thanks everyone for all the tips! With your help and the world wide web LOL this is what I made:



I got lazy and didn't do anything fancy for the cake board, just used aluminum foil and now I wish I hadn't, looks cheap. Oh well too late now.

It's a sponge cake and chantilly cream with fresh fruit.
I had a little mishap while making it though and forgot to add a couple ingredients; water and vanilla, stupid I know, but fortunately it still tasted great and my friend's 4 year old son absolutely loved it!!!

Thanks again!

WOW!!! What a spectacular success your cake was! I'm drooling all over myself just looking at it. It makes me wonder why we don't decorate with fresh things more often.

That looks really, really yummy!

Hello..
Can you teach me how to make a fruit roll-ups? PLs !
Thanks !