A good friend of mine has asked me to make her a cake for her wedding in 5 weeks. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but she needs it to be gluten-free and I just moved to Scotland. I have no idea where to buy supplies and my container full of baking things is still enroute and may be here but only a few days before. The cake isn't super complicated but I do need to make some gumpaste walls beforehand.
I have never made a gluten-free cake before and don't know where to start. The recipes I have found on CC have some unusual ingredients that I'm a little afraid of. I don't know what to do! Are gf cakes sturdy enough to stack, I have the worst luck with stacking cakes, they often slope a little and one of the cakes she has requested is 3 tier pillows.
Also where do I buy ready-made fondant and gumpaste? Or Gumtex? I only found one store in Edinburgh and it is ridiculously priced items. Where do all the Scottish pros buy their equipment? Please help!!
Thank you in advance
not sure about scottish stores, but can you not order your things online? quite a few out there - cake-stuff, the cake deccrating company, design-a-cake, almond art, sugarshack ...etc.
I really like the hazelnut chocolate cake on the following website
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/20395/flourless+chocolate+hazelnut+cake
There are a couple of recipes on the link below, I've made the orange and almond cake and thought it was quite good too!
http://www.planetcaketeaparty.com.au/forum-view.php?id=366
I've not stacked either recipe but both seem to have a consistency that would be suitable.
I'd love to hear what other recipes people use!
I have a friend with a gluten allergy. She cannot so much as use the same tools as regular flour in any of her baking. There cannot be any contamination at all. That means bowls, measuring cups, not storing anything near regular gluten products. Just a heads up. She doesn't use her cakes to stack so I don't know if they would withstand it or not, but there are plenty online stores and some gluten-free cakes are much better tasting than regular cakes. Good luck!
Welcome to Scotland.
You should be able to get everything you via the Internet until you get settled. Do you know if there are other foods to be avoided as some of the best gluten free recipes without weird ingredients use almonds and rice flour.
Yours aye
Puss
Thank you!
That helps. I do know about the bowl and spoon stuff, not sure how I'm going to do that. Can I just wash my usual pans and reuse them? My brother has a nut allergy but its not that severe and I normally just wash with soap and put in the dishwasher anything I have used near nuts.
Also, she has requested that only one of the tiers be gluten-free. I assumed that if each tier is fondant covered and on a cake cardboard/plate, they should be ok?
I'm wishing I hadn't agreed to it, but she didn't spring the gluten-free business on me til yesterday...
I've never ordered cake supplies online in the UK, is there one company that gives the best prices and has a wide variety?
Also what fondants are gluten-free? I want to assume all, but since it has to be nowhere near wheat, then I guess I need o verify it.
Thanks for your help!
squires kitchen in the UK sells everything cake and is reasonably priced.Just google it.
Has anyone tried this fondant
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/cupcake-world/Sugarcraft-Icing-Colours-/_i.html?rt=nc&_fsub=1431909013&_sid=911351523&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1513&_pgn=4
They have a wide variety of colors and sizes so may be easier than coloring fondant and rebuying colors that I already own...
That helps. I do know about the bowl and spoon stuff, not sure how I'm going to do that. Can I just wash my usual pans and reuse them? My brother has a nut allergy but its not that severe and I normally just wash with soap and put in the dishwasher anything I have used near nuts.
If you carefully wash and sanitize nonporous surfaces they should be safe, porous surfaces cannot be sanitized and should always be considered unsafe if they have touched gluten. You'll also need to wait at least 24 hours if there is airborne gluten (i.e. flour) in the area.
Also, she has requested that only one of the tiers be gluten-free. I assumed that if each tier is fondant covered and on a cake cardboard/plate, they should be ok?
If the gluten allergy is not severe this should be OK as long as the gluten-free tier does not have any non-GF tiers above it, and whoever is cutting the cake knows to take the GF tier to a separate location to cut it. If the allergy is life-threatening I would make a completely separate GF cake.
Also what fondants are gluten-free? I want to assume all, but since it has to be nowhere near wheat, then I guess I need o verify it.
We use Satin Ice fondant, it is gluten-free (and vegan too).
Thank you Jason!!! You are a life-saver. Wish I had "chatted" with you before I left the Bay Area
That helps a lot. Now if I can find a satin ice supplier in the UK, that would be great I do prefer Fondx though, is it also gluten-free?
Thanks again
Fondx should be safe...according to the page below it does not contain gluten, and the company doesn't appear to manufacture anything else containing gluten. There's a phone number at the bottom of the below page if you want to confirm.
http://www.caljavaonline.com/fondant1-howto-faq.htm
I wouldn't agree to only making one tier gf and here's why....there's a chance the venue will mix up the cakes while cutting/serving them.
I would make the wedding cake with the recipes I always use and make a small separate, not stacked gf cake for the bride or whoever it is that's allergic.
It's too much of a headache to mix and match gf and non gf tiers on a cake. I'd never agree to that.
Don't be afraid to tell your friend what you're willing to do, especially since she just threw the gf cake thing at you yesterday.
I have celiac disease thus feel you should ensure what exactly is she allergic to since I have an allergic reaction to flour 9in the air/residue, cornstarch, nuts and sometimes rice, by the way gf cakes are denser, land o a little blue in batter, good luck lakes has a great pound cake recipe on their website -but the best recipe is a gf victoria sponge cake that beats the gluten version hands down, I would be ok with stacking the gf cake on top but someone has to be present to ensure they are not cross contaminated upon serving, a different color inside with a label would help
I have made a great gluten-free carrot cake that my sister loves. It would be easy to make for a wedding cake (in fact, she has talked about using it if she remarries.)
I wouldn't agree to only making one tier gf and here's why....there's a chance the venue will mix up the cakes while cutting/serving them.
That's why it's critical to explain to the venue manager, kitchen manager, wedding coordinator, and bride/groom which tier is the GF one. We've stacked GF/non-GF and vegan/non-vegan tiers several times, and on one occasion we made a 3 tier cake with a GF top tier, a vegan middle tier, and a regular bottom tier to accommodate two different restricted diets. We've never had an issue with anyone mixing up the tiers. (Providing descriptive tent cards probably helps.)
I'll be onsite (attending the wedding!) and watching to ensure that the cakes are kept separate and served with different knives etc. But if I find an amazing recipe, I will just make it all gf... why mess with a good thing?
On a tangent, how do the GF cakes freeze? And whats the deal with frosting/icing?
you won't get satin ice here, regalice is probably the most widely used here but i don't know if it is GF. Squired Kitchen is generally overpriced, if you want to get everything online in one place at the best prices i would use cake-stuff.com or design-a-cake.com.
How about gumpaste? Or what can I find easily that will allow me to make walls? I am making a cake version of this: http://www.weddingservices2u.com/img/PL1498%20vdi.jpg
or this
http://www.weddingeventsindia.com/images/palki2.jpg
I need the sides to be hard so they will stay upright and I can arve/paint them beforehand. I would normally add some gum-tex to the fondant but I amn't too familiar with these things and I don't want to experiment too much when I am still settling in and dont ahve much time for practice runs.
Can I use gumpaste? Where can I buy gumpaste locally? I have seen the regalice white fondant/icing in Sainsbury's.
don't use the regalice from sainsbury's, it is not the same thing and a pain to work with. you need Renshaw's regalice which you will get in cake decorating shops or online. For gumpaste i usually just add tylose or gum tragacanth to sugarpaste, both of which can be bought from either of the online stores i mentioned earlier.
I actually made this GF cheesecake for a friend who did not request GF...just because the recipe is THAT GOOD...the crust is easily twice as delicious as regular cheesecake crust. Seriously, one of my proudest moments as a cakestress was when the bride fed the groom a mouthful of the cake, and he (complete ham that he is) pretended to fall into a dead swoon on the floor, mmmm-m-m-ming the whole way down! Made for some crazy wedding photos and some guests laughing hysterically, but you can bet that I was ABSOLUTELY BEAMING. Incidentally, the variation I used for their wedding was a pomegranate cheesecake covered with hazelnut-chocolate and fondant with a crushed pecan crust.
I'd be happy to share the recipe, if you want.
Oh, and it freezes just fine. In fact, if you want to stack other layers on top of it, you would want to freeze it before doing so to aid in structural integrity.
Thank you! I wrote a response a day ro 2 ago and it apparently didn't go through!
I would love the recipe if you have it. I've never made a cheesecake, but it sounds lovely. I never even thought you could cover a cheesecake in fondant.. I would think it would just collapse. Any pics of the cake? I don't think cheesecake would shape too well but I could use it for something else
Babapeela, I will check out those stores and be sure to look for Renshaws. I found a couple of ebay stores that do fondant and I may give in and just order from them since I then don't have to color the fondant again.
Thanks for the help.
xxx
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