The food-coloring topic

[CatPoet]

Can you taste food colouring in cakes, frosting and sum such?

 

Is it just me  who can?

 

I been watching  many  cakes on youtube with  coloured frosting and all my brain says it must taste horrible because of the  chemical after taste, but then I think people eat it so there must be people who cant  taste it.,

 

What is your view, this is open  discussion and it is allowed to wobble from the straight path of the question.

[Lisa Shock]

I can taste some colorings, red in particular. It depends on the type and how much coloring is used. I was surprised to try the Costco berry smoothy from the snack bar for the first time (1990s) and discover that the main flavor was 'red.'

[CatPoet]

Most of the Azo  colourings  I can taste and that includes red.  I prefer  to use natural food colourings  even if it doesn't become as bright, because the chemical after taste isnt there.

Once when I was on holiday  with a friend , we bought a  "strawberry" cake, that tasted pink, it just  had the chemical taste of   the food colouring and the flavouring.

[Shelby]

I can taste red, also, but that's the only one.  

[IowaDee]

Count me as a red taster too.  That's why the big fad of red velvet cake left me cold.  Maybe the original ones, colored with beet juice I think,

would have tasted better.

[GlorifiedRice]

Im naming names...

 

I once got a birthday cake at Acme mkts in the Philly area...omg the coloring flavor was so strong and fake and bitter.

but all the cakes at Giant of Pa (there are 3 different Giants in the USA) are soooo so good. You cannot taste anything but the delicious

buttercream and cake. Ive noticed that the colors fade after a few days in their cake freezer, but not the ones at Acme...

 

Can you red tasters taste the red in a red velvet?

[teagal]

I won't eat red velvet cake just because I can't imagine ingesting the amount of food coloring it contains.

[Lisa Shock]

Yes, I can taste the red color in red velvet cake. When I first made one in the 1970s, it was pretty weird to be putting a whole bottle of color into batter for just one two layer cake. I am not fond of the cake. I'd rather have a straight up decent chocolate cake.

 

Also, the base scent in the 'Red' perfume by Giorgio of Beverly Hills is pretty much the same stuff. I laughed when I first smelled a sample, in 1989.

[Shelby]

Im naming names...

 

I once got a birthday cake at Acme mkts in the Philly area...omg the coloring flavor was so strong and fake and bitter.

but all the cakes at Giant of Pa (there are 3 different Giants in the USA) are soooo so good. You cannot taste anything but the delicious

buttercream and cake. Ive noticed that the colors fade after a few days in their cake freezer, but not the ones at Acme...

 

Can you red tasters taste the red in a red velvet?

I must not have when I was a kid....I LOVED my Grammy's red velvet cake.....or maybe she did something different.  Now, if I buy that cake, I hate it due to that red coloring.

[Deryn]

I too can taste red food colouring .. and dislike Red Velvet cake as a result.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Try cochineal, the red color is prettier too.

[GlorifiedRice]

I bought Cochneal just to buck the trend

[sparrowgrass]

I used to be able to tell red M&Ms with my eyes closed, but they have changed the coloring they use, can't do it any more.  

[MelissaH]

Last month, I let a friend use my kitchen to bake her older daughter's birthday cake. The daughter had requested a "real flour" red velvet cake. (One of her younger kids has celiac disease, so she couldn't make the cake at home.) The red came from beet puree. I liked it way better than a store-bought red velvet cake: it was not as blatantly red, but the flavor was a vast improvement over a bottle of red food coloring. (And, hey, beet puree adds a bit of fiber, so maybe the cake became health food?)

[GlorifiedRice]

Ive seen a lot of my fave Asian YouTube Chefs use the following for coloring

 

Red -- Beets, Cochneal, Boiled red cabbage juice

Blue --Clitora Pea Flowers steeped in water

Green -- Pandan leaf juice

Yellow --Turmeric

 

You can get the Clitora Pea Flowers dried here

http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Dried-Butterfly-Thai-Herbals/dp/B00HHYF7E6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1413382803&sr=8-4&keywords=pea+flower

[Naftal]

Ive seen a lot of my fave Asian YouTube Chefs use the following for coloring

 

Red -- Beets, Cochneal, Boiled red cabbage juice

Blue --Clitora Pea Flowers steeped in water

Green -- Pandan leaf juice

Yellow --Turmeric

 

You can get the Clitora Pea Flowers dried here

http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Dried-Butterfly-Thai-Herbals/dp/B00HHYF7E6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1413382803&sr=8-4&keywords=pea+flower

Hello- Can you mix the red, blue, and yellow to get orange, purple and green?

[GlorifiedRice]

Hello- Can you mix the red, blue, and yellow to get orange, purple and green?

 

Not sure what the outcome would be but you can try... ill try mixing pea flower and turmeric tonight and post a pic

Edited October 15, 2014 by GlorifiedRice (log)

[Naftal]

Not sure what the outcome would be but you can try... ill try mixing pea flower and turmeric tonight and post a pic

I will look forward to that!

[GlorifiedRice]

Okay I figured Id make a huge thing out of it...

 

I made 4 natural food colors...Cochneal Concentrate In water, Pandan Juice, Clitora Pea Flower Tea, and Turmeric in Hot Water

 

This is what they look like

http://i.imgur.com/u85wG8k.jpg

The Turmeric was from the Indian mkt and was really bright.

 

I bought a cheapo box of white cake mix and made mini cup cakes (this is them WET and raw) I made ORANGE and GREEN from mixing the primaries listed above.

http://i.imgur.com/GuDxLEL.jpg

The MIXED ones are on the right

 

Baked

http://i.imgur.com/94RYuNp.jpg

 

Sliced open

http://i.imgur.com/JxICCrH.jpg

 

TA-DA!!!

[GlorifiedRice]

This is where I got the Cochineal

Amazon.com: Queen Cake Colouring Cochineal, 50ml

Edited October 17, 2014 by Smithy
Added Amazon link (log)

[MelissaH]

Looks nice! If any of the cupcakes are left still, how do the colors hold up over time? Do they dull or fade?

[GlorifiedRice]

Looks nice! If any of the cupcakes are left still, how do the colors hold up over time? Do they dull or fade?

 

They look the same...

 

I experimented further

 

http://i.imgur.com/O8mgavy.jpg

On the left top to bottom

Red Cabbage

Purple Carrot

RED ROSES liquified with a little water

Top right Red pepper juice

Bottom right Cooked beet liquid

[Kim Shook]

Red taster here, too.  I didn't know it was so common.

[GlorifiedRice]

Hi, I wasnt satisfied with the RED from the Cochineal...

 

http://i.imgur.com/uDQvfYt.jpg

Left to right CANNED beet juice, Canned Beet Juice AND Red Bell Pepper Juice, Canned Beet Juice AND Red Bell Pepper Juice AND Cochineal

[Lisa Shock]

You know, I have some dried tomato powder, spinach powder, and some dried red bell pepper powder I have used to color bread showpieces my only fear is that if I use them (particularly for icing) that I'll wind up with oddly flavored products. Beet does work well, it generally makes a hot pink and the flavor complements sweets.