I've checked out an organic shoterning product made out of coconut/palm oils at the local health food grocery store but haven't bought any to experiment with yet.

I'm really concerned about all the Crisco and hydrogenated fats in traditional decorating icing. Even the "trans fat free" crisco is still hydrogenated.

So has anyone tried the natural oils? Do they work? Do they produce stiff icing that you can pipe with?

I know royal icing is fat free but I don't want to decorate everything with royal.

Dr. Dean Edell (a local medical guru, who is indeed an MD and pretty well respected) was on the radio today and was asked about about hydrogenated shortening. (That kind of coincidence is so weird....) From what he said, it seems that the difference between solid shortening and liquid shortening is the amount of hydrogen in it. Hence adding hydrogen (Hydrogenation) makes the shortening more solid. Apparently you can do this in two ways-- by a CIS process or a TRANS process. Trans-fats are not good for you.

However, from all I've heard and read, Palm oil and coconut oil are both REALLY bad for you. ANY fat that is "tropical" is bad for you because it is very saturated. On the other hand, what I gathered the good doctor was saying today was that hydrogenation is not always bad. Therefore Crisco which is made without transfats may be better than palm/coconut oil shortening. I'm not sure, but that is what I understood. Natural isn't always better. Sometimes science does do something right.

From what I've learned....they're just different degrees of "really bad for us". Sorry to be a downer. I think that anything in excess is a problem, we just have to be smart and eat the bad stuff that tastes really good as treats...not on a regular basis.

I'm familiar with this doctor, and have a close friend who's an MD and has studied nutrition extensively.

The other bad news....sugar is killing us. OUCH!!!

i had to jump in here. actually, tropical oils are the healthiest oils you can buy, as long as they are not hydrogenated. they do contain saturated fats but they are from short and medium chain fatty acids. these types of fatty acid are burned off by the body and not stored as fat, unlike long chain fatty acids. i've been using organic coconut oil for years, its has so many health benefits it would be too time-consuming to list them all.

i will not give my family hydrogenated oils since these types of fats cannot be broken down by our bodies, we were never meant to injest these types of chemicals. i have no problem eating fats, as long as they are "good" fats, unfortunetly, our country was mislead into thinking that all fats were bad. hence, the problem with obesity. sugar is much worse.

Daily,

I did a quick internet search on tropical oils afater I saw your post. There does seem to be a lot of research being done and some old ideas are being challenged. Thanks for the heads up! I'll be paying more attention to this in the future.

What's the organic coconut oil taste like? Is it pretty neutral or does it taste like coconut?

THEY HAVE SHORTENING AT THE HEALTH FOOD STORE. It's not hydrogenated and it's not too bad. It doesn't have the creamy texture of crisco it's a little bit harder and you kind of "chip" it off, but it doesn't taste too bad. I haven't used it in icing, but we use it to make biscuits and other "food" that calls for shortening.

PS. ALL hydrogenated oils are terrible for you, you're much better off using butter.

I have used the Spectrum brand of non-hydrogonated shortning in frosting and it has worked quite well. I acctually use 3/4 spectrum shormning (Haven't tried their solid coconut oil) with 1/4 Earthbalance margarine (non-hydrogonated margarine that is quite salty but works great for baking/cooking/eating/taste). Earthbalcance also makes shortning but it is suposted to stay refridgerated so I don't think it would hold up as well as the spectrum stuff. It might not work the same as Crisco, but i wouldn't know because I haven't used that suff in.... about 8 years because I think it tastes horible, and its hydrogonated. hope this helps. Ask if you have any questions.

I've basically stayed away from everything hydrogenated ever since taking a biology class and we discussed how things are converted from liquid vegetable oil into a solid vegetable oil using a catalyst. I can't explain it like my professor did but yes basically you add more and more hydrogen to the fat until it becomes this whole chain and it's solid. Hence it's been "hydrogenated" by the addition of more hydrogen.

Anyways, I avoid hydrogenated products, I look at chips, rice, cereals, sauces, etc everything in the grocery store and I want to avoid using Crisco if I can when making the icing that forms roses, etc.

I will try the health food store alternative and see what works the best. I think they had Spectrum, so I'll try that first.

Tickled...Spectrum has a great mayonaise that I've used for several years. YOU'RE RIGHT.... Also....we switched to butter from margerine too. Butter is good fat....margerine bad.

I have a little twinge of guilt knowing what I know and still providing CRISCO-ED products for others.

Just curious, how much more expensive is the non-hydrogenated shortening at the health food store??
Crisco is a little over 3.00 for the regular size can here.....Know it is not about the money, but wondering if it is way more expensive....

itsacake,
if you used a good quality extra virgin coconut oil then the taste will be neutral. lower qualtiy brands will have a stronger taste that i do not care for. i've also been using coconut oil for my face and body for years, it really makes my skin look much better than all those expensive products i used to buy! jordan rubin sells a good quality coconut oil, as well as dr. mercola. you could do a search on the web and easily find their products, you should give it a try!

patrica, i know exactly how you feel, i feel guilty too giving my customers regular crisco when i won't even feed it to my family!

cindy, i think the spectrum shortening is around $4 where i live. i can get regular shortening for under $2 so that is what my customers get, of course, if anyone ever requested trans-fat free shortening, i would be more than happy to oblige!

Way back, in the dim "Dark Ages" when I first started cake decorating, and I received a Wilton Beginners kit, the recipe had shortening [crisco] listed as an ingredient.

After due consultation with the vendors, they assured me that Copha[tm] would be an adequate substitute, crisco being unknown. Copha[tm] is solidified coconut oil freely available in my country.

Fast forward - birthday cake iced with Wilton buttercream with Copha[tm] - yuck! The "mouth-feel" is coatingly oily [of a solid kind]. After much experimentation, a mixture of butter, margarine and copha[tm] is better.

Currently I am using pure solidified vegetable oil in conjunction with butter - a much better feel.

FYI - a typical copha recipe that is very popular:

Chocolate Crackles
This recipe came from the wrapper on a Copha packet.
8oz Copha (a brand of solidified coconut oil)
4 cups of Rice Bubbles [rice krispies] or similar puffed rice
1 cup icing[powdered] sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup dessicated[shredded] coconut - unsweetened
Melt Copha in a saucepan over a low heat or in a microwave oven
Mix dried ingredients. Mix with melted Copha until well combined.
Spoon mixture evenly into 24 paper patty containers. Set in the refrigerator.