Is Cake Shortening Gluten Free?

[WhoKnew]

Yesterday I bought a decorated birthday cake. One of the letters was wrong, so I carefully scraped it off and without thinking, stupidly licked the knife.  Sure enough, this morning I have a full-on gluten reaction, which is very severe for me and usually means 5 days in bed.  Oh joy.  

 

I called the baker out of curiosity, as I'm only 18 months into being Gluten Free and still learning (and still hitting myself about the head occasionally, when I do dumb stuff like this).

 

The icing contained two things that I think may have been the problem -- vanilla flavoring (not extract) and cake shortening.  I know some vanilla flavorings are made with barley malt, yep, did that one already a couple of times about a year ago.

 

But I have no idea about Cake Shortening, what is it, and does it contain gluten?

 

Thanks for reading my post 

[shadowicewolf]

Neither are an issue, I believe, CC how ever is a major issue, especially in a bakery.

 

Shortening is probably fat (think crisco), with some sugar (kinda like a butter frosting), and flavoring

[WhoKnew]

What is CC?

 

Vanilla extract is gluten free.  Vanilla flavoring sometimes contains barley malt, or malt.  It's always labeled, but I didn't think to look and got glutened by this a couple of times in the early days.

[WhoKnew]

Oh... Cross Contamination... of course :-)

[shadowicewolf]

Oh... Cross Contamination... of course :-)

Highly likely that is the culprit.

[Adalaide]

I would say that the issue is almost certainly because it was from a bakery laced with flour or just because it was from a decorating bag and tip that were frequently touching cakes made of gluten. The icing itself was probably made of gluten free ingredients, but I can't imagine any circumstances under which I would eat anything from a regular bakery.

[WhoKnew]

I forget about the Cross Contamination issue frequently.  I think my brain tries to hang on to the way things were, even though I lived with severe Gluten reactions for years without knowing it.

 

I would never eat anything from a regular bakery either... but INSTINCT took over... and I licked that knife!   Mmmmm.... and stupid :-)