Ingredients
Colorado Cottage Food Law required disclaimer:
"These products are produced in a home kitchen that is not subject to state licensure or inspection and may also process common food allergens such as tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, soy, wheat, milk, fish, and crustacean shellfish. These products are not intended for resale."
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See below for more comments on allergens
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Vanilla Sugar Cookies
Cookie Ingredients:
King Arthur GLUTEN FREE measure for measure flour, Granulated sugar, Salted butter, Baking soda, Salt,
Sour cream, Vanilla & nut-free Almond extract.
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This is the base recipe's ingredients. Variations may contain brown sugar, butter extract, cocoa, chocolate chips, candy coated sprinkles. I may also use Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour if King Arthur is not available. The product will be labeled accordingly.
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King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure flour contains:
Rice flour, whole grain brown rice flour, whole sorghum flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, cellulose, xanthan gum, vitamin and mineral blend [calcium carbonate, niacinamide (vitamin B3), reduced iron, thiamin hydrochloride (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2)].
Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 contains:
Sweet white rice flour, whole grain brown rice flour, potato starch, whole grain sorghum flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum.
Royal Icing
Royal Icing Ingredients: Meringue powder, water, light corn syrup, vanilla & butter extract, confectioners sugar, various gel food colorings.​May contain: cocoa powder, lemon extract, almond extract.
I do offer Dye Free food colors and I use either, or both, Chef master and Watkins brands.
This does have an add-on fee due to the high cost of this ingredient. See below for more details on natural colors
Natural Food Coloring - DYE FREE
As many uses for Red food coloring, specifically Red #3, you can think of, you'll still miss some.
Did you think about any other colors? Common colors that also include red in them are black, brown, ivory,
navy, other blue shades and of course, pinks, fuchsia, burgundy and purples to name just a few.
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Also, as many "influencers" that are out there talking about it,
there are as many misconstrued posts about what actually occurred.
So what happened?
Let's just stick to the facts straight from the FDA
I'll run down the basics here, but to read directly from the FDA, see this link
FDA to Revoke Authorization for the Use of Red No. 3 in Food and Ingested Drugs | FDA
WHAT: Red dye No. 3 was banned
WHEN: The notice was issued 1/15/25 and the ban to be effective 1/15/27 for food color and 1/18/28 for drugs to become compliant with reformulating their products without this specific dye.
WHY: There was a petition made to review the application of the Delaney clause, which was first enacted in 1960.
The lab results show it can cause cancer in male rats and the stated clause lists "humans or animals". It also states this.
"the way that FD&C Red No. 3 causes cancer in male rats does not occur in humans" and
"Relevant exposure levels to FD&C Red No. 3 for humans are typically much lower
than those that cause the effects shown in male rats."
My sidenote:
I have heard that the "relevant exposure levels" that would be required for humans to get cancer from this would be a very large amount of the direct dye consumed every day. With that, it is apparently not a huge risk to humans in the same way as the clause as says, "Studies in other animals and in humans did not show these effects; claims that the use of FD&C Red No. 3 in food and in ingested drugs puts people at risk are not supported by the available scientific information.", but has been put through this change as the Clause mentioned did mentioned rats/animals as well.
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So what is The Cookie Darling going to do?
Red is a huge color for making decorated sugar cookies. As I mentioned, some companies also use this in non-red colors.
I have always offered a dye free option, but a small handful of people, over 7 years have ever requested this.
Until the effective date of the ban, assuming it holds up for the next 2 years and is eventually enforced, there will still be an additional cost for dye free orders as the acquisition cost for them is ridiculously high. To get a 4 pack of dye free colors from Watkins, it is $9.99 and the sizes are very small, especially given the quantity needed to reach and level of depth. Sometimes 2 full bottles of red are needed, so for one order, it could cost $20 in hard cost just for that.
I have also tried other brands that sell larger sizes for bakers and that is better, with a better color outcome.
I still have not found a great alternative, but currently have on order another brand to test.
I will continue searching for the best quality and cost and hopefully over the next 2 years both of these issue will be addressed.
My anticipation is that once this is a final ruling in 2027, and we are all required to comply, there will no longer be an additional cost as an add-on to the current fees, but it will be included in the final cost of each product sold.
Sprinkles
There are many types and names for sprinkles. Confetti, Quins, Nonpareils, Dragees, Jimmies, Sanding Sugar,
Crystal Sugar, Dusts..... They are mostly made of sugar & coloring. Most do not state gluten free and do not
contain any glutenous ingredients, but some do state that they are produced in a facility that also produces other
allergens such as wheat. ​I use many brands and it would be difficult to list every one here. I use a lot of Great Value (Walmart) brand and also Wilton. As an example, this is the ingredient list for Wilton's rainbow nonpareils. Wilton: Sugar, Corn Starch, Confectioners' Glaze, FD&C Yellow 5, FD&C Red 3, Carnauba Wax, FD&C Blue 1, FD&C Red 40, FD&C Yellow 6, FD&C Blue 2. Wilton does list the allergen warning that they process them in a facility that also produces other allergens, including wheat. Great Value brand does not state this, only that it "Contains: Soy".
Dairy Free Sugar Cookies
Cookie Ingredients: King Arthur GLUTEN FREE flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar,
Country Crock olive oil Plant butter, eggs, Baking soda, Salt, Vanilla and/or butter extract.
The Dairy Free Sour Cream may vary based on availability, but the brands I typically use are Tofutti & Good Karma. I like Tofutti best for flavor, but it is soy based and Good Karma is plant based and acceptable for vegan recipes as well. The same for the dairy free butter. I will typically use either the Country Crock olive oil plant butter or Earth Balance buttery sticks, also both good for vegan recipes.
Any product variations will be labeled appropriately.​​
Hot Cocoa Bombs
Hot Cocoa Bomb ingredients Hot cocoa mix, candy melts, marshmallows, various sprinkles.​
The bomb shells will be either "almond bark" chocolate flavored coating or candy melts.
The main ingredients in these are sugar, palm kernel oil, cocoa, nonfat dry milk, whey powder, whole milk
solids, non-fat milk solids, soy lecithin and natural & artificial flavors.​
Dairy Free Hot Cocoa Bombs
DAIRY FREE Hot Cocoa Bomb ingredients:
Dairy free hot cocoa mix, Baker's semi-sweet chocolate, marshmallows, various sprinkles.
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The bomb shells will be made with the Baker's semi-sweet chocolate, which is dairy free. Their ingredients are:
semi-sweet chocolate (chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin/emulsifier) & vanilla extract. Contains: soy
Gluten allergies & intolerance vs. Celiac
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This is a long read, but if gluten free is an issue for you, I hope you will read it.
You know, being diagnosed early in the life of Celiac in American history, I didn’t believe that people could be intolerant or allergic to gluten. It sounds ridiculous now, but it is definitely true that you can be intolerant and not Celiac. And even more ridiculous is that in 1985, it was such an unknown issue, that I was diagnoses with a gluten allergy and just told to stay away from wheat. To us, in the world where Celiac did not seem to exist and doctors knew little to nothing about it, that meant white bread was okay and wheat bread was not. So, that’s what we did. Eat white bread and rice cakes. But as a 15-year-old with a doctor that did not seem to think it was anything more, or refer me to a GI for a biopsy, etcetera, etcetera, we didn’t know any better.
Now, in 2025, we are very well informed. However, there are still major controversies in the gluten free world, as we will discuss below.First, though, to explain my knowledge and experiences in this gluten free era, 4 out of 5 of my family are Celiac, leaving my husband the only non-celiac. What is interesting though, and why I have first hand knowledge on the topic, is that each of us react differently. My mom was technically the first to be formally diagnosed with Celiac in 2006, however, the only reason her GI figured it out was because she finally told them about my gluten “allergy” in 1985. They immediately did an intestinal biopsy and found blunted villi and diagnosed her with Celiac. She had been very ill for about 7 months, unable to keep any food down and began wasting muscle by the end of that process. Initially, after going gluten free, she learned that her fiber pill was gluten containing as well, and then after changing that was able to begin healing and grieving the loss of all the foods she’d loved and baked for so many years. At this point, she was in her early/mid 60's. In retrospect, we can see that her gene switch was turned on as a result of a series of events that occurred simultaneously. My son was born, my brother was getting a kidney transplant, my dad had been diagnosed with cancer but they were waiting to treat that until after the transplant and then she got sick with an upper respiratory infection. This is the stressor(s) that turned her switch on for good.
After that, I knew I definitely had Celiac as well, but waited a year to be tested by biopsy as I didn’t want to but was also a second time mom in that same year. I was eventually biopsied and told Celiac as well, but my villi were not severely blunted as I react more externally, which is called Duhring’s disease now and formerly dermatitis herpetiformis.
Then by the time my son was 1 or 2, I knew he was probably also affected, but after many attempts and trying to figure out life with 2 kids and how to get them tested without having any major symptoms, i.e. a referral for biopsy, I was able to get them biopsied at the ages of 10 & 12 after moving to Colorado. Their villi were extremely blunted/damaged, even though there were already eating gluten free at least 50% of the time when I would cook meals at home. The doctor explained it in comparison to hair cuts. If you were getting a trim, that would be grade 1 blunting, and a new hairstyle cut would be level 2 blunting and then a buzz cut for the military a grade 3. They were both grade 3 blunting.
Even with this, I also know, as a result of getting them re-biopsied, after a year of eating gluten free, that the blunting caused by eating gluten can be reversed and healed.
Regarding reactions to gluten ingestion, even at a grade 3 severity of blunting, they have never had severe external symptoms from eating gluten. At the most, they have had bloating, maybe some stomach pains and constipation. My mom, on the other hand, at the beginning of her journey, she would have severe and almost immediate nausea and vomiting, along with diarrhea, joint pain and migraines, all which would keep her in bed the whole day. If she had been glutened at a restaurant, she would not make the short trip home before having to pull over to vomit.
With all that said, because I am baking for all variations of those that react to eating gluten, I have to be the most conservative I can be. However, that doses not necessarily mean that I require everything to state gluten free or be certified gluten free. The reason I feel that way is because the industry went crazy at the very beginning, although nice for us that need it, they labeled things that are naturally gluten free as gluten free. What that did was insinuate that there was a non-gluten free form of the food/item. This caused controversy in the industry and for consumers.
You can read more about this and more on the Celiac disease website here
Celiac Disease & Gluten-Free Diet Support » Celiac Disease.
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They also list other great resources for research if you have more questions or concerns.
A few questionable or controversial ingredients in the baking world that they discuss are chocolate chips and chocolate, vanilla and oats to name a few.
Are all those gluten free? Yes, they are naturally gluten free.
The biggest issue that comes into play is when products add spices or flavorings to said naturally gluten free foods, which would then make them not gluten free.