What Does "organic Cake" & "vegan Cake&qu

Decorating By agiftofaloha Updated 19 Jul 2006 , 4:04am by soygurl

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agiftofaloha Posted 19 Jul 2006 , 3:31am
post #1 of 3

Aloha,
I keep hearing about "organic" & "Vegan" cakes... but what does that really mean? and is there a real market for those kinds of cakes? If the market is large enough, I might just turn everything I do around to that. I know that I would much rather buy organic veggies, but how do I incorporate that into cakes? I appreciate any help I can get in this area.

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msauer Posted 19 Jul 2006 , 3:54am
post #2 of 3

okay, I am certainly no expert on this topic, but here is what I know based on what I have done so far in "Vegan". I have two clients who's children have allergies and thus need vegan cakes. Basically it means no product can be used in the cake (or icing) that have an ingredient that is derived from an animal (like eggs, butter b/c of the cow milk, etc.) Alot of times they are even allergic to butter flavorings so no butter flavored Crisco or butter flavored non-stick spray can be used. I use soy butter and soy milk. This site actually has some really good recipes that I have used (in the milk free, egg free category). When you use soy products for your icing, the color you want will be much harder to achieve.

See if you can find some local vegan bakeries like I did to see if you think it's worth it. Our local shop charges $60 for 1/2 a sheet cake! There is also a lot more cost involved for you.

When you get into organic, your costs increase even more because you have to buy your ingredients from a specialty store in most cases. Organic sugar for one...from my understanding many sugars are crushed with the assistance of animal bones...definately a no-no if you are going organic!

I have considered pushing vegan myself just for the sheer possibilty of tapping in on all the kids with allergies (maybe dropping off cards at an allergists office would help). I will watch this thread to see what other infomation everyone else offers!

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soygurl Posted 19 Jul 2006 , 4:04am
post #3 of 3

I don't think there is much of a market for organic and/or vegan cakes unless you are in a VERY diverse area (large city, or large "natural" population).
Even still, organic and vegan cakes are quite a bit more expensive to make and as such, people are a lot less willing to buy them unless it is a VERY special occasion (the kind that don't come around very often, if you get my drift).
As for deffinitions, organic cakes are made from entirely organic ingredents. There are one or two cake mixes that are organic, but most of the time you have to go scratch and each seperate ingredent is 1.5-3 times the cost of non-organics. Powdered sugar is one of the most expensive, and the texture is usually not quite right anyway.
Vegan cakes are made entirely without animal products. Making vegan cakes can be quite tricky at times, and I don't know of any mixes that make it any easier. Also it there are non-vegan ingredients can sneak up on you like granulated sugar (and powdered sugar) which is proccesed with bone char, and honey (produced by bees).
I've done quite a bit of vegan baking, but I'd never even consider doing ONLY organic or vegan cakes.
HTH!

~Kelsie

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