I have a client who is allergic to EVERYTHING, but the one thing that's causing me a lot of grief is the corn allergy. Apparently corn byproducts are in everything, which I wasn't aware of. For vegan baking I substitute a lot of soy product for the dairy, but there's corn in the soy, too. (Oh, and she's allergic to soy, so that's kind of a moot point.)

So I was wondering if there are any bakers here who are allergic to corn, and if so what specific brands can you bake with? I found a good corn-allergy website that lists everything that has corn in it or could potentially be made from corn, but if there are brands that are safe, I'd appreciate hearing what they are!

Just for interest, her allergies include eggs, milk, soy and corn, and she says that she's still being tested for other things too.

Goodness! If she finds out she's allergic to wheat too I'd give up LOL. Sorry, I don't mean that it's a laughing matter...but you have probably seen posted here many times before anyway, that it can be risky cooking an "allergy-free" recipe unless her allergies are mild. I cook gluten-free for my celiac friend all the time, but although she absolutely has a reaction to gluten, trace amounts from possible cross-contamination in my kitchen are not an issue. How do you ensure there are no trace amounts of THAT many ingredients though?? Especially if one of the ingredients is corn and, as you mentioned, it may be found EVERYWHERE?

IMHO you really should clarify the seriousness of her allergy before agreeing to bake her an "allergy-safe" cake. Of course you may have already done this. Sorry I cannot be of more help about the brands, etc. though. I knew someone with a corn allergy but that was many moons ago .

BTW I really posted because I love your avatar!

Yeah, no kidding about the wheat! She gave me a whole list of things that she was allergic to, then when she came for a tasting she told me that they had added soy to the list! I told her that all of the cakes I'd done had some soy in them somewhere, and she said "I'll just eat a little, maybe my stomach will hurt but it's no big deal." I guess if you're allergic to that many things you get used to feeling crappy a lot of the time or something. After researching it and getting not responses here, (because I think it's pretty much impossible to avoid corn) I think that I'll just eliminate corn allergies from the list of things that I can accomodate. It's too widespread to avoid it, really.

No kidding! Well, I mean, actually I think it might be easier to bake for corn allergies if you didn't also have to eliminate dairy, eggs and soy, but that leaves you with very little to work with. Anyway have you researched vegan recipes? For example this one came up on allrecipes http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Vegan-Chocolate-Cake/Detail.aspx - you would just have to make sure to use corn-free veg. oil (actually one of the reviewers used applesauce instead...if you buy 100% pure applesauce I'd hope that doesn't have corn syrup in it) and of course your dilemma about ensuring that all of your other goods are corn-free.

I feel bad for the woman, but she may need to do the due diligence on her allergy and research ingredients (i.e. substitutions) and recipes herself so that you or other bakers are not "guessing" or making assumptions, or, as she mentioned, just have a "bite" or not eat the goody at all. What a bummer. Of course if you have the time for the challenge it could be fun to come up with a successful cake for her!

Thanks for the link, all of that looks safe! I also found out that some soy products contain corn derivatives too...