So I'm making a cake for a friend with a soy allergy. She's not deathly allergic or anything, so it's not a huge issue, but the whole point of my making her cake myself is so that she can still have a beautiful and tasty cake and avoid an icky breakout on her birthday
Is anyone familiar with soy allergen info and or brands that are good about making their products as allergen free as possible?

I know that the flour and stuff that I use is safe, and have yet to find a cocoa powder or chocolate that I could use, but does anyone know about Wilton colors and glycerine and such? Most of these have been stored out of their original packaging, so I have no way of finding out without going to the store, and I kind of wanted a plan before I shop.
Any ideas and advice would be great. Thanks!

I would check the product websites. Often big name companies will put ingredients online. i would check out organic stores in your area first on your shopping trip. Soy is hidden in things osmtimes that you would not expect. I would say that a natural (non-alkalized) cocoa should work. You need to add something sometimes to the batter with nonalkalized. Something like baking soda or powder. you can find that answer online.

Colors generally do not have soy...just other chemicals. If you use a mix becareful because a lot of them have soy.

And I would ask your frined if there are things she knows not to use in the baked goods area.

Good luck, Julia

Thanks for the advice Julia, my friend was fairly recently diagnosed and doesn't bake much, so she wasn't sure either, that's actually why her mom has me doing it. And now she wants carrot cake, so I am looking into it.

Be very mindful of whatever you use...I recently had to type up ingredients and list allergens for my licensing, and one thing that I didn't know is that some vegetable oil (like crisco namely) is made of soybean oil! Also, my crisco shortening had it too. Good luck. You can also check recipezaar to find recipes that are soy free...I had to do that for my son because at 1 yr old, he was allergic to wheat that's how I know they have allergy free recipes. Good luck!

Keyshia, I did know that most vegetable oils were soy, what I didn't realize is that not many manufacturers actually list allergy information, I was so frustrated shopping last night! I even looked up specific brand names online and I was shocked that the information wasn't even listed online! You would think that by now that would be standard packaging info, wouldn't you? I will check out recipezaar, I didn't know they had special allergy free recipes, yay!

I feel your pain on the whole label thing. My son has an allergy to just about ALL nuts...it's so difficult. Some things they are starting to classify a major allergen (like coconut) which he is allergic to, but it hasn't been officially put on the list that needs notification. I just read that they are trying to come up with better guidelines for listing allergens...I hope so soon! I think it's 2009 that all foods have to comply with the allergy warning, but my dates could be wrong.

They also use soy byproducts for a lot of things you wouldn't expect. I think that I just read that they use some form of soy to coat the inside of canned foods (or is it corn they use? I can't remember.) If you really want to get into it, do a google search on soy allergies, and there will be a lot of websites that will give you information. I just had a client with allergies to soy, corn, milk, and eggs, so I've been looking into this, too. It's a pain because they put byproducts of these foods in everything but you wouldn't know it just from the name of the chemicals on the labels.

Hi
Not sure if you have time to order something, but this site allows you to search by allergy. They have ingredients, and mixes that are free of many of the top allergens.

http://allergygrocer.com/index.html

There is a company that makes chocolate chips that are free of soy and nuts. Here is there site

http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/

and for JUST peanut free chocolates- though many are also gluten free and egg free- try

http://www.vermontnutfree.com/

I often use the enjoy life chocolate chips, and have ordered from allergy grocer and vermont nut free in the past and had good luck with them.

HTH