My coworker asked me to do a cake for his daughter's birthday party. I said sure but then he sends me an email today "There's a kid at the party with nut allergies. Can you make sure the cake doesn't have nuts?" I have never done a nut-free cake. Well, I mean I can do a cake without nuts but I can not guarantee there is no nut residue on my supplies or in any of my ingredients. Some of my ingredients say "May contain trace amounts of nuts" or something to that affect.

I'm just so nervous about this. How should I respond?

I refuse to accomodate orders like this. Won't touch them with a ten foot pole. A general blanket statement absolving you of all responsibility is the smartest thing. "We cannot guarantee that our ingredients have not come into contact with nuts or nut products".

I'm with Jamie! I feel that if someone mentions this as an issue, then IT IS AN ISSUE and I don't want them looking to me if someone gets sick or winds up in the hospital.

I had someone win a certificate at a fundraiser. On the display and on the certificate I stated that I do not make cakes that are free of nuts, soy, dairy, whey, etc., or are vegan. She e-mails me and wants a birthday cake for her DH who is allergic to nuts. I tell her no way and then her (lawyer) husband calls me to tell me that--get ready--I'M MEAN! I tried to explain cross contamination issues with nut oils, manufacturing processes, etc., but apparently neither of them GOT IT............go figure.

I stick by my guns on this one and now state that any certificate or order request for such a cake is null and void!

All of that said, if it's just a taste preference, and not an allergy, I can easily accommodate that because the client chooses the flavors.

Rae

my friend's nephew has a peanut/treenut allergy. i've baked some of his birthday cakes and party cakes for my friend where her nephew is in attendance. i checked with his mom about safe ingredients and techniques for cleaning my equipment (wash with soap and hot water). i haven't had any issues. so basically i read all ingredient labels and clean everything really well. how comfortable are you with doing this cake? it's not so bad for me since it's my friend. but i probably wouldn't take a nut-free order from a stranger.

ETA: when i know this kid is going to be eating my cakes, i buy all new ingredients (new flour, new 10X, etc.) to ensure no cross-contamination.

When someone mentions or asks about nut allergies, my standard answer is "We do our best to eliminate cross-contamination, however, we DO have nuts in the kitchen." Then I leave it up to them.

To those of you who are obsessive about it, I think that if you always practice "safe foods", then you won't have to be buying new ingredients all the time. Just ALWAYS use a clean measure for each ingredient, and ALWAYS clean your utensils with soap and hot water. According to the people who I know with allergies, this is the only thing that they recommend.

I personally would tell them promptly that you have nuts in the kitchen and can't guarentee that there will be no cross contamination. Even if you are the best cleaner in the world, residue could still be stuck in a little spot on the blender etc.. My son has recently outgrown all his nut allergies but in the past i would never allow him to have bakery items, no matter how careful the baker said they would be. Call me crazy but i'm not taking chances with his life. I would always provide a 'safe' snack or cupcake for his parties. I would think the parent of this child would understand, i mean what's more important a peice of cake or breathing..no brainer.JMHO

I bake a lot of cakes for my childrens' daycare and they have a no nut policy. I ALWAYS say that no, I did not put nuts in the cake, but I cannot guarantee that there aren't trace amounts of nuts in the products I used. It's impossible to make that kind of guarantee (and very risky) if you use anything bought that does not specify there are absolutely no nuts. I buy oreos from the store to crush in the filling etc... and I make that known. And I"m not even charging them. Anyway, then it's up to the staff and the parents (of children with nuts alllergies) to make the choice as to whether they want to eat the cake.

It's really not that hard - our good friends oldest child has had this alergy since before she was 2 and now she is going to be 15 - if they grow up with it, there are ways to this and have no problems, the bottom line is I spent a week on the phone calling manufacturers to get their guarantees on their products before I used them. Way back when before the new food label warnings - you sometimes didn't know what you were running into - didn't have it on the label so you thought you were safe, we found out the hard way that its not always that case - there was 1 speck of a peanut from a belt and she found it - so, do your research and if you have a heat setting and heat booster on your dishwasher - run the stuff through there, get the nuts out of the area until your done and just watch the products you use - this can be done, I do it all the time and had no problems, even use cake sparkles for her too!

I did it for my friends daughter - she is very allergic and used cherrybrook farms cake mix as that is totally nut free, dishwashed all the tools/bowls etc twice and used satin ice and buttercream - I e mailed wilton and their coloring is guaranteed nut free so ended up not coloring anything! Satin ice replied their facility is nut free

I have it stated on my website and I also put a sticker on my cakes boxes that I do not garantee nut-free cakes either..Although I don't bake with nuts etc I don't want to be responsible for someone getting sick.

When a customer calls me or emails me and asks again if I do nut-Free,Gluten-Free or Dairy-Free cakes....I say No! I will not garantee it....

Sorry I meant Wilton's colorings are NOT nut free!