When I read the press release boasting the first fair trade certified™ baking mixex, I thought, what about Sweetie Cakes? But it appears Sweetie Cakes isn’t fair trade certified — though I’m guessing it wouldn’t be too hard for them to get the certification….
Anyway, now we have Simply Organic baking mixes from Frontier Natural Products Co-op. You can make organic banana bread, carrot cake, chai spice sones, or cocoa biscotti — $4.99 a box.
These bake mixes use fair trade cocoa, but not fair trade sugar. (Update: The baking mixes DO use fair trade sugar, despite TransFair USA’s more lax stance regarding this issue! See comments.) TransFair USA, which provides the fair trade certification sticker, doesn’t require all ingredients in a product to be fair trade in order to get the sticker….
So in some ways, I feel like I could make a more ethical cake just by creating it from scratch with fair trade sugar, cocoa, and vanilla, plus organic and maybe even local for the rest of the ingredients.
But then maybe that’s the kind of thinking that leads to — never actually baking anything –
not a cake comment: I want to let you know about an inspiring sustainability symposium on Saturday, AUG 11 in Santa Monica, presented by The PACHAMAMA Alliance. See http://www.awakenthedreamer.org click on list of symposiums and then Santa Monica.
Comment by nancy — August 9, 2007 @ 2:52 am
Hey! I just bought some certified organic (don’t know if it’s fair trade) cake mixes yesterday for the first time. My baby is turning one in a month, and I want to try them out before I make cupcakes for the party. I’m a person who likes to bake, so I could certainly make my own cupcakes from scratch with organic ingredients as you mentioned, but I just thought I’d give the mixes (Dr. Oetker) a whirl.
Comment by Holly — August 9, 2007 @ 8:29 am
Please keep comments on topic.
Holly — Hope the cupcakes turn out :)
Comment by Siel — August 9, 2007 @ 9:07 am
What do you think Siel: Do these organic/fair trade cake mixes make it easier? Or is it easy enough to find all the fair-trade flour/cocoa/sugar on your own?
Comment by Rafi — August 9, 2007 @ 9:44 am
I haven’t tried it yet, so it remains to be seen…. But I’d say I have a better chance than most people at creating from scratch, since I’m near both a co-op grocery store and a farmers’ market where most raw ingredients I can get organic / fair trade. The mixes, on the other hand, I’d have to order online and wait to arrive — a bit of a hassle –
Comment by Siel — August 9, 2007 @ 9:55 am
We appreciate everyone’s feedback. However, please be advised, the sugar in all four of the new Simply Organic Baking Mixes is organic Fair-Trade certified cane sugar (as listed on the ingredient decks).
Comment by Steve Krusie — August 10, 2007 @ 8:59 am
Good to know, but where are these “ingredient decks”? On the descriptions, only FT cocoa’s mentioned — and I can’t find the decks you speak of –
Glad to know that the sugar is fair trade too though :)
Comment by Siel — August 10, 2007 @ 9:06 am
I’m getting some of these in for TreeHugger–before I even saw your post–so you can read my verdict on how they taste when I get round to testing them.
Comment by Jasmin — August 10, 2007 @ 11:53 am