See also the “Quick Allergen Reference Chart” showing which products we use the most common allergens.

100% Gluten-free
We ask for written guarantees from all our suppliers testifying to the gluten-free-ness of all our ingredients. (Except for produce, like the carrots. But we wash those thoroughly.) We only buy our flour from Authentic Foods (except for a few things from Bob’s, from their gluten-free line.) Our vanilla is certified by the GFCO (gluten-free certification organization). Our employees don’t bring any gluten-containing food into the premises, even for a minute.

Dairy/casein-free
Everything we use (again, except for fresh produce, like carrots) is certified kosher-parve. That means no meat, poultry, pork, or shellfish. That also means no casein, no lactose, - no dairy derivatives of any kind.

Base ingredients
All our baked goods start with our base blend of California-grown brown-rice flour and tapioca starch. We may add potato starch, corn starch, sweet rice flour, millet, flax, organic amaranth or organic quinoa. We don’t currently offer any rice-free or tapioca-free baked goods, sorry to say.

What about soy? Eggs?

Let’s start with soy:
Instead of butter we use this really great stuff called Earth Balance margarine. It’s 100% vegan, non-hydrogenated, non-gmo, but it does contain soy in the “vegetable oil blend.” We use it in the cookies, some of the muffins, and the chocolate cake. Now, some people who are normally sensitive to soy have reported to us that they don’t react to the Earth Balance. I suspect that they are sensitive to the typical, cheap, genetically-modified soy that they get at most American establishments, but that the higher-quality stuff doesn’t bother them. BUT, I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. If you or your child is severely sensitive or actually allergic to soy, please use extreme caution!

We don’t use any soy flour but we do use soy milk in the chocolate glaze and the chocolate ganache frosting. If we substitute rice milk, it doesn’t set up properly. We figured, since the chocolate itself contains soy lecithin, anyone actually allergic to soy couldn’t eat it anyway. The alternative is almond milk, but then we’d also condemn the nut-allergic to a world without ganache.

If you’re into chocolate and not soy, you should try the chocolate-zucchini muffins (incredible.)
Finally, there is some soy lecithin in the “milk” we use - the

Eggs: We use local, cage-free but not organic whole eggs, and local, kosher egg-whites. We try to have one vegan item per category (vegan = no eggs, no dairy obviously, and no honey or other animal by-products) i.e., our vegan morning-glory muffin, vegan snickerdoodle cookie, vegan gf-oat loaf, and vegan/soy-free pizza (with our signature cashew-tahini “cheese.” Which leads me to:)

Nuts: We are a PEANUT-free facility, but we use tree-nuts all over the place. There’s almond meal in almost all of the breads except for the vegan gf-oat loaf and not in the vegan pizza crust, but watch out for the cashew cheese on the prepared pizza and in the macaroni and cheese!

No almond or nuts in the chocolate cake or the brownies.

Do we use natural or artificial food coloring?

The short answer to that is, “yes.” We can do either. We’re not such purists that ….
Sugar

Fats