Local mom launches allergy-aware business in Strathmore

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

When stay-at-home mother Kristen Dean’s eldest daughter showed signs of a life-threatening allergic reaction to peanuts six years ago, their kitchen was transformed into a nut-free zone. Being among numerous children unable to share in treats at birthday parties, school functions, and restaurants, demand rose for Dean to share her lifestyle, giving rise to Nut Out Cakes – Strathmore’s first completely nut-free bakery that has already received an overwhelming response for school lunch programs, birthdays, and weddings.
“Somebody like my daughter is really allergic to peanuts and she actually has to carry Epi-pens with her to school and physically have them on her all the time,” Dean said. “So somebody like her, she can’t chance having any amount of peanuts because she’s anaphylactic to them. So that means if she’s to ingest peanut she’ll probably stop breathing.”
Dean, who embarked on an engineering career that spanned 15 years before staying home with her two daughters one-and-a-half years ago, made the decision to launch her own baking business after being approached by various parents at her daughter’s school. Having had aspirations of attending a culinary and baking school as a high school student, Dean enrolled in several culinary courses at SAIT in September, received her business license and health permits, rented a facility, and enlisted her side-kick and secret weapon; her mother-in-law, who used to teach cake decorating for years.
Shortly after launching the business, Nut Out Cakes was approached to provide their nut-free products for the hot lunch program at Westmount Elementary School, and for the Little Flower Program at Sacred Heart Academy. Now the two-person operation averages 250 cupcakes for one school’s lunch program.
“It’s actually a lot busier than I thought it would be,” she said. “Most businesses you set it up and it takes a good six months for people to actually know who you are and order from you. I’m actually surprised at how popular it is. I thought I’d have a lot more pushback from the schools.”
The bakery has also provided their cupcakes to a number of birthday parties, including Hope Covenant Church’s 19th birthday celebration, has recently received interest from a school in Chestermere, and will soon be busy preparing their product for weddings this summer.
Because of her daughter’s allergy severity, the reputation of the business, and stating that the “may contain” label is voluntary, Dean said she contacts the manufacturers personally to ensure there were no peanuts or tree nuts present on the production line. Furthermore, the establishment refrains from using peanuts or tree nuts in their products, has pre-operational personnel and sanitation checklists, checks all product labels carefully, and receives recall warning emails from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on nut and peanut products.
“Obviously being nut-free, that’s for me the initial focus because that’s how I’ve been living for six years,” said Dean. “It’s things like food colouring, sprinkles, fondant, or candy, all of that may contain peanuts. That’s the stuff that’s really hard to find. The more I started researching the more I wanted to do it. I thought most of the people doing cakes may think I’m just not putting the peanut in it. But they’re not realizing how many products actually may contain on it.”
Dean continues to experiment with different flavours and is actively pursuing creating items catering to those with gluten or lactose intolerances.
To find out more about Nut Out Cakes, visit www.nutoutcakes.com.