Let me start by saying that I am not attacking any commercial bakery or a commercial bakeries ability to sell what they must. I am looking at this from the vantage point of a consumer who has for years, purchased cakes from my local grocer when my energy was low and making a cake from scratch was the least of my priorities.

Some time ago, however I started to pay close attention to the ingredients in those prepared breads, cakes, cookies and pies purchased from the grocery store. I was somewhat shocked at the length of the ingredient label and what actually went into these products to maintain flavor, texture, color and enhance shelf-life. Did I miss something? Oh yeah, convenience.

I now understand why my parents and grand-parents or even, great-grands were so animate about buying local, eating fresh and baking from scratch.

As we move into the holiday season, remember there are many bakers, personal chefs, cooks, and caterers who are perfectly willing to provide you with fresh, local, handmade food without all the additives, preservatives, artificial flavors and shelf-life enhancers.

Why not purchase from folks who offer back-to-the-basics foods, like bread-maker Abraham Palmer of The Box Turtle Bakery, located in Carrboro, North Carolina where baked bread is alive and well and made with love and superior ingredients.

Abraham is not alone, on any given day you can locate a home food processor, local gluten free bakers, person chefs or caterers who sell down home goodness without all the artificial pomp and pageantry. So the next time you ponder about purchasing a store bought preservative/chemical filled cake consider reviewing this label or just look at the label on the product and ask yourself if you really want to consume all that stuff.

What happen to the days of butter, eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder, pinch of salt, buttermilk…?

Ingredient Label 1

Ingredient Label 2