Chrissy Teigen's Baking Mix Brand Is Under Fire For Ripping Off Designs
Model and television personality Chrissy Teigen is under fire for purportedly being a cake-mix copycat. The 36-year-old model has stirred up quite a mess for herself (via IMDb). Mixing with the food world is nothing new for Teigen, who published her first cookbook, "Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat," back in 2016. Since then, Teigen has published two additional cookbooks, "Cravings: Hungry for More," and "Cravings: All Together", even going so far as to share how her new cookbook saved her life (per Cravings).
Since getting herself established with her cookbook line, Teigen's Cravings brand has expanded to include attractively colored cookware and bakeware, kitchen accessories, and even cute branded aprons (via Cravings). Her cookware is currently available at Target, Walmart, and Bed Bath & Beyond, among other retailers. However, that may waver after this latest scandal. Teigen has been accused of stealing the artwork of a former collaborator for her latest Cravings endeavor (per Delish).
A different kind of bake off
It all started innocently enough this spring when New Zealand bakerJordan Rondel, the baker behind The Caker, received an Instagram love note from American model and burgeoning food empire-builder Chrissy Teigen about how much she'd loved one of Rondel's high-end cake mixes (per Rolling Stone). Before she knew it, the New Zealand native was collaborating with the model on a high-end baking mix called Cravings x The Caker Spiced Carrot Cake Kit with Salted Caramel, per Fox News.
The collaboration was almost called off while Cravings developed its own line of bake mixes until agreements were purportedly reached with the Caker. However, Rondel's fans were disappointed by Teigen's latest addition to the Cravings brand, high-end baking mixes and the packaging was the real shock. In response to comments on Cravings' post, Rondel noted that the graphic design on the Cravings baking mixes appeared strikingly similar to that used by The Caker on Instagram.
Teigen's camp claims Rondel was made aware that Cravings planned to expand into cake mixes and went ahead with the collaboration anyway. Representatives for Teigen and Cravings defended their box design, claiming that The Caker trends for bolder colors, and that the key difference lies in that The Caker uses a sleeve while Cravings is a traditional box. Rondel told Rolling Stone that no agreements between The Caker and Cravings were broken and that she sees this as an opportunity to better understand partnerships between smaller and larger companies and influencers.