What Carrot Cake Fans Should Know About This Recent Recall
If we manage to ignore the details of a carrot cake recipe and just focus on its star ingredient, we might be able to convince ourselves that we are eating a superfood for dessert. After all, people should eat more carrots, and this spiced cake does contain them. Of course, it is also topped with a sweet and rather rich cream cheese frosting that's often decorated with carrot-shaped marzipan, which doesn't sound super from a nutritional standpoint. But other ingredients can cause even bigger issues.
A typical carrot cake can contain some walnuts and raisins. But, per Bon Appétit, raisins can spur some strong emotions. Maybe they would lead to a little debate in your household if you have children or young adults who behave like children living with you. If this is you, the site recommends skipping the raisins to preserve the peace. However, skipping ingredients is not so easy if you buy the cake from a bakery. That can come with risks far worse than a person getting their dander up, especially if an allergen enters the mix when making the cake batter. Even the ingredients label won't help if that allergen is added accidentally. So if you are indeed a devotee of carrot cake and have purchased some carrot cake squares from Leonard Novelty Bakery, you may want to listen up.
Certain carrot cake squares from Leonard Novelty Bakery may contain walnuts
Per the Food & Drug Administration, Leonard Novelty Bakery has recalled some of its carrot cake squares. Turns out there are some undeclared walnuts in these cake squares, and there are concerns about the allergic reactions that the nuts could cause. The announcement shared that the recalled products come with UPC code 0-96162-12483-8, and lot codes including SL21R 10222 12483, SL21R 10322 12483, and SL21R 10822 12483. These are the only squares affected.
What could some little walnuts do? The FDA shares that nut allergies can cause "life-threatening allergic reactions" when eaten. And while the agency is not aware of anyone experiencing any reactions from eating these little carrot cake squares, Leonard Novelty Bakery and the FDA are being extra careful to ensure it doesn't happen. According to the University of Manchester, if you suffer from a tree nut allergy and ingested some of these nuts, a range of reactions could happen, such as itching of the mouth and tongue in milder cases. But if the allergy is serious, hives, throat, swelling, and even lethal anaphylaxis could occur. So, if you are a fan of Leonard's carrot cake squares, check the UPC code on the packaging. And if it does happen to have one of these codes, toss the product or return it to where you purchased it because you're better off safe than sorry.