Interview With NBC

My son't allergist, Dr. Maria Garcia, called me yesterday at 12 noon, and asked if I could be at UCLA by 2 p.m. to be interviewed by Channel 4 news regarding my son's severe food allergies.

Apparently, a study from Northwestern University was published over the weekend that estimates the amount of kids with food allergies as being much higher than previously thought. Although seemingly bad news, the good thing about this is that now maybe there will be more awareness and more funding for research to find a cure.

Here is the link to the segment that was aired last night.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Kid_Food_Allergies_Los_Angeles-124228193.html

Cupcakes Take The Cake Blog Interviews Moi!

I am honored to share with you an interview that the very popular blog, Cupcakes Take The Cake, did with me, that appeared today.


What do you do when your child is born with multiple life-threatening food allergies? If you’re Debbie Adler ofSweet Debbie’s Organic Cupcakes, you learn a whole new way of baking, and start a national business in the process. Based in Los Angeles, Sweet Debbie’s provides made-to-order allergen-free cupcakes and sweets, shipped all over the country. Read the full interview to find out more about her business, how she started baking for celebrity clients including Gwyneth Paltrow, and how she almost gave birth while delivering cupcakes. 

Name: Debbie Adler

Location: Los Angeles, CA 

Website: http://www.sweetdebbiesorganiccupcakes.com/

1. How did you get started baking cupcakes?
   My initial idea was to create a sugar-free bakery using all natural sweeteners, since white refined sugar is really so poisonous to your body. The cupcake craze was just beginning and people were lining up outside bakeshops all around the country to eat sugar-laden, saturated fat-filled cupcakes. So I thought by making mine healthful, I could save the world one cupcake at a time.
   
2. Do you have any training?
   Yes, the Culinary Institute of Trial & Error Sugar-free, Allergen-free Organic Baking.
3. What other kinds of products do you offer?
   We also offer allergen-free, sugar-free organic brownies, muffins and cookies.
   
4. What inspired you to go organic and gluten free?
   We are actually completely allergen-free, which means we bake with no dairy, no casein, no eggs, no wheat, no nuts, no tree nuts, no soy and, of course, no sugar. I was inspired to do this because a gun was put to my head. The gun was called food allergies. My son was born with multiple and life threatening food allergies and I had to learn how to bake safely for him. I soon learned there are millions of other children and adults with this same fate, and my goal was to make treats that everyone can enjoy safely and deliciously no matter what their allergies.
   
5. What are the biggest challenges to allergen-free baking?
   The biggest challenges to allergen-free baking are you have no eggs to help the dough rise and you have no gluten to keep it together. The no dairy is not that big a deal because there is rice milk and other milk substitutes that stand-in nicely. The other big challenge was finding a great all natural, low-glycemic sweetener that would lend a moist crumb as well as a pleasant sweetness with no aftertaste. That bill was filled with agave nectar and stevia. I have learned to successfully bake with stevia and I would say that was the biggest challenge of all.
   
6. Is there any ingredient you just can't find a substitution for?
   There’s no substitute for hard work and a belief in yourself that it can be done. I learned 189 ways how not to make allergen-free cupcakes. On the 190th try, I finally learned how to do it.
   
7. Do you have a signature cupcake, or a personal favorite?
   I’d have to say my personal favorite is the Chocoholic Cupcake. Like any self-respecting woman, I have a one track mind when it comes to chocolate.
   
8. Where are you doing your baking? Do you use a rental kitchen space, own a commercial kitchen, or bake from home?
   We rent a commercial kitchen.
   
9. Have you ever considered opening a store as opposed to the shipping method?
   Maybe one day.
   
10. Your website boasts some pretty impressive celebrity clientele. How did you start catering to that base? 
    It all started with a call from Gwyneth Paltrow’s people. We were asked to do Apple’s and Moses’ birthday parties. When Gwyneth likes a product she becomes its advocate, and luckily, she has lots of friends. Yes, we’ve gotten celebrity clients from other sources, but I’d have to say Gwyneth was the first celebrity to take a chance on us at the very beginning.
    
11. Anyone you're dying to bake a cupcake for?
    I’m dying to bake for anyone with food allergies or sensitivities that hasn’t had a good cupcake, brownie, muffin or cookie in a really long time and is really chomping at the bit to have one.
    
12. What is the best business advice you've ever gotten?
    "Everyone has the will to win, but it's only those with the will to prepare that do win." – Bobby Knight
    
13. Any advice you wish someone had given you before you started?
    To be patient.
    
14. What’s the most difficult aspect of running your own business?
    How to be a full-time mommy and full-time entrepreneur in the same time zone.
    
15. Do you work with original recipes?How do you come up with those?
    I had no choice but to come up with original recipes because what I wanted to do was almost non-existent at the time. I came up with the allergen-free, sugar-free organic recipes by substituting one thing at a time until each element worked in conjunction with the other. It was a long and arduous process.
    
16. Where do you see yourself in five years?
    I would like to teach others how to bake allergen and sugar-free, so if they can’t buy baked goods from an allergen-free bakery, for whatever reason, they can do it themselves.
    
17. How do you market yourself? Is it largely word of mouth?
    Our website is our greatest marketing tool and, yes, good old fashioned word-of-mouth plays the largest part.
    
    
18. How does social media play a role in your business?
    Social media is a great way for us to be seen and heard universally.
    
19. Any cupcake horror stories?I had to deliver 350 cupcakes to Annaheim for Stonyfield Farm’s 25th Anniversary Celebration while I was in labor. Contractions every 7 minutes and it was an hour in each direction to the convention center. I made it without incident, but it was close.

All Stevia Is Not Created Equal

In December of 2008, the FDA came out and said that it had "no objection" to the use of stevia in food and beverages. It was not an all out commitment to stevia, since apparently the FDA is afraid of the "c" word when it comes to healthful, zero-calorie sweeteners that might replace toxic aspartame. But, at least it was a start. Up until then, food companies could not legally use stevia in their products unless it was marked as a supplement.  Cupcakes as a vitamin anyone?

So this was a glorious moment for Sweet Debbie's since sweetening our baked goods with stevia was on the top of our "to do" list as soon as it was not considered a crime. My team went out and bought every stevia product on the market and went to town.

Baking with stevia is a challenge, but that's a story for another blog post. The companies we tested all use stevia as the sole sweetener in the product as opposed to combining it with, let's say, erythritol, as Cargill does with Truvia.

So, we got stashes of the NOW Stevia Extract, KAL Pure Stevia Extract, Stevita, Sweet Leaf, Stevia Extract in the Raw, Trader Joe's Stevia Extract, and NuNatural's NuStevia.  We baked away and to our sweet surprise, there was one clear winner.

KAL Pure Stevia Extract was far superior to any other brand. It was smooth and sweet, without any licorice-like aftertaste. You can bake with it, put it in coffee or lemonade and still get that same great sweetness.

Just so you know, KAL does not pay us for saying this. They probably don't even know we use their brand in our bakery. I just wanted to let you know, so you don't have to go out and spend your pay check on every brand of this expensive sweetener. Or you can just go online and order Sweet Debbie's stevia-sweetened goodies and leave the baking to us!

An Ode to Moe

April 8th is Moses Martin's birthday. Moses is the progeny of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin. Lovely Gwyneth has ordered from my bakery for various family member's birthdays when she happens to be celebrating in Los Angeles.

I mention this because the first time she ordered I had no idea the cupcakes were for her. A young girl's voice was on the other line and she had her very own debit card. She even mentioned she might have to add money to it in order to pay.

The order had to be delivered on a Sunday and I did it myself. No big deal...until I got buzzed into the Brentwood estate. I walked up the stone path and knocked on the glass door. A tall, blonde woman (everyone seems tall to 5' me) was doing yoga on a mat just inside. She approached the door. Could it be? No. OMG! It was! It was GP herself in a tight-fitting, black yoga outfit. No make-up, alittle shimmer of sweat...she was stunning. She opened the door, looked at the cupcakes through the clear cellophane box and said, "Wow!" She reached down to take them from me and all I could muster in my sheer and utter shock was, "Be careful!" That was it. She smiled, took the cupcake box with both hands (she takes direction well) and said good-bye.

That was my close encounter with glowing Gwyneth. She has ordered many times since then, and it is always one or another young woman on the phone with her very own debit card. But I have yet to see Mrs. Martin herself during deliveries.

No matter. She is a loyal customer and so supportive of small business. Someone like herself can order from anywhere, and she usually chooses up and coming start-ups or women driven businesses because that's just the kind of gal she is.

So this post is in honor of Gwyneth and her beautiful family. And, of course, we at Sweet Debbie's, wish Moses a very, very happy 5th birthday. (even though the cupcakes aren't coming from Sweet Debbie's this year:).

A Hankering for Hemp

Just so you know, hemp seed has nothing to do with marijuana, since it does not contain THC, and it doesn't make you all high and hungry. As a matter of fact, hemp seed has so much dietary fiber that it has been known to aid in weight loss. Also, hemp contains heart-healthy Omega 3 and 6 and vitamins A, B, D and E. Calcium and iron are also in there. Pretty impressive, huh?

As if that weren't enough, hemp is also a complete protein. So, since many of my customers are vegan, I came up with a recipe for hemp muffins, and I'd like to share it with you, my devoted followers. The muffins are not yet offered on the Sweet Debbie's menu, so you're getting first dibs.

Hemp Spice Muffins

2 cups gluten-free flour (Bob's Red Mill)

1/4 cup hemp powder (Nutiva)

1/3 cup hemp seeds

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

1 tablespoon hemp oil

2/3 cup agave

1 1/3 cup rice milk

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 325F. Generously grease 2, 6-cup muffin tins ( I like the larger ones) with grapeseed oil; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, hemp powder, hemp seeds, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Combine hemp oil, grapeseed oil, agave, rice milk and vanilla. Mix slowly and thoroughly with dry ingredients.

Pour into greased cups, about 2/3 full and put into oven. Rotate racks (bottom one on top and vice versa) after about 12 minutes. Bake about 20 - 25 minutes. Take out of oven and put onto wire racks until cool. Take muffins out of tin, put onto wire racks and cool completely.

Let me know how they come out!

The Fabric of Friendship

I met my best friend Elissa when I was 10-years-old at a day camp on Long Island in New York. At first she thought I was a bitch. I guess shyness can be interpreted that way, even with the best of prepubescent intentions.

I only went to that camp for a month, but Elissa and I stayed in touch. Every holiday vacation either my dad would drive me out to Woodbury to stay with her for a few days, or her dad would drive her to Queens to visit me. Even though her house was only 20 minutes away, it seemed like a great distance and I suffered from jet lag both ways.

Elissa was a domestic goddess. She sewed her own clothes, made her own outfit for her Bat-Mitzvah and then weaved her own wedding gown. How many of us gals can say THAT?

Of course, as life went on, our physical distance from each other grew as we moved to different states. For a brief stint, she even moved to France when she married her husband. Talk about jet lag.

Now she resides in Massachusetts with her two lovely girls and French hubby. And recently, my family and I moved to the suburbs of Los Angeles. Elissa tells me that when she moved, she was greeted with baskets of fresh vegetables and fruit from the gardens of her neighbors and other such lovely gestures. We've been in our new home for nine months now and no one has brought over a tomato or an orange or even a hello. The only communication we've had has been with our next door neighbor who asked us to pay to fix a wall on HIS SIDE of the property line.

So yesterday, we received a parcel post in a box wrapped in brown paper addressed to my 3-year-old. I opened it up and took out an exquisite patchwork quilt, hand sewn and carefully crafted to meet the taste of my discerning son. Of course it was from Elissa in honor of my son's birthday. Never mind my son - I really needed this blanket. Made with such care, attention to detail, and love. I can wrap myself (and, all right, my son, too) in this patchwork of fabric and feel the closeness of a person who I know will always be there for me.

There is no price you can put on such a gift, as the gift of a friendship that has lasted 39 years. (OK, so now you know how old I am).

Hypnobirthing Is For The Birds

When I received the official news that I was pregnant (2 pink lines!) I immediately decided that I wanted to go ‘au natural’ for the birthing process. I even flirted with the notion of hauling a birthing tub into our cramped apartment and giving birth underwater like a whale.

My physician husband wouldn’t hear of it. He wisely pointed out that if, heaven forbid, there were an emergency, what would we do. Call Seymour, the carpenter from down the hall, to come in and lend a helping hand? We needed to be in a hospital, end of story.

OK. I agreed to not birth in the bedroom, but what about taking a birthing class? Lamaze, The Bradley Method..there was so much to choose from. Yet, nothing seemed exactly right. Then I stumbled upon a method that did sound right up my alley. Hypnobirthing. You learn how to hypnotize yourself into a state of otherworldliness where you think about colors and meadows and the dawn’s early light. And then supposedly you don’t feel any pain. Voila, now this was the method for me.

So, armed with a thesis on why this was the only way to go, I asked my husband if he’d take a hypnobirthing course with me. He agreed without missing a beat. I was shocked. There was no argument, no resistance, not even a chuckle. Men.

So, on the first day of class, I knew I’d made the right choice. Melissa Joan Hart, (aka Sabrina the Teenage Witch) was in attendance. Ready and willing to hypnobirth her son into the world, too. Sometimes the stars are just right in alignment.

And accordingly, I was in heaven. Closing your eyes, and counting, and thinking about strawberry fields forever is really easy…WHEN YOU’RE NOT IN PAIN! I completed the four week course successfully by breathing slowly and writing out an exhaustive birthing plan, instructing nurses, doctors and anyone else in the labor and delivery room to not give me any drugs under any circumstance while I was taking up residence there.

And then I had my first labor pain. How the hell are you supposed to breath, count or do any other such ridiculous thing when someone is hammering inside your womb so hard you feel like you’re going to implode! Needless to say, after eight hours of this nonsense, I told my husband to high-tail it to UCLA. Upon entering the L&D suite, I handed the admitting nurse my birthing plan and told her to shove it, I mean, shred it, and then I ordered the doctors to give me an epidural...STAT!

It was the smartest thing I ever did. The epidural allowed me to relax, enjoy the process of giving birth to my son, and not curse my husband out, even once, throughout the entire process.

After all was said and done, I asked my husband why he so readily agreed to this hypnobirthing crap, I mean class. He said, “Oh, I was just humoring you.” Men.

Oh, and by the way, Melissa actually did hypnobirth her son into the city of Los Angeles. What can I say? She’s a better witch than I.