Allergen information

Vivi confirmed each of these against her own recipes. They are ingredient declarations: what is deliberately in the cake. Underneath each one is the cross-contamination warning, which is a different thing — a warning about traces from a shared kitchen, and never a substitute for the declaration above it.

We publish what the baker has confirmed and nothing else. These questions are open, so the cakes they affect carry no answer either way — they are not listed as containing the allergen, and they are not listed as free from it. If one of them matters to you, email natandrosh@gmail.com and we will get the answer from Vivi before you order.

• Vanilla Cake — soybeans

  Is there any chocolate in the vanilla cake — in the sponge, the buttercream, or the piped decoration? If there is, soya must be declared.

  The recorded description says vanilla sponge and vanilla buttercream only, with no chocolate. The cake's photograph, however, shows chocolate flower piping ("ivory velvet finish with chocolate flower piping"). A description and a photograph disagree, and neither one may be trusted over the baker, so this is left open rather than decided.

• Red Velvet Cake — soybeans

  Does the red velvet sponge contain any cocoa or chocolate? If it does, soya must be declared.

  The recorded copy names only a buttermilk sponge and a cream-cheese frosting, and never says what makes it red velvet. Red velvet is conventionally made with cocoa, but a convention is not this bakery's recipe, and an allergen may not be inferred from a cake's name.

• Cupcakes — soybeans

  Which cupcake flavours contain chocolate? Soya has to be declared on each of those.

  The recorded copy says cupcakes come "in the same flavours as our full-size cakes", chosen per order, and several of those flavours contain chocolate. The declaration cannot be fixed until the flavour list is.

• Cupcakes — tree nuts

  Are pistachio cupcakes made? If they are, pistachio has to be declared as an ingredient on them, not left to the traces warning.

  Cupcakes are sold "in the same flavours as our full-size cakes", and the pistachio cake contains pistachio. A tree nut that is deliberately in the recipe is a declaration, not a cross-contamination risk.

Vivi also makes peanut cakes to order as bespoke commissions. They are baked in the same kitchen, using the same equipment as everything on the menu. Traces of peanuts and of tree nuts may therefore be present in any cake, including the cakes that do not list them as an ingredient.

That warning is about traces. It does not replace the ingredient declarations above, and it must never be read as covering something that is actually in a recipe — where a nut is an ingredient, the cake says so by name.

Everything is baked and decorated in one domestic-scale kitchen on shared surfaces, so we are not able to guarantee that any cake is free from any allergen, and we do not offer a verified allergen-free range. If your allergy is severe, please take that seriously when deciding whether to order.

UK law requires food businesses to declare these fourteen allergens. This list is the legal standard, and applies to every food business in the country — it is not a statement about what is in our cakes.

• Cereals containing gluten

  Wheat, rye, barley, oats

• Crustaceans

  Prawns, crab, lobster

• Eggs

• Fish

• Peanuts

• Soybeans

• Milk

  Including lactose

• Tree nuts

  Almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios, macadamia, Brazil nuts

• Celery

• Mustard

• Sesame

• Sulphur dioxide and sulphites

  Above 10mg/kg or 10mg/litre

• Lupin

• Molluscs

  Mussels, oysters, squid

Where a cake declares cereals containing gluten, we name the grain — wheat — as the regulation requires, rather than saying only “gluten”. Where it declares a tree nut, we name the nut.

The declarations above cover the menu range. For bespoke cakes, tell us about any allergy when you request your quote. We will confirm in writing what we can and cannot safely make before you pay anything. If we cannot make your cake safely, we will say so rather than take the order.

Nothing here is inferred from a cake’s name, its description or its photograph. Where the recipe records did not settle a question, it is listed above as still being confirmed rather than answered by guesswork.

Email natandrosh@gmail.com with the cake you are interested in and the allergen you need to avoid, and we will give you a straight answer from the recipe before you order.

Allergen information is also provided again with your cake when it is delivered, as required by the Food Information Regulations 2014.