nut free (trace as well) baking

[JohnStuartMills]

I'm baking little buns for a birthday celebration. I was surprised that almost all the colours and flavouring and decorations for icing possibly contained traces of nuts on labels. I whittled it down to the good to know website and picked out 2 recipes.

The first is smarties cupcakes and the second is victorias raspberry cupcakes.

I have 2 questions. The first is what can i substitute for cornflour in raspberry recipe. I only realised when I got home it stated possibly trace of nut. The second question is re bournville cocoa powder. Is this ok? I'm using treatsize smarties as well. Nobody with an actual nut allergy, but am worried now. Is condensed milk ok?

Please help as will be baking tomorrow.

So let me get this straight - nobody will be eating these that has an actual nut allergy?

I think that you're worrying way too much - even my friend with a serious peanut allergy and 2 epi-pens in her bag eats things that say "made in a factory that also processes nuts".

What you're making sounds lovely. I can't imagine why condensed milk or cocoa powder or cornflour or smarties would cause any problems at all. Anyone with a severe nut allergy will know what they can and can't eat and will carry an epi-pen anyway.

As a lawyer, I can tell you that often they put these disclaimers on both to help allergy sufferers but also to cover their backs in case of litigation!! In the States I once saw a bottle of water that said "may contain traces of tree nuts"

My son is very allergic to nuts and we use cornflour and Bournville cocoa is fine.

If you have no one with an actual allergy you are thinking about all this FAR too much - just bake like you normally would!