Photo courtesy of Buddy's Allergen Free
Laura Catron and son, Alex
They say there is nothing a parent won’t do for their child.
That is certainly true for Laura Catron, founder of Buddy’s Allergen Free. Her company sells single-serving, 1-minute microwavable mug cake mixes and frostings that are free of the top food allergens including gluten, eggs, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, sesame, lupin, shellfish, fish, celery, mustard, mollusk and sulfur dioxide.
Catron, who has a law degree and works as a realtor with the Seward Group, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, never dreamed she would own a baking company. “If you’d told me 20 years ago this is what I would be doing, this is not my background at all,” she said with a laugh.
It all started when her son, Alex, who goes by “Buddy,” complained about stomach aches. Catron at first thought it was anxiety-related because they moved around a lot for her husband’s military career. He had none of the other common intestinal symptoms of food allergies. She gave him bland foods like eggs, yogurt and toast thinking it would help but it didn’t. When the pain got worse after the military moved the family overseas to Norway, she knew she had to get to the bottom of it. After seeing multiple doctors, Alex was diagnosed with 22 food intolerances.
Catron was left reeling after hearing the diagnosis. “They went down a list with me. I’m a very positive person and so every time they would say something he couldn’t have I said in my head, it’s ok he can have this. Okay, he can’t have dairy, he can have soy milk…but it was like no gluten, no dairy, no soy, not nuts, no rice. By the end of that meeting I felt so defeated.” It took three months to clear out Alex’s system, which Catron said was the longest three months of her life.
Catron admitted that prior to her son's diagnosis, she didn’t really understand food allergies and was skeptical of parents who talked about their kids having them. Part of this was because she grew up in California where eating gluten-free was more of a trendy thing to do than a necessity for many people.
What hurt Catron the most to see was how Alex was left out because of his allergies. “He missed childhood stuff, like you go to school parties and there’s cookies, you go to birthday parties and there’s cake… I don’t think I realized how much treats are involved with childhood,” she explained.
This observation led Catron to start experimenting with treats that Alex could actually eat. She visited ethnic markets to learn about other types of flours like chickpea flour. Everything she made tasted awful she said. On top of that it took up a lot of time, ingredients were expensive and the baked goods she made would go bad fast and couldn’t be frozen so they often went to waste.
One day, one of Catron’s daughters was making a mug cake and gave her the idea of making a version that Alex could eat. She started out making powder mixes and icing in little snack bags for Alex.
The idea to turn the cakes into a business happened following a birthday party she held for Alex. She didn’t want to have to make something special just for him. She explained that for children with allergies “they feel so excluded, you feel so like here is a cake for everybody and here is a cake for you.” Instead she made a basket of the bagged cake and icing mixes that kids could mix and match. They were a hit and the kids shared the experience with their parents who in turn began to ask Catron for the recipes. With the support of her family and Alex’s desire to help other people, she started Buddy’s Allergen Free.
Catron said she had no idea how much work it would take to start the business. She only uses quality ingredients with no cross-contamination, which are very expensive. Combined with the cake's relatively short shelf-life (four to six months), FDA regulations, the website, production space, equipment and packaging, she admits her goal is to break even. The mixes are prepared at a kitchen on a small family farm in Winchester, Virginia that is free from the top 14 allergens.
For Catron, it’s not so much about the money as it is about how rewarding the work is.
“I love doing it, and I’m going as far as I can go with it. My goal with real estate is to make enough that I can pay people to start helping.” She has also considered expanding to small stores. Large grocery stores are often difficult to work with because they have very specific requirements around shelf life and sales numbers. She did sell the mixes on Amazon for a while but had to pull it during COVID-19 because of shut-down related logistics and the overwhelming number of orders she received.
One regular customer is a little girl with cancer. Her chemo treatments often leave her nauseous but one of the things she enjoys eating is the spice cake mix. “You feel like you’re really helping someone just with cake,” Catron smiled.
Buddy’s Allergen Free sells four different Buddy cake and frosting mixes – chocolate fudge, very vanilla, warm spice with salted date caramel frosting and confetti cake with summer strawberry frosting.
In addition to being allergen free, the mixes are also vegan and do not contain any artificial colors, preservatives, flavors or corn syrup. They are also easy to make for children and families with busy lifestyles. Catron says her family’s favorite flavors are chocolate or spice. The mixes can be ordered on the company’s website, buddysaf.com.
Photo courtesy of Buddy's Allergen Free
