Looks like Louisville won't have to ban trans fats

To me, this is comparing apples and oranges. I mean, if you smoke, you know the dangers. The trans fat thing is kind of a hidden danger that you can easily remove from society without really impacting anyone.

No one is out there consciously making a choice to buy products with trans fats as a life choice, unlike alcohol, tobacco, religion etc.

Also doesn't help that its called "trans-fat". Thats just not very scary. They should have called it like "death poison" or something.

I basically agree with this, and would add that banning trans fats is regulatory on industry, not on individuals.

Industry is made up of individuals.

So any regulation of industry is a regulation of individuals. A company is nothing more than a collection of individuals working towards an agreed upon purpose.

Personally, I dont give a damn about trans fat one way or another, but I do find it interesting that many of the same people pushing the ban were the ones pushing for the adoption of trans fat as a replacement for saturated fats.

Industry is made up of individuals.

So any regulation of industry is a regulation of individuals. A company is nothing more than a collection of individuals working towards an agreed upon purpose..

This sounds good in theory, but does not apply universally, especially in a capitalist system where most companies are operated as dictatorships. The line worker at Ford does not get to decide how the company allocates assets. Regulating Ford's asset allocation will not necessarily regulate the line worker. Furthermore, it is rare that a company in the contemporary sense, particularly large companies, are truly comprised of individuals working toward an agreed purpose. The goal of a single Century 21 agent is to sell houses, but the goal of the President of Century 21 is to develop and grow a real estate system. Again, in theory you might say that they have the same broad line goal, but that is akin to saying that the goal of all humans is to be happy.

Modern, capitalist companies, corporations and industries have grown beyond the sum of their parts (too big to fail, anyone?), and are now treated as entities all their own, not just a collective of individuals working toward a common goal.

[Robin Garr]

This sounds good in theory, but does not apply universally, ... Modern, capitalist companies, corporations and industries have grown beyond the sum of their parts (too big to fail, anyone?), and are now treated as entities all their own, not just a collective of individuals working toward a common goal.

Thank you for this reasoned analysis. I had a much more frustrated and blunt response but decided not to post it.

Industry is made up of individuals.

So any regulation of industry is a regulation of individuals. A company is nothing more than a collection of individuals working towards an agreed upon purpose..

This sounds good in theory, but does not apply universally, especially in a capitalist system where most companies are operated as dictatorships. The line worker at Ford does not get to decide how the company allocates assets. Regulating Ford's asset allocation will not necessarily regulate the line worker. Furthermore, it is rare that a company in the contemporary sense, particularly large companies, are truly comprised of individuals working toward an agreed purpose. The goal of a single Century 21 agent is to sell houses, but the goal of the President of Century 21 is to develop and grow a real estate system. Again, in theory you might say that they have the same broad line goal, but that is akin to saying that the goal of all humans is to be happy.

Modern, capitalist companies, corporations and industries have grown beyond the sum of their parts (too big to fail, anyone?), and are now treated as entities all their own, not just a collective of individuals working toward a common goal.

Even in the case of large corporations, the shareholders WHO DO CONTROL THINGS are groups of individuals. Employees are employees, whether in large or small companies (employees generally feel more "attached" and a part of smaller companies, but that isnt universal at all). Its the owners that are the group of individuals I was referring to.

I don't get the point about corporations being groups of individuals. One of the odd things, I think, about US law is that we treat corporations as persons (not groups of persons) with personal rights, in many respects. So, for instance, corporations have freedom of speech in the same way individuals do--not an obvious move (not concerned about speech here, just the giving of individual rights to corporations).

Anyway, back to trans fats. From what I've read, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts elminated trans fats, and didn't even tell their customers as they transitioned over, and no one noticed. Apparently the canned frosting business still relies on them.

Jessica, you know Im a huge fan of yours and your bakery. So Im hoping Im reading this statement wrong?

But when I think shortening, I think Crisco. When I think buttercream icing I think butter, and other fatty but mostly natural and non-industrial products (with maybe the exception of food coloring).

I sincerely hope Im not finding out that most "butter"cream icings are crisco with sugar and food coloring? Because that's disgusting.

Someone please clarify this? Because I will either need to stop ordering from local commercial bakeries or start insisting my icings arent made with crisco.

Doug- sorry to not answer this sooner. It's been a busy week so far.

There are several different types of buttercream. We actually make different kinds at Sweet Surrender. Traditional American style buttercream (also known as bakery icing), is most often made from butter, cream, powdered sugar, and more often than not some vegetable shortening. Many places use no butter and do all shortening (we call that bucketcreme around the bakery-gross!). We use butter in all of our various buttercreams (except for the vegan ones), but we also use a hi-ratio trans-fat free vegetable shortening in some of them (no Crisco- yuck!). This adds stability to the texture and composition of the buttercream. The hi ratio shortening does not have that filminess you get with Crisco and is much finer. When it comes to decorating wedding cakes and intricate cakes, especially with the crazy humidity we have here, pure butter buttercreams can melt, and we do a lot of outdoor wedding cakes in the summer. The small amount of the shortening also makes the consistency of the icing stiffer, which you need with some decor. I think you can tell from the taste of our traditional buttercream that it is mostly butter.

The French Buttercream we make for many of our cakes contains no shortening at all. It has a very soft, silky texture and a very buttery flavor. It is so soft in texture though, that you can not do any delicate piping or scrolling designs with it. I recommend trying it. We use it in our Mocha Concord and to ice our Apple Harvest Cake (which I currently have both of), just to name a couple. Personally, I prefer our traditional style buttercream, because I find the buttery flavor of the French Buttercream a little too much for me.

I hope this wasn't just more confusing...

I hope this wasn't just more confusing...

No that was awesome! Thanks for the follow up and putting my mind at ease, at least about ordering from you. I do appreciate you arming me with the knowledge to ask about contents, should I ever go to any other bakery though.