Robotic innovations

Lots of robots have been, and will continue to be developed, for the purpose of making cakes, icing them, and some simple decorations. You have probably bought one of these cakes and taken it home from a local grocer. While there isn't anything wrong with these types of products, on the whole, they are not made with any human hands or artistry,

I was once a bakery department manager for a large local grocer, and my experience working there gave me fresh eyes for the manufacturing of these take-n-go cakes. These products are mass produced with a lot of preservatives and cheap ingredients. When I was working in the bakery department, we used frozen cakes from a factory and icings that came in a bucket. While these products can be called 'cake' by definition, they are very different that any cake made at any bakery any place else. In fact, I will claim that the box of cake mix is down the baking aisle is better.

The icing is called buttercream but has no butter involved, just butter flavoring, another chemical. This icing has 1 lb of fat to every 7 lbs of powdered sugar, real buttercream has a ratio of 2 lb of fat for every 4 lbs of sugar. The commercial icing is basicly wet sugar. The difference in taste and mouth feel is very large and often times it has customers saying that they don't like buttercream. I have often done tastings prior to ordering my cakes and even those who make the claim about their dislike to buttercream are often very surprised when they taste mine.

Another icing used at many retail bakeries are called whip cream but it is usually a product called "bettercream". This product is very much like cool whip from the frozen aisle. This, just like the last item, this product has none of the ingredients they are replacing, no cream involved. Both "bettercream" and Cool Whip are non-dairy products made from chemicals and preservatives.

The frozen cake layers bought from factories are using as many preservatives and chemicals they can shove into the mix as they can in order to prolong shelf life and make the highest profit possible. If I am not mistaken, the sell-by date is about a year long frozen, and during my time in grocery stores, I have never seen any of these cakes 'go bad' unless they were damaged or the freezer was broken.

Automation and innovation is inventing new ways to work and turn profits. The problem with this, in my realm of cakes, comes in with a lack of love, creativity, artistry, customization, and a reliance upon chemicals instead of real food.

Real foods are essential for the proper operation of the body, even if most people don't want to account for the calories that pastry supplies. Dessert isn't a bad word when speaking of nutrition, it is however, bad when you forgo eating them in moderation. A good meal should be highlighted by a perfect sweet finish, be it cake, custard, or fresh fruit.

Manufactured food, preserve laden, chemical combinations that are readily available in stores is not the way to eat.  Our bodies, oftentimes, don't even recognize them as food. Our digestion is taking hits all day. We are stuffing all sorts of chemicals into our daily intake without any sign of ceasing. Live long enough and you too will see the news reports that explain why the list of ingredients, that we sold to you as food, is banned due to the risk of another disease or aliment. Big pharma and food additive companies produce formulas and use mass media and sales staff to push the new hot product only to be sued years later by consumers due to the harm it cause.

I'm not against all shortcuts found in the neighborhood grocery store, but I am not in favor of reliance upon the corporate overlords for ingestion of foods. The goal of any corporation is, first and foremost, profit. The thinking at a corporation is if it won't cause harm and be profitable then it is okay to sell. The goal of doctors, nutritionist, and chefs must be a positive viewpoint about the value of the item, what the consumer will gain from eating this item. I want to know how important is this to consume. Price shouldn't be the only measurement used to judge a food.  The question shouldn't be why is this food expensive, but it should be why is this other item so cheap?

Chefs need to be health conscious and have a environmental outlook for their craft.  Industrialized foods were an effective tool for preserving and transporting food during WWII, but once the war ended the machines didn't stop running.  The love and care taken by mothers and grandmothers to produce and preserve jellies and jams, for example, was replaced by the unstoppable soulless steel.

Of course, it is more expensive to order a handcrafted item compared to factory made. Yes, it can be created by machines in the shortest times possible but the losses that are created can't be worth the effort.