Beware of the Carrot Cake

We bought a carrot cake at work today to celebrate one of my colleague's birthday. In the accounting department, we have one person who is a devout Muslim. Normally when we celebrate birthdays, he does not partake in eating the cake because of his religious dietary restrictions (i.e. Halal). One of the restrictions on the list is "rennent". What da heck is rennent you may ask?! Well, the defintion is "Substance containing rennin, obtained from the stomach of a calf or other ruminant, used for curdling milk in making cheese and junket". You know, before today, I didn't know what rennent was either!

Anyway, we bought a carrot cake. The white icing looked like whipped cream, so without a thought I handed a slice of cake to my Muslim colleague. Without a thought, he accepted it and started to eat it. About 5 minutes after the birthday celebration ended, my Muslim colleague came into my office and asked again what was in the cake. Apparently, after speaking to some other people, he was told that the icing was not whipped cream, but cream cheese. And here's the kicker: cream cheese is generally made with rennent! Oooops.

I felt so bad that I immediately got on the phone and called the bakery. My Muslim colleague said that not all cream cheese is made with rennent, but cream cheese made by Kraft is. So, I asked the bakery store manager about the ingredients and he tells me that it's made with Philadelphia Cream Cheese. A quick search on the internet revealed that Philadelphia Cream Cheese is made by no other than Kraft!!! Embarrassment on my part ensued and a feeling of guilt fell over my Muslim colleague. It was kind of funny, but not really.

So, I learned something new today. It was a good day, sort of.