What makes it the perfect cake? Is it the intensity of the lemon? The moistness of the crumb? The sweetness of it leaves on the tongue? Ideally, it is all of those things, but for those of us with allergies, the perfect cakes are the ones we can eat.

This week, amongst my many other tasks, I wanted to bake a cake for a business event I was attending, and because both I, and one of the other attendees, have severe allergies, I had to be hyper specific about the ingredients in the cake I wanted to serve. If you’ve ever had, or known someone with intense food allergies, you’ll know they get very skittish around food with no ingredients, or even homemade items made by well-meaning people who don’t specify what they’ve used. So because of this, I tend to write out ingredients lists of the things I make from scratch that I’m taking to events with new people or people I know have food limitations. That way they can decide whether or not to eat it.

Now I know you’re asking me, but what does this have to do with Mileage? Well in this case, writing the hyper specific list of ingredients made me wonder how much mileage had been involved in this cake to bring it to the table of the open house event I was intending. So today, I want to work that out together, and also, maybe leave you with the ingredients to a wonderful eggless lemon bundt cake.

So let’s look at the ingredients together:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp lemon zest
• 2 tsp of vinegar
• 2 tbsp of baking powder
• 1/4 cup of plain high protein yogurt
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup milk (whole or 2%)
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon Icing

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2-3 Tbsp lemon juice

So the obvious answer is, well, however mileage it took you to go to the grocery store, pick up the ingredients and then to drive the finished cake to the event. It’s maybe at best $20 of mileage depending on how far the new club is. Right?

WRONG.

While the mileage for me may equate to that, there’s so much more possible mileage money possible in this singular cake than really even I fathomed when I began this project. So let’s start at the top.

1. Butter

So butter is obviously a byproduct of milk, which inherently requires cows, but to prevent this case from becoming overly complicated, let’s just start with where each product is made and not worry about things like “where did the cows come from,” which would add a whole new layer of potential mileage that might never end. Usually a farm will produce the milk, which will then be sent to a processing plant, which will then be sent to a grocery store.

Let’s be generous and assume an entirely in province process. From a dairy farm in Alymer to a Creamery in Alliston is 217km and from there to a grocery store in Brampton is 164 km.

So JUST for the butter is 381 km, assuming the entire process is within Ontario.

381*$0.67 (the CRA mileage rate after 5,000 km) is $255.27 in mileage deductions just for the butter alone.

2. Granulated Sugar

Sugar is not grown in Canada and while sugar cane definitely can be shipped by boat, we are going to assume it is shipped by air and processed within Ontario.
So from the airport to the only Sugar refinery in Ontario is 25km. Then to the packaging plant is 187 km and back to the titular grocery store in Brampton, 228 km.

25+187+228 = 440 *$0.67 = $294.80

3. Vinegar

While acetic acid may need to be shipped in, we’re assuming that it doesn’t need to be and the major portion of vinegar production is the fermentation,which can be done and bottled in singular location.

So from one vinegar producing plant in Ontarion back to our grocery store is 95 km.

95*$0.67 = $63.65

4. Baking Powder

Baking powder is a little harder to source manufacturing as many of the large food conglomerates consolidate manufacturing shelf stable products and then ship them to their distribution centres. So let’s assume this is imported. This one will go a little out of its way because of it.

From the Airport to one of the major distribution centres is 30 km. Then from there to our grocery store is 21 km.

30 +21 = 51 * $0.67 = $34.17

5. High Protein Yogurt

While this might suffer some of the same distribution woes as baking powder, it is also possible that it is produced locally, so that’s what we’re going to assume. Yogurt can be produced on site, so it doesn’t necessarily need to be taken to processing facilities for a local farm.

So from a yogurt producing farm in Ontario to our agreed grocery store is 541 km.

541*$0.67 = $362.47

6. Salt

We will repeat our step from Baking Powder.

$34.17

7. Flour

Fortunately in Ontario, about 6 million acres of land are devoted to grain production, so there are many options of location. So we will assume a farm within 10 km of a local grain elevator, assuming then it is immediately shipped to processing plant 110 km away. At which point the grocery store is only 17.2 km.

10 + 110 +17.2 = 137.2 *$0.67 = $91.92

8. Cornstarch

See baking powder and salt.
$34.17

9. Milk

See Butter.
$255.27

10. Sour Cream

See Butter and Milk.
$255.27

11. Lemon Juice and Rind (assuming that I squeezed fresh lemons).

Lemons will need to be imported, but might be taken into distribution and frozen until needed before being shipped. In Ontario’s case there is a large citrus conglomerate within the province that will import and then distribute to various local vendors.

So from the airport to their distribution is 95 km. And from there to the grocery store is 92 km

95+92 = 187 *$0.67 = $125.29

12. Powdered Sugar

We will assume this is the same as the granulated sugar.
$294.80

So when we total this up, my perfect lemon cake was worth $2101.25 of mileage deductions only in Canada, before my $20 of trips ever came into it. There are obviously some possibilities that things like the baking powder, salt, and cornstarch were shipped en masse to a grocery store, but it is equally likely that they came in different shipments. This blog is to demonstrate how much travel goes into the basics of what most people consider daily life and while not all travel has a business purpose, there is a surprising amount of business value in even small and everyday items.

Hey. You’re still here. This was your sign from the universe to go get your mileage money. (https://www.mileagetrakker.net/ ) Go. Shoo. Take this lemon cake recipe with you and make your own $2100 lemon cake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Cream the butter until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. If the butter is really cold, either chop it into smaller pieces or wait for it to soften a little before beating.
2. Add granulated sugar and lemon zest together and then mix with the butter and mix until it is well combined.
3. Add the vinegar, first set of baking powder and the high protein yogurt to the butter and mix.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk salt, baking powder, all purpose flour and cornstarch together. Set aside.
5. Mix lemon juice, milk and vanilla extract together. This will curdle the milk a little, don’t be alarmed.
6. Alternately, add the flour mixture and milk mixture to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until everything is just combined.
7. Add in sour cream and mix until you can’t see the sour cream anymore
8. Grease your bundt cake pan with your favourite greasing agent and coat with flour, then pour the batter evenly into the pan. Don’t skip the flour step. It helps make sure the cake comes out clean and you don’t lose chunks out of what will be the top of your cake.
9. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
10. Allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes, then remove the cake from the bundt pan and allow it to finish cooling on a wire rack or plate.