Chrissy Teigen’s food website, Cravings by Chrissy Teigen, has been accused of “copying” the branding and recipes from a small business called The Caker.
Los Angeles-based baker Jordan Rondel, who owns The Caker, posted images of Teigen’s brand side-by-side with her own to show the percieved similarities in design.
The model and TV personality launched her cake mixes on Cravings on 20 October. The range consists of Chrissy’s Ultimate Banana Bread Mix, Buttermilk Mochi Pancake and Waffle Mix, and Salted White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Mix.
But on Monday (31 October), Rondel wrote in an Instagram post: “Sooo this has happened. Chrissy Teigen released her own line of elevated baking mixes (pictured here alongside mine) right after we collaborated on a cake mix together.
“I have no issue with anyone releasing baking mixes, but I think you guys are right that this particular situation isn’t chill, especially because we’re just a small sister-run business.
“Chrissy was actually lovely to work with and I don’t want this to turn into a dramatic witch hunt, I just want to say thank you to my community,” she continued.
Rondel claimed that Cravings “tried to call our collaboration off” after releasing the new range of mixes.
“I don’t want to get into details, but we fought to continue because we’d already invested so much, and now this,” she added.
The Independent has contacted Cravings and Teigen for comment.
In September, Rondel released a carrot cake mix that was created in collaboration with Teigen, but she told New Zealand website Stuff that Cravings attempted to call it off because it had secured “a new equity partner”.
She claimed that Teigen responded to her requests to continue the partnership and said: “[Teigen] was really nice and upstanding, and she said that she didn’t know about this other line they were about to release, and she was sorry and let’s go ahead.”
Rondel said she also wanted reassurance from Cravings that the cake mix line it was releasing would not be too similar to her own creations.
“It couldn’t look the same, it couldn’t be at the same price point, it couldn’t even be the same sales model, and they assured us that none of that would be the same,” she added.
However, the similarities between Cravings’ range and her own came as a “shock” once the former launched the mixes on social media.
The baker, who is a judge on New Zealand’s Great Kiwi Bake Off, said she felt “like some heavy inspiration has been taken”.
