Favorite Cake Recipes

Last month was Owen's birthday. We celebrated with a delicious cake. I must admit, our cakes have come a LONG way from when the kids were first diagnosed with their allergies. Of course it helps that Owen can now have wheat.

I decided it appropriate to post our favorite cake recipes. One of my friends from college wrote a post about her daughter's first birthday and how they didn't have cake because they couldn't find one she could eat. I felt horrible, knowing that I have so many different recipes. Here goes!

Banana Cupcakes

3/4 cup sugar (OR 1 tsp stevia)
1/2 cup butter, margarine or oil
2 eggs (OR 3 tsp egg replacer mixed with 4 TB water OR an extra banana)
1 cup mashed bananas with 1 tsp baking soda mixed in
2 Tb milk (cow, soy, rice) or water
1 tsp baking powder (OR 1/4 tsp baking soda mixed with 1/2 tsp of lemon juice)
1 3/4 cup flour (wh. or br. wheat, spelt, or rice flour OR my favorite mix: 1 cup br. rice flour, 2/3 cup chickpea flour, 1/3 cup tapioca flour – this mix can be used in place of wheat in almost all recipes)
pinch of salt

Bake cupcakes at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes.

This recipe is so versatile for almost every diet. Originally this was a banana bread recipe, and can be made in loaf form, however I found if I added some vanilla frosting, it made great cupcakes.

Vanilla Cupcakes

3 eggs (or 4.5 tsp egg replacer mixed with 6 TB water)
1 1/2 cups sugar (or 1 1/2 tsp stevia)
2 sticks of butter (or the equivalent of oil or margarine)
3 cups of rice flour
2 tsp baking powder (or 1/2 tsp baking soda mixed with 1 tsp lemon juice)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1 1/4 cups rice milk mixed with 1 1/2 TB lemon juice)

Bake at 350 degrees. 10-12 minutes for cupcakes.

This recipe comes from The Kid Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook by Leslie Hammond and Lynne Marie Rominger.

Yellow Cake

1/2 cup margarine or oil

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (optional)

2 eggs (or 2 bananas or 2/3 cup pumpkin puree or 1 tbsp. egg replacer with 4 tbsp. water)

2 1/2 cups wheat flour (or gluten free flour mix)

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease and flour the bottoms (not the sides) of three 8-inch round, two 9-inch round, or one 10-by 15-inch oblong cake pan(s). (I have only made cupcakes with this recipe, if you have to omit the egg, I'm uncertain if the cake will turn out.)

Cream the margarine (or substitute), sugar, and vanilla and lemon extracts well together; add the eggs (or substitute) and beat and beat until very light and fluffy. Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together.

Add the water to the batter along with the sifted dry ingredients, and stir only until well mixed. Turn the batter into the prepared cake pans.

Bake until done; the layers take about 25 minutes, the oblong cake takes about 30 to 35 minutes. Cupcakes take 15 to 20 minutes.

This recipe is from The Milk-Free Kitchen by Beth Kidder, with substitutes added by me.

This is a delicious cake! We love to add allergy friendly chocolate chips to the batter or allergy friendly sprinkles to make it extra special.

Quick Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/3 cup oil

1 cup water

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 tbsp. almond liqueur (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9-inch round or an 8-inch square pan. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together into a bowl. Measure the brown sugar and add it. (If the brown sugar is very lumpy, you may want to break the clumps up with your fingers.) Stir the dry ingredients well. Mix the oil, water, and vanilla together, then add them to the dry ingredients and stir just until all the dry bits are wet. Turn the batter into the prepared pan or cupcake liners. Bake the cake for 30 minutes. Bake cupcakes for 15 to 20 minutes.

This recipe is from The Milk-Free Kitchen by Beth Kidder.

We also love to add chocolate chips to this recipe too!

When it comes to frosting our cakes we use a basic recipe.

Frosting

3 cups sifted confectionery sugar

1/2 cup margarine

3-4 tbsp. water

If you want to make chocolate frosting subtract 1/3 cup sugar for 1/3 cup cocoa.

If you can't use any type or margarine, subtract it from the recipe, add more water a tbsp. at a time until desired consistency and add safe vanilla for flavor.

We are unable to use dyes at our home so instead I'll add fruit juices instead of water to make desired colors.

I do have many more cake recipes but these are the ones that I have tried myself and can guarantee results.

A couple things to remember:

Cakes made without eggs usually have difficulties cooking all the way through. It's easier to make cupcakes.

Cakes made with non wheat flours cook differently. Double check to make sure cake is done before removing it from the oven.

Margarine and oil can usually be used interchangeably. When oil is called for, applesauce can be used in its place.

Milk of any kind and water can usually be used interchangeably, although cakes with water tend to be a little bit more dense and dry.

Eggs can be replaced with egg replacer (a potato powder), bananas (one for one), pumpkin (1/3 cup per egg), and sometimes other fruits.

Enjoy!

Owen's Third Birthday

Owen turned 3 on January 23rd. It's so hard planning birthday parties in the middle of the winter where the average temperature is 0 degrees F. This year happened to be the first year that one set of grandparents could even attend because there wasn't the usual Lake Effect Snow Warning. Throw in food allergies and you've got yourself quite the dilemma. But as always, I do believe we conquered this one!

Owen chose to have a Thomas the Train Birthday Party. Thankfully creating the atmosphere was easy since our train table is in the middle of our living room. During the party all of the children enjoyed playing with the trains. To entertain older children and adults, I had picked up a few Thomas the Train games: Bingo, Birthday Thomas, & Thomas the Train Uno. The board games worked well for the season and now we have them to use all of the time.

Food was the biggest dilemma as always, but honestly the dilemma was choosing from all of the great ideas I found. In the end it came down to money, as it always seems to, so we went with the most basic and inexpensive plan. I made a train out of cardboard boxes. Box cars were filled with plain potato chips, air popped popcorn, and tortilla chips. These are the safest allergy friendly snack food we have.

If the boys ask for another train birthday party in the future, I'm dying to try the Fruity Pebbles Train recipe I found along with making candy trains for everyone. I do believe I could have switched out the candy to make it work for Owen and all attending the party. Hopefully next time around we have more money.

The cake or should I say cupcakes were the big hit of the party. I had purchased the train cake pan from Williams & Sonoma awhile back with a gift card I had been given. Using Cherrybrook Kitchen Yellow Cake Mix, instead of Williams & Sonoma Cake Recipe, and substituting allergy friendly candy and frosting, the end result turned out really well. The cupcakes were made with the same mixes and left over frosting.

Each child was able to choose a box car to eat and the adults ate the regular cupcakes. I will admit, I still miss REAL cake, but the Cherrybrook Kitchen Yellow Cake Mix wasn't all that bad. Obviously the cupcakes were the most expensive part of the party.

The last challenge was the goodie bags. I looked everywhere for Thomas the Train items and besides the usual bubbles and... I forget what else. They cost a fortune. No place in town sold train items, not even at Dollar General. So, trying to avoid food because of the allergies, I searched and found an organization called Operation Lifesaver. They have a website and everything. The organization promotes train safety. They offer several promotional items for close to nothing in price and will ship them to you. You can request to have someone come to an event to talk about train safety and everything. I was excited! So here's what I ordered:Train Whistles

Zipper Pulls

Train Erasers in multiple colors

Rulers & Bookmarks

Pens & Pencils

Crayons & Colored Pencils

& Train Safety Activity Books.

The ages of the kids varied so much that I tried to find items that would work for older kids too. Lastly, for the younger kids, I was able to order engineer hats. They were adorable and MUCH cheaper than the clothe ones.

I highly recommend this site. My only advice, order as early in advance as possible to save on shipping!

So that's another allergy friendly holiday done. Next in line Valentine's Day and then Easter. My mind has already started turning with ideas. I'll post them once I complete them.

We're definitely having fun with food allergies!

Perhaps if Adam has a train birthday party (his birthday is in the summer) we can go to a real train station or museum, perhaps even ride a train. So many ideas... If only it weren't winter!

Yellow Cake Recipe

Sorry it has taken me so long to post up Adam's birthday cake recipe. Here it is!

This recipe comes from The Kid Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook by Leslie Hammond and Lynne Marie Rominger.

I made a cake and cupcakes using this recipe, but the cupcakes turned out much better than the cake. Like the Banana bread recipe I ended up cooking the cupcakes twice as long. Also like the Banana Bread recipe there is the actual recipe and then alterations.

Cupcake recipe (or regular cake)

3 eggs (or 4.5 tsp egg replacer mixed with 6 TB water)
1 1/2 cups sugar (or 1 1/2 tsp stevia)
2 sticks of butter (or the equivalent of oil or margarine)
3 cups of rice flour
2 tsp baking powder (or 1/2 tsp baking soda mixed with 1 tsp lemon juice)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1 1/4 cups rice milk mixed with 1 1/2 TB lemon juice)

Bake at 350 degrees. 10-12 minutes for cupcakes or 25 – 35 minutes for cake.