Happy Birthday to You! Allergy-free Birthday Cake

When I found out about all of the food allergies/insensitivities that Nick had I was worried about how I was going to make a birthday cake for him that would taste good. I remember my first attempt at a carrot cake that was allergy-free when Nick turned one. My husband loves carrot cake and I thought it would be great if Nick shared his love of this cake as well. The cake ended up being the most awful thing I have ever made. It had so much juice concentrate in it and other nasty ingredients that I could have used it as a weapon. I give my husband John credit though in that he actually ate some of it. We laugh a lot about this baking experience and I have since found many other alternatives to a tasty birthday cake.

The recipe that I am sharing with you is from a cookbook I found by accident at Boarder's Bookstore called, Allergy-free Cookbook, Copyright 2010 Publications International, Ltd. It is an awesome chocolate cake recipe for being allergy-free. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Ingredients:

3 cups gluten-free all purpose flour blend, plus extra for cake pans
2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons xanthan gum ( you can substitute guar gum - cheaper than xanthan)
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate soymilk (I used chocolate rice milk - or plain white milk of choice is fine since it is very chocolaty already)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

No-Butter Buttercream Frosting to follow

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with shortening or dairy-free margarine. Sprinkle with gluten-free baking mix; tap out excess.


Whisk together gluten-free flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, xantham gum and salt in large bowl. Combine milk, oil, vinegar and vanilla in small bowl.


Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients; stir until smooth, being sure to incorporate ingredients at bottom of bowl. Immediately pour into prepared pans.


Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. (Middle of cake may look darker than edges.) Cool in pans 5 minutes. Carefully invert onto wire rack to cool completely. Meanwhile prepare frosting.


Fill and frost cake; decorate as desired.


I have made this cake as a half-batch, as cupcakes, and I have used a special birthday cake tin and the cake has worked out well 100% of the time.

No-butter Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) dairy-free margarine (the recipe says to not use a spread but I did because it was the only thing I could find that did not contain soy. It was fine).
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
4 to 6 tablespoons soy creamer (I used rice milk)

Preparation:

Beat margarine with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla.


Gradually beat in cocoa and powdered sugar. Beat in creamer or milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until spreading consistency is reached.


tip: for white frosting, omit cocoa; tint as desired.

Buon Appetito!