Looking for an allergy-friendly cake recipe

[staranise]

Hi there!

I'm trying to find a cake recipe for my nephew's first birthday--his mom really wants to make him one and take pictures. However, he's allergic to wheat (not gluten or other grains), milk, peanuts, and eggs. We do have egg replacer, milk replacer, and rice and arrowroot flour, but none of us know anything about cooking with them.

Any help, please? His birthday's on August 18.

Comments

[minxy]

If he's not allergic to almond flour, how about a flourless cake? I've seen some magnificent chocolate flourless cakes, but they can be very rich. Maybe a non-chocolate one?

[holyschist]

I would guess one would have to be careful of potential milk products in anything containing chocolate.

[devilc]

there are vegan chocolate chips, and cocoa powder (not hot chocolate mix) contains no dairy as it's just the ground up roasted beans and a little alkali for processing.

[holyschist]

Yeah, I know dairy-free chocolate exists, it would just be something to be sure to remember.

(I don't know whether butter qualifies as dairy for this allergy, either. I think there may be a point where if you're substituting essentially all of the ingredients, it might be better to make a fruit compote or something instead. Baking is chemistry, and too many substitutions often leads to a not-so-great product.)

[acelightning]

Almost every recipe I know of for flourless chocolate cake (the ones based on nut flours, anyway) contain three basic ingredients: semi-sweet chocolate (which contains vanilla and sugar, but no dairy), butter, and eggs. I know of one that uses walnut oil instead of butter... but the entire structure of the cake comes from the eggs, and I don't think egg substitutes will work for this.

[via_ostiense]

How about a giant mochi? It's made with sweet rice flour, water, sugar, and red bean paste (or the filling of your choice; double-check that the red bean paste doesn't have any wheat in it).

[amalnahurriyeh]

Mochi is choking hazard for a small person. Much to my sadness, for not being able to feed my small person it. :(

[via_ostiense]

Hence giant mochi in this case, unless it's the stickiness of the red bean paste that's the problem.

Here Via the Network

[devilc]

Since it's wheat but not gluten, and you can use barley flour, I suggest experimenting with these two vegan chocolate cake recipies and seeing if one works. I have made both of these cakes (with wheat flour) and can vouch for them.

I'd add in a touch of egg replacer to the non-wheat flour to help it bind. You're going to need a few test cakes, though, to get it right.

Here's also a recipie for a vegan flourless cake, but not having made it, i cannot vouch for it.

----

ETA: My hubby is a vegan and I have a co-worker who is allergic to milk and cannot do any grains at all right now. I'm used to quirky recipes.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions about brands/ingredients.

[moonbathe_skin]

I'm allergic to dairy and wheat but not eggs.....however......Use egg replacer and use SPELT flour if you can get it, it's the best thing to replace wheat flour, failing that, rye flour is quite good but a little heavy.

[ciaccona]

I don't know much about wheat-but-not-gluten free, but my impression is that you want to use spelt flour because its behavior is much closer to wheat.

On the gluten-free front, the only thing I've actually tried and liked is Bob's Red Mill Chocolate Cake Mix. It's wheat and dairy free, and warns for cross contamination with tree nuts and soy. Gluten-Free Girl recommends replacing 2/3 of the milk/non-dairy milk with applesauce and making cupcakes, and the comments suggest that it still works with egg replacer and non-dairy milk and margarine.

Betty Crocker also came out with gluten free cake mixes about a year ago. I don't know much about them though.

Gluten-Free Goddess is the site I'd trust most for recipes not using mixes. A lot of her recipes are vegan too -- if you can find sorghum flour and xanthan gum, you could try the Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Icing, without the coffee.

I don't think I've ever seen a recipe using rice flour and arrowroot before (though the combination sounds like it would be similar to rice flour+tapioca flour+xanthan gum, which is pretty standard). If you can figure out an appropriate ratio of rice and arrowroot you might be able to substitute it for the flour mixture in recipes that call for rice+tapioca+xanthan.

[killing_rose]

But given that both kamut and spelt are closely related to wheat? As in, wheat is directly descended from them? I'd be really careful in whether or not to make that decision.

Arrowroot and xanthan gum can be--but very carefully--substituted for each other; depending upon what I've got to work with, I've used them interchangeably.

[acelightning]

The easiest thing would be to go to a health-food store (or a grocery that has a large selection of alternative food products) and look at the various gluten-free (usually wheat-free) cake mixes. Read the ingredients carefully, until you find one that is wheat-free and can be made with egg replacers and soy, rice, or almond milk. Icing can be made with white vegetable shortening and confectioner's (powdered) sugar. There are even natural food colorings to tint the icing with, because plain white icing isn't very festive-looking - for that matter, there are also all-natural colored sprinkles!

[yarngeek]

Your post is unclear--do his parents know you're planning this? I love it when people cook for me (I'm gluten-free), but there's still a limited number of people I'll allow to cook for me. The more severe the allergies, the stricter you have to be.

[amalnahurriyeh]

Seconding the idea to use a mix, first-off. It's a birthday cake for a baby, you don't need anything fancy. My son had dairy-free Pamela's brownie mix for his first birthday cupcakes. The mix is GF, dairy-free, egg-free, though the chocolate chips are listed as "may have traces of dairy from processing."

If soy is OK, I've had good luck substituting Earth Balance margarine for butter, and 1/4 of a block of silken tofu (the kind that comes vacuum packed in the little boxes, not the kind that comes in water) for an egg in vegan baking.

[lauredhel]

I've missed the boat on timing, but would you like our recipe for future reference? It was back when we were free of all those things and potato (which is in some of the replacers). We used to make baby muffins with it, but we also did his first birthday cake with it too. Good texture, and with the fruit/veg in there, pretty nutritious as well. I'd leave the cinnamon out unless you definitely know it's ok, with an allergic kid.


1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
(other flours could be substituted - we have tried barley also)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp tartaric acid
1/4 tsp salt
(optional) 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp guar gum (or other thickener/egg replacer of your choice)

1 ripe banana
1/2 cup cooked vegetables - we use frozen mashed sweet potato cubes
1/4 cup maple syrup
100 g dates
1/2 tsp bicarb
(dates/sweet potato/banana can all be substituted with whatever
fruit/vegetable works for you)

1/2 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil (or other oil)

1. Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl
2. mix guar gum into water with a beater a sprinkle at a time
3. chop dates, sprinkle over bicarb, pour over boiling water and stir.
Let stand ten minutes.
4. Put all wet ingredients including steps 2 and 3 into blender, blend
on high for 30 seconds
5. pour wet into dry and mix well - do not beat
6. Pour into oiled muffin or cake pan, bake 20-30 minutes depending on
size. Knife or skewer should come out clean.
7. Cool in pan a few minutes then turn onto cooling rack.