Let Them Eat Cake?

Pardon me as I complain for one sentence here. For a family that loves good food and loves to cook good food, having family members with food allergies and sensitivities really stinks.

We celebrated Stat Boy's 14th birthday, and as we will be on vacation during Baby Wingnut's 3rd birthday, we threw in a little celebration for him as well. Of course we had to have cake. But how does one go about making cake in a family with one child that is lactose intolerant and another child that cannot have anything artificial?

I made our favorite chocolate cake from scratch, using rice milk instead of cow's milk. I went ahead and used butter as I had read on a medical website that butter has only a trace amount of lactose. Time will tell if Baby Wingnut will be able to tolerate the butter. I made a 1 1/2 recipe so that I could separate a little batter out for an individual cake for Baby Wingnut. Cakes were baked and cooled.

Now what to do for the frosting? I found a store bought brand of vanilla icing that was free of milk products for Baby Wingnut. To make his little cake "special" I let him put a few little sprinkles on his cake. Stat Boy asked for an "Oreo Cake". The Oreo Cake consists of a two layer chocolate cake with marshmellow cream between the layers. It is then frosted with a fantastic frosting made from bittersweet chocolate, heavy whipping cream, corn syrup and vanilla. Once frosted, the cake is then covered with crushed Oreos. The marshmellow cream and Oreos became an issue for Special K. They both contain artificial ingredients that she is sensitive to. Obviously she could not have any of Baby Wingnut's cake, the frosting was completely artificial and then there were the sprinkles. The remedy became, make a homemade vanilla butter frosting for the middle of the cake and instead of crushing the Oreos, we halved them and put them around the bottom of the cake as decoration. Special K could easily remove the offending Oreos from her slice of cake.

If you're going to serve cake, they will inevitably want some ice cream to go along with it. Once again, dietary challenges are presented. Thankfully the ice cream question is simpler to answer. Baby Wingnut can have a fruit sorbet. Special K can have any of the Breyer's Natural ice creams that do not contain chocolate or caramel ingredients. The rest of the family is free to choose what ever ice cream they wish.

Oh, do I hope these minor complications are short lived!

A family favorite: Oreo Cake

Oreo Cake with the revisions needed for our little lactose intolerant child.