Amazing Allergy Friendly Chocolate Cake

Today is my daughter's 2nd birthday. Yay!  She is so amazing.  She's fresh, yes, but she's so stink'n cute while she is being fresh that it gives her a pass (most of the time).  She also gets away with a lot more because she has had such a tough time with food allergies.  We are very lucky that she has never had an anaphylactic reaction to anything, but instead she reacts with hives and/or terribly itchy and painful bouts of eczema. 

It took us a long time to get the dairy allergy diagnosed because the pediatrician thought it was merely acid reflux for months.  She didn't sleep more than 1-2 hours at a time for her first year of life and come to find out, it was because she was in pain from reactions to her formulas (I'm still catching up on sleep from then).  Finally, after we figured out the dairy allergy, we got her tested for some other suspected foods and low and behold she is allergic to dairy, soy, egg, peanut, tree nut, sesame and chick pea.  Things are a lot easier now that we know what to avoid.

Her first birthday was easy, we didn't know better, so we gave her cake and were just baffled after the fact, that her cute little face was bright red with a rash the next day.  So now that we know, I was torn with what to do for a cake.  I, personally, don't care for some of the things I have to feed her and I didn't want to subject our guests to some yucky cake but on the other hand, it was going to be Nora's day, so shouldn't we all eat what she can eat?

Finally, I started scouring the web for vegan cake recipes and I pieced a few of them together and rearranged a few things and voila, a delicious chocolate cake!  I also got lazy when it came to the frosting and found a canned whipped frosting that was both dairy and soy free so for the first time in years I used canned frosting (Oh my is it sweet)! The frosting was very thin, which is why you can still see some of the cake through the frosting, even though I used a lot. Next time I will use a chocolate frosting, I think it would look better.

This recipe is for 1 cake.  You will need to double the recipe for a layer cake.  For the cake I made I had to triple recipe and I used two 8 inch round pans and one 8 inch square pan.

If you would like to see how I created the #2, you can see that HERE . Sadly I did not come up with that on my own.  Also I guess this is where I have to give my husband his credit due.  He did the shaping of the cake because I didn't trust my hand (still not right from surgery) and he did a GREAT job. Thanks honey!

PRINT RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 C flour (all purpose)
• 1 C sugar
• 1/2 C cocoa powder
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/3 C canola or vegetable oil
• 1 T white vinegar
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 C rice milk or water (could also try coconut milk or hemp milk)
• Earth's Balance Free Buttery Spread (for greasing pan) - if you do not have a soy allergy feel  free to use a non stick spray)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Prepare an 8 inch square or round cake pan with Earth's Balance Soy Free Buttery Spread
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt, whisk to remove lumps.
4. In a separate bowl whisk together the  oil, vinegar, vanilla and rice milk.
5. Combine wet and dry ingredients and whisk together until well blended.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes - test doneness by poking a toothpick into center of cake and removing, if it comes out clean it is done.
7. Allow to cool in pan for 5-10 minutes and then turn out onto cooling rack.  Allow to cool completely before frosting.

I've been toying with the idea of creating a post reviewing some of the allergy friendly foods we have tried and loved.  Is this something you are interested in seeing here in the future?

So I end this post with wishing my little Nora a very happy birthday!