Daughters birthday and one friend is vegan

[Blueflag22]

My daughter 9 yes old wants me to order a vegan cake for her birthday party for a friend that is vegan?? I'm going to spend a fair bit on this cake and honestly I'm not vegan neither is anyone else, just one of he friends is. What do I do? buy some vegan cupcakes separately? Should that be rude?

Heather H If baking with margarine, make sure it doesn’t contain milk solids. Some brands do, but others are marked “100% vegetable oil”. My vegan friend was annoyed with this when she read the fine print ingredients.

Psychopath.

Get a vegan cake. Anything will fudgy chocolate icing will be more than fine.

lisafabry.com/vegan-sponge-cake/

This is the online version - it has never failed me!

My top tip with any baking though is to trap as much of the steam as you can when you take it out of the oven. I always put foil or something on it instantly (obv check with a skewer that it is cooked through first) and then leave to cool completely, still covered. Nice moist (sorry) cake :) also, Becky Crocker tub icing is sometimes vegan (at least the chocolate one is) if you want an easy option.

For birthday cakes, do check the specs on decorations (those little glittery balls for instances). They almost always have beeswax, shellac (i.e. beetle casing), fish, egg or milk in them. Sugar sprinkles seem to be the only safe option IME.

I had to cater for some dairy allergic people at a fund raising afternoon tea recently and used Tesco baking block which is vegan and dairy free. It also has very similar wrapping to normal butter. I used it by accident to make some butter cream because I had mistaken it for butter and was very surprised to find that is doesn't have that nasty margarine taste. It is also excellent in baking.

The Tesco olive spread is the best butter substitute for spreadable butter that I have tasted.

I think vegan ingredients and food products have come a long way..

There's a vegan cafe near me, which I go to sometimes as my friend is dairy intolerant, it has the most amazing cakes, they look and taste gorgeous, you definitely can't tell the difference if you get a really well made vegan cake.