Do you make your own birthday cakes?

[oliveoil]

???

Dd2 is 1 on Saturday and dd1 has recently been confirmed as severely allergic to peanuts so I am considering making a cake as everything seems to have an arse covering disclaimer on the packet and I don't want to risk anything.

Recipes anyone? Or do you know any shops that sell cakes without peanuts in?

Ta.

xx

Yes I do. I tend to make my lemon drizzle cake then for the wee ones I cut it into the number of their birthday. For the older ones I let the younger ones decorate it.

Lemon Drizzle Traybake a la Mars Lady

4 eggs
9oz (250g) soft marg
9oz (250g)caster sugar
12oz (350g)s/r flour
3 level tsps baking powder
6 tbsp milk
grated rind of 2 lemons.

Mix all ingredients. Put in lined tin. Bake (about 30-40mins)

Icing:
Lemon juice (from 2 lemons)
12oz (350g) icing sugar sieved

Warm lemon juice, mix icing sugar in. Prick warm cake and drizzle!

There you go!

Yes, I love baking so I always make the cakes, current favourite is chocolate apple cake which is the basic eggs/sugar/flour/ butter type cake with added cocoa and apple...very easy, very yummy!

I make Delia's "all in one" sponge cake - generally as a chocolate one. Light and fluffy and has never failed me (except when I used plain flour and no baking powder!)

I make Delia's "all in one" sponge cake - generally as a chocolate one. Light and fluffy and has never failed me (except when I used plain flour and no baking powder!)

Delia's apparently fool proof sponge cake (you can omit the cocoa and add 2-3 drops of vanilla essence for a plain one). I call this "apparently foolproof" since both I and another non-baking friend have made this with great success.

4oz Self Raising Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4oz soft marg
4oz caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 7 inch cake tins lightly greased & lined with greaseproof paper

Preheat oven to Gas 3/325 F/170 c
Sift flour/baking powder
Add the other ingredients and whisk. I prefer "Bung all ingrediants into food mixer/processor" though and this seems to work fine!
Add some water if the mixture doesn't drop off a spoon easily.

Shove in the oven for 30 minutes (centre shelf). When cooked, leave in the tin for only 30 seconds

easiest way to make cake is 8oz marg, creamed with 8oz sugar. stir in 4 eggs and then sift in 8oz flour (if you want chocolate add an oz or so of cocoa, or you can put in choc chips, vanilla essence, lemon juice, cherries etc etc). bake at gas mark 3-4 til it springs back if you push it gently with your finger and if you stick a knife in it comes out clean.

if you want a bigger/smaller cake just adjust the amounts - use same amount of all ingredients, one egg = approx 2 oz. larger cakes will need baking for longer at a lower temp. i usually pour brightly coloured icing on and put their age on in smarties

Yes. Get 3 eggs and weigh them. Then put in the same weight of marg, flour (self raising) and sugar. If you want chocolate, add cocoa. Mix them all together then put into 2 cake trays (c. £1 each from Tescos) and cook in a hot oven for 20 - 30 minutes (to see if its ready press your finger on top, if it springs back up and the mixture is no longer touching the sides, it's ready).

For icing sift icing sugar and mix in half as much marg (I usually do 8 oz and 4 oz). Add food colouring and enjoy! (for ds1's first bday I left it yellow and did a duck!)

I wonder why that is 'delia's' recipe? it sounds like a bog-standard victoria sponge to me

For first birthdays for both mine I made a basic choc cake - see recipes below and covered it with chocolate butter icing (mix together melted choc, margerine and icing sugar) and then stuck two choc buttons on the front and chopped up twirls to make hedgehog spikes. Are you OK with buttons/flakes on the peanut front?

Now DS (aged 4) wants a cake from Asda....

Twiglett. You are right but Delia does admit this. Slight difference in the method though I think, ie putting flour in first rather than creaming butter/sugar, then eggs, then flour.

It is a bog standard recipe, it's just what she calls an "all in one sponge cake"

I do - like you cos DS1 has a nut allergy and every cake in every shop seems to be labelled as containing nuts, may contain nuts or made on a nut production line. It's more of a problem when we go to b-day parties at friends houses and they may have bought a cake. I tend to do a victoria sponge - size dependent on what sort of tin I'm using ... first 2 years just did 8" round and decorated it nicely, last year went mad and bought a Thomas Cake tin on eBay ... and was up til 2am icing the darn thing! This year he wants a Spiderman or Power Ranger cake - yikes! The joys!!

gosh I am in shock, I have work to do for a change so will only be able to bob into this thread today!

I have only ever made flapjacks and biscuits on the baking front so sponge cake may be beyond me, will have to have a practice run.

Think she is ok with choc on the peanut front, it's a pain in the backside studying labels like some food nazi mother or something but hey ho.

Lemon drizzle sounds mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Have Delia book at home, will peruse later.

Thanks!!

xx

Just wondered if they might be made on the same production line as fruit and nut.

We had an appt with a dietician at the hospital last week and I asked her about this 'arse covering disclaimer' stuff and she said she had one client that had a reaction to a rogue peanut in a bar of milk chocolate. So it does happen I suppose, but I think a reaction would be rare.

Sigh.

Think I will make a plain sponge and icing and investigate those hundreds and thousand things, they bring back memories of baking with mum .

could get DD1 to help you and then pass off any mishaps as hers? Well thats what I do!

Hello

I had not introduced eggs to my dd at one so i cooked a fruit cake, egg and nut free. the recipe is in the back of "What to expect in the first year" Anyone around to help as I gave the book away.

It was so easy and very tasty!

Hope someone can tell you.

DS is allergic to Almonds and wefrequently have reactions to chocolate so much so he won't try any now even if I buy it when its guarenteed nut free. I guess it depends on what they use the lines for and how thouroughly they clean them between products

Nigella's buttermilk one is yummy but copes with lots of icing and moulding IYKWIM.

I made a very dense choc cake for ds 1st b'day as it was pretty much only for the grown ups. Stuck a toy fimble on top! for 2nd b'day I made a thomas cake. it was quite a lot of work and stressful at the time, but he still talks about it and I was pleased with the end result.

When you say 'lined cake tin' what with? Butter?

Jeesh, how did I get to 35 without making a cake?

MIL is an award winning wedding cake designer. She lines her tins with greaseproof paper, then dusts flour over the top of that again.

Well I attempted a cake, did a basic sponge thing that I found in a Good Food mag, but put some cocoa powder in and it was ok! Bit leaning tower of Piza ish but I blamed that on dd1 and said that she 'helped me'.

Everyone ate it anyway and they didn't have to be polite as they were all family.