any ideas for a dairy free birthday cake?

[caroline55]

My baby girl is about to celebrate her first birthday and is on a special diet for her eczema. We have just introduced gluten which seems to be ok - so with that now in her diet I was wondering whether we could make a reasonable birthday cake which was dairy free.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Is cocoa OK? I've got a dead easy recipe for a sticky chocolate cake (from a book called "The I hate to Cook Book" ), which is really yummy.

I'd need to check the proportions, but basically you sift together the flour, cocoa, sugar and baking powder (or cream of tartar/bicarb?) , make three grooves in the dry ingredients and into one put some vinegar (honest, it works!), the next some oil and the last some vanilla essence and then over all of it pour over some cold water. Mix together (at this point the repipe says you will feel like you are making mud pies) until there are no more white bits and then put into the oven. That's it! In theory you can make it straight in the cake tin, but I prefer to make it in a bowl and then pour it into the cake tin.

It's really rich and moist and chocolate-y!

If you're interested, I'll look out the recipe. It's called "Cockeyed Cake" as it's all back to front.

Hi Caroline55, Have you looked at the recipes for carrot cake? I'm sure I recently made one that had no dairy, although come to think of it, the frosting was made with cream cheese, but you could leave that off. Instead of butter, the recipe used oil. Oh, have just remembered eggs though Sorry, will look through my recipe books and post later with more useful suggestions

caroline55, I made a dairy free cake for dps' birthday (he eats dairy but I don't and wanted some too!). I used Nigellas' birthday cake recipe with Pura which is dairy free spread instead of butter and it was great. Let me know if you want me to post the full recipe.

I've found that you can go without eggs if you use 2 tbs custard powder and 200mls alternative milk ( we use rice milk). its much nicer than the egg replacer you can get ! We use pure or sainsburys dairy free marg and they are fine in cakes. Another good tip is to use pectin and apricot puree to stick cakes together without eggs. WE can't have wheat etc but its still V TASTY ESPECIALLY IN CHOCOLATE CAKE...!
GOOD LUCK

Many thanks for all the ideas - Wickedwaterwitch - is the Nigella cake in her 'How to cook' book? If so I should have that one somewhere - otherwise I would really appreciate it if you have time to post the recipe.

As a non-cook I'm finding my daughter's exclusion diet quite a challenge now that she is moving beyond simple baby food - so I will definately note all of these tips.

I'm struggling to remember my school domestic science lessons here, but isn't victoria sponge entirely fat-free? I assume she's OK with eggs - my friends with eczema don't have a problem with them. Victoria sponge is lovely. Just add jam and/or icing with margarine and icing sugar. Happy birthday!

Caroline55, check this site (sorry, can't do links yet!) www.allergy.org.nz
It seems to have lots of recipes for gluten/dairy/nut free stuff.

Sorry aloha! Victoria sponge is made with equal quantities of egg, sugar,butter and flour. Cream the butter and sugar, beat in egg bit by bit and fold in flour. Bake at gas mark 4 for 20 mins or so! This is absolutely the only recipe I remember from domestic science, but is useful because its so versatile- it can be turned into chocolate cake by using cocoa instead of some of the flour, and it can be used to make pineapple upside down pudding and steamed puddings.... Sorry, no help at all to Caroline!

You're right that you can use margarine instead of butter, of course, but when I was dairy free for two weeks, I couldn't find a margarine that didn't have dairy constituents. I eventually found M+S do a dairy-free soya spread, but I doubt you could cook with it!

Fruit cake's probably not appropriate but there is a Rosemary Conley Kim's Cake which has no fat and therefore no dairy, but does include eggs. You soak your fruit in cold tea overnight and then add flour and egg and bung in the oven.

I'll search out the exact recipe...

Oh, yes, Tissy, you're right. I was thinking of fatless sponge. 3eggs, 3oz caster sugar, 3oz plain flour. Mix eggs and sugar with whisk until very thick pale and fluffy, then fold in flour with metal spoon. Oh, how it takes me back...

Caroline, yes it was the birthday cake recipe in Nigellas' How to Eat. It's the recipe where she says you can make 2 separate ones and stick them together since they don't rise much. I made 2 and stuck them together with strawberry jam and it was a huge tower of a cake, so you might not need to. There are eggs though. Tissy, quite a few dairy free soya spreads are ok for baking. I've tried Sainsburys own and Pura, both make good cakes.

Hi, My baby is currently on wysoy - if you know anyone who uses the stuff there's a little form that comes with the tin for a free booklet with recipes for dairy free cakes. If you want I can dig out the recipes or send them to you.