Dairy Free/Egg Free Birthday

[Alley22]

Hi,
It is approaching my little boys second birthday and he cannot eat any dairy products or egg as he is very allergic and has soya substitutes instead. I, like a lot of other mothers! spend a lot of time talking to him about what he can and cannot eat, but for his birthday I want him to have a small feast where he can help himself to anything on the table as it is his day rather than at other birthdays, 'he cant eat the cake' - 'dont eat those biscuits' etc. I am also trying to find a nice birthday cake for him which is dairy and egg free. Any ideas appreciated from cakes to finger foods!

Do the cake mixes you buy and only add water to them have egg. Their dry before you make it so it shouldnt have egg. I guess. There are lots of mixes you can make at home that only require water to prepare. That is if you want to make a homemade cake instead.

Alley22, I think I've got a nice recipe for carrot cake somewhere. Will see if I can find it and post.

Hi alley22 I've already probably said this info several times over but if you're like me it's really difficult finding all the threads.

If you contact Wysoy they'll send you a little booklet with meals & some simple cake recipes using soy. I'm not sure but you could just substitute in some recipes though. I know I've got recipes somewhere for cakes using oil or prunes instead of fat. If I find the brownies one I'll try to post it here - it's delicious. If you let me kow I'll dig out the wysoy recipes for you they're quite simple ones

For sandwiches
I also give my ds pate - if you check the ingredients they often have no diary - lidl do a very good coarse and a smooth liver pate. I also make dried apricot puree (just apricots and tiny amount of water) if you keep it in the freezer it still spreads from the freezer. You can also buy cream cheese substitutes, cheese substitutes and alternative butter spreads from most health food shops. But always check the ingredients regardless. Often olive oil spreads in supermarkets contain diary. You can also buy lots of different nut or fruit spreads (or make your own). I also make chicken sandwiches (beware of supermarkets again some put milk in their chicken slices)

You can also make jellies and put fruit in (either normal if you don't mind gelatine, or ypu can use arrowroot or agar agar)

Sticks or cubes of veg or fruit, bread, cheese sub, cherry toms can be dipped in cream cheese sub or humous or a tomato based dip.

I've also found that my ds quite likes roasted veg can be served hot or cold with or without dips or on bread.

Strips of fish or chicken lightly coated in breadcrumbs.

If you really want to go town Jamie Oliver has a great recipes for sweets made from dried fruits roasted in the oven. They're really nice.

Provamel or silken tofu can be served with different flavours or you can by flvaoured ones. There is a chocolate flavoured provamel, but the vanilla one is really nice on it's own or over fruit or pudding. Sojasun (from health food shops) also does some really lovely desserts (which I love just as much as my ds) the lemon flavour is scrummy.

If you want to give 'milky drinks you can also use the more liquid provamel of yofu or silken tofu.

Hope you have a lovely time.

I've got a milk intolerant DD so I'm in the same position to some extent. Sandwiches are ok as long as you use dairy free spread and choose suitable fillings. Crisps tend to be dodgy but Pom-bears and Jumpys are safe as are prawn crackers and plain hula hoops. Check sausage rolls carefully and some cocktail sausages are ok though hot dog sausages usually contain milk. I usually make my own crispy buns using Supercook cooking chocolate in either plain or orange flavour (both seem to be ok for us) and I also make my own cake (I have some vegan recipes if you want one). I believe that Kinnerton make a milk free, but not sure about egg free, birthday cake which you might find in larger Sainsbury stores. For Jelly and ice cream you could buy Swedish Glace or Tofutti ice cream which should both be ok, but check the labels before you buy. Tesco and Sainsbury are both getting better at 'free from' foods and their staff will sometimes take the time to show you all the products that they stock if you ask at customer services. I hope he has a lovely birthday party - good luck.

OK, found 2 recipes:

Carrot Cake:
8oz wholemeal flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 oz butter (I've used Pure dairy free spread in cakes before and it was fine)
4oz honey
4oz raw cane sugar
8oz carrots, peeled and finely grated

Sift together flour, spices and baking powder. Melt butter, honey and sugar over gentle heat, then add to flour mixture, stirring well to combine. Add carrots and mix thoroughly. Place in greased 1lb loaf tin and bake in oven @ 325f/170c for 60-80 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Made this ages ago and it was nice. Very moist so good for tinies.

Also animal biscuits:
4oz softened dairy free spread
3oz castor sugar
finely grated rind of one orange
4oz plain flour
3oz cornflour
1 1/2 oz dessicated coconut

Cream together dairy free spread, sugar and rind. Add remaining ingredients and beat to form a dough ball. Roll out on lightly floured board and stamp into shapes with animal cutters. Place on non oiled baking sheet for 15 minutes in oven at 325f/170c. Haven't made these though.

You could also make potato wedges: peel potatoes, cut into wedge shapes, boil 5 minutes and roast in oven in a pan of hot oil. Also baby pizzas, the Napoli (I think?) pizza bases don't have any milk products so you could add the toppings your son likes. You could make rice crispie cakes (haven't checked ingredients of rice crispies tho) with syrup instead of chocolate? Have a great time.

Easy chocolate orange cake

10 oz SR Flour
1oz cocoa
2tsp baking powder
6 oz sugar
100ml oil
180ml water

icing -

1 tsp orange essence (or use orange juice and omit water)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
4 oz (approx) icing sugar
water

Put oil, water and sugar in a pan and warm gently, stirring until sugar disolves.
Mix with dry ingredients then pour into a greased 8" tin and bake at Gas 5, (190C). Check after 30 mins but it might need longer.
Cover with foil and leave to cool in the tin, then ice with chocolate orange icing.

You could also cut in half and fill with chocolate butter cream (made using non dairy spread, cocoa and icing sugar)

Hi Alley

There are a couple of excellent cake recipes at www.veganfamily.co.uk - look on the kitchen link. I can highly recommend the banana muffins, which make excellent mini-muffins and freeze extremely well, together with the fantastic (very rich) chocolate cake. You will see that both of these use a combination of baking powder and vinegar (I usually use white vinegar) which produces a very good cake consistency. I also posted a few dairy and egg free recipes on this site back in June - if you search the board for "egg and dairy free recipes" then you should hopefully find them under the topic of egg and dairy free friendly toddler foods". If you can't find them, let me know and post them again.

For finger foods you could also try hummous and breadsticks, those mini savoury rice cakes, Sainsburys Blue Parrot mini jam tarts which are vegan and of course lots of fresh fruit which always seems to go down well at parties as well as those little boxes of raisins.

I hope you really enjoy the party - even though my daughter is now 5 her face still lights up at her own parties not quite believing that she can eat everything which is put out (she always takes her own food to outside parties) and that in itself makes all the effort worthwhile.

Coral

PS - I am sure that you will do so, but double check Pom Bears - I used to buy them but had to stop because the ingredients changed to make them unsafe for my daughter - as her allergies are also milk and egg it must have been one or the other. Of course, they may have always changed them back again!!!

Thanks everyone for your messages, I will try the cake mixes out and let you know how I get on! thanks for all your suggestions, my heads swimming with ideas!