Not your typical birthday cake

[cjb]

We will be spending the day Saturday with a friend's daughter who is allergic to wheat, dairy, soy and rice. My daughter will be celebrating her birthday on that day and I need to make a festive, delicious cake. HELP!!!!!!
I live near a Whole Foods and so have access to goat's milk and some different types of grains, but I have no idea what to get and do with them.
I know some kind 'hound will have an idea!
-Cathy

[iveygirl]

Have you thought of a flourless cake or a sweet cornbread? You could use an vegitarian egg substitute from Whole Foods. Or even a bon made with sorbet instead of icecream?

[cjb]

The sorbet bomb is a great idea, but I neglected to say that the cake needs to travel :( It's a puzzle.
Maybe a sweet cornmeal cake - any specific suggestions?
Thanks!
-Cathy

[iveygirl]

I have made a sweet corn bread/quick bread - I'm guessing almost any recipe will do (Joy of Cooking has many) and put in nuts or zucchini, dried fruit or even chocolate chips in the past. Just watch what type of pan you use to bake it. If you use a dark pan, the bottom and sides get a really dark, crispy/crunchy crust...which is great for cornbread, but not for cake.

[Danna]

I think Martha Stewart showed a "cake" that was really a stacked pyramid of rice crispie cookies on a cake pedestal. Perhaps you could find some kind of cereal which does not have wheat or rice (corn pops maybe?) Martha showed some colorful cereal mixed in and little flags stuck atop the cake. Not terribly gourmet, but maybe fun for children.

Also, perhaps you could find a dacquoise recipe (layers are meringue), but I'm not sure what the filling would be without dairy.

Good Luck

[cjb]

The people we are serving are *definiately* 'hounds. We tend to eat especially well with them, so I'm not sure how the intersting cereal cake would go over ;), but thanks for the suggestion!
-Cathy

[Chris VR]

That reminds me of something I remember seeing in a kids' cookbook, which was a popcorn cake, made of colored caramel corn, studded with candies and shaped into a cake shape. I would guess you'd just follow a regular caramel corn recipe, splitting into a few batches and coloring with food coloring. And I would imagine that once it hardens up, the whole thing is VERY portable.

[epicure-us]

no rice or tofu -- that's tough. try using teff (hey is that double pun?) flour or flour from another heirloom grain like amaranth. also oats in all forms (although it can be allergenic for some too.)

i like the sorbet ideas. i made sorbet and a frozen dessert made from home-made almond milk (it's easy to make or you can buy it) flavored with coconut rum as a passover dessert (with a little help from the hounds who gave me advice). it is lighter than milk but it's delicate and delicious. and you can add eggs if you want. use flavorings instead or the rum of course. mine was a little grainy but if you have an ice cream maker it probably would be fine.

custards can be made using almond milk and eggs, agar-agar or arrowroot.

you can make a bottom layer for your cake, bombe or torte with meringue, plain or with ground nuts.

make a flourless torte.

use dark chocolate as a flavoring or coating since that's allowed.

you could decorate with meringue too. why not make little individual pavolovas with sorbet.

use coconut oil ("butter") insead of butter or margarine for the cake. (not for the frosting though! it liquifies too easily)

**coconut milk is another sub for cow's milk

i've never tried it but here is the pastry cream recipe that won a silver medal at the 1988 culinary olympics. i am substituting almond milk for soy milk:

YELLOW PEPPER PASTRY CREAM (from ron pikarski's "friendly foods")

5 cups of pastry cream
takes 1 hour preparation; 45 minutes to cool

4 medium yellow peppers
2 cups almond milk
1 tablespoon agar powder
1/2 cup apple juice
3/4 cup brown rice syrup (find the equivalent in honey or sugar--i'd say 1 cup of sugar and 3/4 cup honey)
2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut, toasted
6 tablespoons kuzo (or arrowrood powder)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (alcohol free would probably be best if she has food sensitivities)

roast and peel the peppers. blend them until smooth. measure out 2 cups of puree. (use any extra for another recipe.)

add the rice milk, agar, apple juice, sweetener and coconut to the pureed peppers and blend until smooth. pour 1 cup of this mixture in a saucepan. heat slowly, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
meanwhile, blend the kuzu with the remaining 1 cup of almond milk mixture. add to the heated almond milk mixture, stirring vigorously, and ocok until it makes a smooth, creamy sauce. remove rom heat and stir in the vanilla. cool. spoon the cooled pepper cream into a pastry bag and use it to pipe filling in fruit tarts or decorative designs on cakes. your may also use this pastry cream as a light filling between cake layers, or as a sauce to complement desserts.

good luck and i hope you have a fun celebration. you can e-mail me if you have more questions.

eu

[Caitlin McGrath]

A corn bread/cake without any wheat flour (for gluten) is going to be pretty dense and probably crumbly, though you might look for an Italian polenta cake.

Since you didn't mention eggs, I assume your friends' daughter isn't allergic to them. So why not a flourless chocolate cake with fresh berries and/or a berry sauce. True, all recipes I've seen call for butter, and margarine doesn't taste the same, but if the chocolate is the dominant flavor, it'll still work. (And I'm sure your friends are used to making such substitutions.

Or, if you want to go lighter, how about a "tart" with a mirengue crust, lemon ot lime curd, and lots of fresh fruit? Sort of a pavlova with lemon curd instead of whipped cream.

An idea for a recipe search: look for pareve (non-dairy) Passover dessert recipes that don't use matzoh meal, and instead either don't involve grains or use only potato starch. These will not have any wheat, rice or dairy.

Link: http://www.epicurious.com/s97is.vts?a...

[Ciaolette]

How thoughtful of you to attempt this, baking is a difficult art and with dietary restrictions it becomes a real science.Can she eat eggs?? there are lots of great flourless cake recipes, where you could use almond meal, and natural sugar. If NO eggs then it will be very hard to leaven the cake.
Then I would go with a carrot / apple type cake, where the moisture of the grated carrot gives the crumb. You could use any basic carrot cake recipe and substitute eggs with an egg replacement, milk with goatmilk or Oatmilk ( sold by the soymilk at Whole foods) for flour use part oat flour part fine cornmeal, and for shortening I have found that Spectrum canola margerine bakes very well. ( I use it for choleststerol free pie crusts) For a cream cheese type frosting you can strain goat milk yogurt through cheese cloth over night till it is very very thick and then beat in powdered sugar, a little spectrum marg, and vanilla.
I would do a trial run and then adjust it depending on the result, it will be heavier than an egg leavened cake, but with fresh ingredients and enough sugar or sweetener it should still be delicious.

[Brandon Nelson]

How about a chocolate souffle? If made the night before they fall enough to serve as a flourless cake. Won't melt like sorbet.

Chow!!!

[GG Mora]

Uh...isn't goat's milk dairy?

[cjb]

THANK YOU ALL!
I will let you know what I decide to make (got a couple more days to mull it over). You have given me great suggestions - we see this family often, and I will have lots of opportunities to try them all out. She is not allergic to eggs and by dairy I mean't cow, guess I misspoke :(. I've printed out all of your suggestions. And I feel braced. Thank you.
-Cathy

[cjb]

My friend (the mother of the girl with the allergies) called today and said that she wanted to make the cake - so I won't be making it after all! But I will be using your suggestions when we get together in the future. Thank you all, again.
-Cathy