My son just turned 2, and as his birthday was approaching, we were faced with a quandry. He’s allergic to dairy, eggs and nuts. So what kind of birthday cake could he eat?

I’m not a baker. Oh, I can follow a recipe, but my antique kitchen isn’t conducive to complicated cooking, and finding a cake recipe that was dairy and egg free and didn’t taste like cardboard? On top of that, my husband is allergic to vanilla and apples. I needed help.

My friend suggested that I try calling a bakery. I found a wonderful little bake shop in town that was willing to give the cake a try. He had to do a little research into the problem, because they’d never made a dairy-free, egg-free cake before. While I don’t have the exact recipe the baker used, here is a list of the ingredients that he came up with for our cake:

Chocolate Cake

• All Purpose Flour
• Salt
• Sugar
• Cocoa Powder
• Baking Soda
• Vegetable Oil
• White Vinegar
• Soy Milk

Icing

• Powdered Sugar
• Shorting

As you can see, the cake looked beautiful. But would it taste good? I’m happy to report that it was rich moist, and the icing was sweet and yummy! Billy, however, wouldn’t touch it. LOL. I guess having deprived him of cake all year long due to allergy concerns, it was just too funny looking for a picky toddler.

However, my husband and I enjoyed it! The only difference I could tell between it and a regular cake was that it dried out a bit faster in the week after Billy’s birthday than a regular cake might have done. That is, it didn’t have as long a shelf life.

But if anyone out there has a child with egg and dairy allergies, and is facing the problem we were, check out your local bakeries and feel free to give them this ingredient list.

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