Valentine's Day Recipes

Here's a few recipes from the archives for a deliciously sweet Valentine's Day!

These Creamsicle Cut Out Cookies make fantastic heart shaped treats, on or off a stick.  They lend themselves to easy flavor variation, too.  My personal favorite is raspberry lemon.  Just substitute raspberry preserves for the orange marmalade and zest a lemon instead of an orange.

I originally made these Be My Valentine Cakes as a Little Debbie substitute, but they are a decadent treat that hardly compares.

They are still the closest I've come to making an allergy friendly brownie that I'm happy with.

As a final option, here is my old, reliable Red Velvet Cake recipe.  They are wonderful as a layer cake or as a cupcake of any shape or color!

Here's wishing you a safe and loving Valentine's Day!

Divvies Bakery Cookbook Giveaway (and their Famous Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe!)

This week I received a brand spanking new copy of The Divvies Bakery Cookbook for review, plus I have a chance to give a second cookbook away to one of my readers!  (Instructions on how to enter are down at the bottom of the post.)

[Update:  entries/comments have been closed, the winner will be announced soon.]

As you would expect from Lori Sandler, the founder of Divvies, all the recipes are free of peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and all dairy products.  The preparing to bake chapter ("Before You Begin") has some of the better ingredient substitution lists I've seen.  Most of the them are easily found in the grocery store, and she isn't afraid to name specific brands, such as Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and Silk Soy Creamer, by name.  Ener-G Egg Replacer makes an occasional appearance, but most of the recipes are not dependent on it.

The baked goods are organized by occasion, rather than type, so that apple pie is grouped with family celebrations, oatmeal cookies with school treats and devil's food cake in the birthday party section.  A complete list of recipes in the table of contents keeps it from getting confusing.  The short chapter of kid friendly homemade drinks, such as Grape Soda and Hot-Mulled Apple Cider was a nice surprise.

So far I've tried out the Divvies Famous Chocolate Cupcakes and Vanilla Frosting recipes.  I was very curious to see how the cuppies would turn out, since the instructions break many of my own baking guidelines, such as always sifting cocoa and powdered sugar, mixing the sugar with the wet ingredients and adding wet to dry ingredients, rather than the other way around.  I was very happy with the cupcake's moist crumb and light texture, as well as the smooth and creamy frosting.

Divvies Famous Chocolate Cupcakes

(From The Divvies Bakery Cookbook by Lori Sandler. Copyright © 2010 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Press, LLC.)


1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 1/4 cups water


1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 12-well cupcake pan with paper liners.
2.  In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa, paking soda, and salt together until well combined; do not sift.  Set aside.
3.  In a large mixing bowl combine the vegetable oil, vinegar, and water and blend with an electric mixer on medium speed.
4.  Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients and mix until very smooth, scraping batter from sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula.  Continue to mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated.  This batter will be more watery than typical cake batters.
5.  Pour the batter into the lined cupcake pan filling each well about three-quarters full.
6.  Bake the cupcakes for 25 minutes on the center rack of the preheated oven.  After 12 minutes, rotate the pan to ensure more even baking.  Remove the cupcakes to a wire cooling rack-this is very important as it allows excess moisture to evaporate from the bottom of the paper baking cups.
Makes 1 dozen cupcakes.

Vanilla Frosting

(From The Divvies Bakery Cookbook by Lori Sandler. Copyright © 2010 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Press, LLC.)


1 1/4 cups plus 1/2 cup unsifted confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup dairy-free margarine, chilled
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons rice milk


1.  Combine the 1 1/4 cups of unsifted confectioners' sugar, margarine, salt, and vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed.  Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a spatula, and continue to mix for 1 minute.
2.  Add the rice milk and continue mixing on medium speed.  With the mixer running, slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar until you achieve the desired sweetness.  Beat for an additional 4 to 5 minutes, until creamy.
3.  Frost cooled cupcakes or cake.

Now for the giveaway!  The cookbook is being shipped directly from the publisher, and they have limited the contest to the United States and Canada.  (Apologies to the rest of you.)  There are three ways to enter:

1.  Leave a comment!  Please make sure you either leave an email address in the comment or link your name back to a location (blog, etc.) where I can find it.

2.  Blog or tweet about the giveaway with a link back to this post.  (There's a handy new button at the bottom of the post.)  Leave a second comment letting me know you have done so.

3.  Subscribe to The Allergic Kid either by email or in a reader.  Leave another comment!

The contest will close at midnight EST on Saturday, July 31st, and I'll announce the winner (to be determined by Random.org) on Sunday, August 1st.  In case I am either unable to reach the winner via email to or verify blogs/tweets/subscriptions, I'll redraw as necessary.

Good luck!

Fudgie Chocolate Cupcakes with Sunbutter Frosting

One of my coworkers celebrated her birthday last week, and I offered to bring in some cupcakes.  She is seriously addicted to Reese's Cups and peanut butter with chocolate is her favorite flavor.  Now, peanut butter doesn't make it through my front door, let alone contaminate my kitchen, but sunflower seeds make an amazing substitute spread.  One hurdle down.

To complicate matters further, I have another coworker with celiac disease, who is perpetually excluded from the cakes, cookies and pizzas that parade through our break room.  I decided to make a gluten free version of the cupcake, in addition to the original batch.  (I had a serious discussion with my celiac coworker, first, since my kitchen isn't exactly a gluten free facility.)

Unfortunately, chocolate cupcakes and I have a history.  I try to squeeze as much chocolaty goodness as I can into that batter, pour it into cupcake liners, shove them in the oven and watch them go flat.  That's if I'm lucky.  The good news is that there are many things that taste really good nestled into the top of a concave cupcake.

Since then I've found some really excellent vegan cupcake recipes that rise to unparalleled heights, creating the perfect cupcake dome.  The textures are nice and flavors good, but they lack the chocolate intensity that should be encapsulated by a cupcake wrapper.  Clearly, I have strong opinions about chocolate cake!

The lesson I did learn from these recipes, was that they were all simple oil cakes rather than the thick creamed margarine and sugar batters I had been churning out.  Finally it occurred to me to try substituting chocolate soy milk for some of the liquids in an oil cake.  Success!  I lost some of the beautiful rise, but managed to achieve the dense chocolate crumb I had been seeking.

To make the cupcakes gluten free:

SUBSTITUTE 1 Cup + 2 Tbs brown rice flour for the all-purpose flour 

ADD 1 tsp xantham gum to the dry ingredients

OMIT vanilla extract (or use gluten free if you have available)

Please double check all ingredients for gluten, since that's not one of the usual 8 allergens that I search for on ingredient labels.  (And please let me know in the comments if I missed a possible source of gluten!)

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/3 C cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
1 C chocolate soy milk
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line standard muffin tin with cupcake liners.  (To make sure I didn't mix them up, I baked the regular cupcakes in silver liners and the gluten free ones in gold liners.)  Sift dry ingredients together  into medium bowl and set aside.  Combine wet ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.  Pour wet ingredients into dry and continue to whisk until batter is smooth.  Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full of batter.  (Do not overfill.  You may have some left over.)

Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean.  Allow to cool 10 minutes in pan before removing to a cooling rack.  Cool completely before frosting the cupcakes

Original cupcake on left, gluten free version on right.

Sunbutter Frosting (adapted from Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting):
1/4 C dairy free margarine, softened
1/2 C sunflower seed spread
1 C powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tbs vanilla soy milk

Cream margarine and Sunbutter together until fluffy.  Gradually mix in powdered sugar.  Add vanilla soy milk and mix until smooth.  Frosts one dozen cupcakes.

During my gluten free research, I discovered that May is Celiac Awareness Month.  May 22-23 is also the Gluten Free Challenge, which urges everyone to eat gluten free for the weekend.  I'm contemplating it, but haven't decided yet if I'll take the plunge!

I also ran across Gluten Free Wednesdays hosted by the Gluten Free Homemaker, so I'm sharing my chocolaty cupcakes with Linda's inspiring round up of gluten free recipes.

Orange Glazed Citrus Cupcakes

Most of the specialty items in my kitchen come from the clearance aisle or as the result of a determined hunt, armed with coupons. Pink silicone heart pan? Week after Valentine's Day. Nordicware mini bundts that make 3-D pumpkins? Just after Halloween. So what do you think happened when I ran across this item at Target, labeled "This Just In!"

Total. Impulse. Purchase.

I would have bought it even if we weren't planning another dinosaur birthday party this year. (Sorry, Shellyfish, I don't know if they're available in France!) First I tried making nice, healthy muffins in the muffin pan, but the coarse texture damaged the dino detail.

(Hmmmm, what could I possibly bake with a wetter batter and finer texture in a muffin pan? I'm sure it'll come to me eventually!)

All the eggless experiments and concave cupcakes I've baked are starting to pay off, because this is a really lovely cake with a distinct citrus flavor and nice crumb. For the first time, I've even achieved a cupcake dome without the use of egg replacer. I'm so proud! [wipes tears from eyes]

Ingredients:

1 3/4 C all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1 lemon, zested and juiced

Orange juice added to juice from lemon to equal one cup
1/4 C vegetable oil, preferably canola
1/2 C sugar

1-2 Tbs poppy seeds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare muffin pan with margarine or vegetable shortening and flour or break out the fluorocarbons and use Bakers Joy or similar baking spray. (I wasn't going to risk cementing batter in any of those tiny crevasses.)

Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together into a medium bowl. Grate the lemon directly into the flour mixture and stir, then juice the lemon and pour the juice into a measuring cup. Add orange juice to measuring cup until mixture equals one cup total. Combine juice, oil, sugar, and poppy seeds if desired and stir until completely integrated.

Fill muffin openings no more than three quarters full. I gave the filled pan a couple of good whacks to get rid of any air bubbles. Since almost half of my batter was left after filling the dino pan, I added 1 1/2 tsp poppy seeds to the remaining batter, prepped my mini bundt pan, and filled half of its openings, as well.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until nicely brown and the sides have pulled away from the edges. (You can do the thing with the toothpick, too.) Allow to cool 5-10 minutes in the pan, then place a cooling rack on the top of the pan and gently turn it upside down to release the cupcakes.

Glaze:
1 C powdered sugar, sifted
1-3 Tbs orange (or lemon) juice

This glaze is amazingly easy: sift powdered sugar into a bowl and stir in orange juice. The only decision is how thick you want the glaze to be. For the bundts, I added just enough orange juice to make the glaze drizzle-able. You can see how thick it is on them.

Since I didn't want to hide the detail on the dinosaurs, I added additional orange juice to the glaze before covering the dinos. At first I had a terrible time drizzling it onto the cupcakes with a spoon and trying to cover the entire area. Then I remembered that I owned a pastry brush, and finished them up quite easily.

The thin glaze doesn't look very fancy giving the dinos just a little shine, but the juice soaks into the cupcake, leaving it wonderfully moist and flavorful, almost like a nonalcoholic rum cake.

I am sending my lovely dinosaurs and mini bundts to Joelen's Culinary Adventures for her Tasty Tools Muffin Pan event. Be sure to check out her round up!

Giada De Laurentiis Copycat Cupcakes

Last night I came home from work to find a request in my inbox for help adapting these Strawberry and Mascarpone Filled Cupcakes from Giada De Laurentiis for a girl with an egg allergy. Giada is not my favorite celebrity chef, since she always comes across more as a spokesmodel, rather than someone who genuinely, you know, eats. (What can I say, I'm an Alton Brown fan.) I am a big sucker, though, for any kid with a food allergy who's looking to score some baked goods. Just ask my son. So here are some cupcakes fit for a Princess.

A basic yellow cake recipe has sat on my to do list for a long time, just because it's so much easier to bake a cake that doesn't rely on eggs or butter for its flavors. I used my standby, soy yogurt, so it has a nice density and tang, despite being a plain oilcake. There's not a lot of rise to it, so I wouldn't trust this batter to a full size cake pan, but it makes a more than respectable cuppy.

For the filling, I used frozen raspberries instead of strawberries, since that's what was in my freezer. I also halved the quantity for this version, since that's the amount I had left over. Quite a few of the reviews of the original mentioned it's liquidity, which was also a problem for me. Chilling the filling is definitely advisable. Several commentators also mentioned that the icing was incredibly sweet, which I also found to be true. I love the look, though, so I just recommend using a very light hand. These were a lot of fun, too, since I'm usually sculpting dinosaurs, rather than making girly pink filled fairy cakes.

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C plain or vanilla soy yogurt
1 C sugar
1/2 C vegetable oil, preferably canola
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F Line standard muffin pan with foil liners. (The oil will seep through paper liners, even waxed ones, which is unattractive, though still yummy.) Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together into a medium mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth. Carefully fill muffin liners three quarters of the way to the top; do not overfill. (You might have a little left over, but it doesn't have eggs in it, so I'm sure you'll find someone to lick the bowl!) Bake for twenty minutes. Allow to cool five or ten minutes in the pan, then move to cooling rack. Once completely cool, keep in the refrigerator.

Filling:
1/4 C thawed and drained frozen fruit
4 oz. Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
1/4 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

While your frozen strawberries or raspberries are thawing and draining, measure out half an 8 oz. container of plain Better Than Cream Cheese. I didn't chill it, but putting it in the freezer while your fruit thaws is probably a really good idea to prevent the drippies later. Chuck all the ingredients in your food processor or blender and pulverize until you have a nice pink mixture.

Put the mixture in a decorating bag with long, thin tip. (I finally had a chance to use the Bismark tip from my Cupcake Decorating Set for these.) Do not fill more than halfway, or it will come out the top. Giada says to fill from the bottom, but that's just asking for trouble, so you'll want to gently slide the tip into the top of the cupcake and give it a squeeze until you see the top of the cuppy slightly rise. Don't worry about a little overflow, you're going to cover it with more sugar.

Icing:
2 C powdered sugar
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place filled cupcakes on a cooling rack placed over a cookie sheet or other drip catcher. Measure powdered sugar into a small mixing bowl and set aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan and just bring to simmer while stirring with a whisk. (The sugar should be dissolved. If not, hang out at a simmer until it is.) Pour sugary liquid over the powdered sugar and continue whisking until just combined. Working very quickly, spread a very thin layer of icing over each cupcake. (The icing in the poorly lit photo above is probably about twice as thick as the optimal amount.) If the icing gets too firm, microwave it. Once iced, keep your little sugarbombs in the refrigerator until consuming.

Update: You can see the ones made for a Princess at To the Moon and Back.

Spider Cupcakes & Halloween Tidbits

These spiders may look intimidating, but they will win you over with their sweet chocolate frosting and hearts of pumpkin. I'm still tweaking the pumpkin cupcake recipe, but the decoration is too delicious not to share.

To make them you will need:

• cupcakes of your choice
• chocolate frosting
• Cake Mate Chocolate Decors
• Wonka Runts
• Twizzlers Pull 'N Peel
• a chopstick
  

Peel off two strands of a Twizzler and cut both into quarters. Frost a cupcake, then immediately dip the frosted top into a small bowl of Chocolate Decors. Insert two of the banana Runts as the spider's mandibles, then use the chopstick to make deep, evenly spaced holes for each of the spiders legs about a quarter inch from the edge of the cupcake. Insert Twizzler legs and place two more Runts as eyes. Grab another cupcake and repeat.

Halloween, the holiday that inspires well meaning individuals to offer potentially deadly candy to food allergic children, is looming, and I am overdue in sharing my own strategy for taking candy from a child, plus I've got some good links. We do go trick-or-treating, but only after doing the prep work. Before the big event, I put together a basket of safe candy and non food treats, such as stickers. Then I use the basket as a not so subtle visual aide when we have our final talk about not eating any candy before going out. Once we get home, we ceremoniously read the ingredients on each piece of candy that has them, and for each one that gets surrendered, The Kid gets to select an item from the safe basket. (It's a little tedious, since I know perfectly well that they're all going bye bye, but it's a valuable reinforcement, and my child enjoys the ritual for some perverse reason.)

The last Food Allergy Blog Carnival, hosted by Alisa of Sure Foods Living, was Halloween themed and has lots of good stuff. There's a good new site called Allergy Free Halloween, and FAAN and Allergy Moms both have good guides for surviving Halloween.

Don't forget to take pictures of your little darlings in costume and submit them to Enjoy Life's online Halloween Party. If you submit a photo before Nov. 5th, they will send you $5 in coupons. Here's the details:

How to Participate:
1. Take a photo of your child dressed up in a costume.
2. Email the photo and your name & address to enjoylifenf@gmail.com (printed coupons will be snail mailed)
3. Enjoy the Party!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cupcakes

To those of you who have been following my less than completely successful experiments with chocolate cupcakes, I would like you to meet the fruit of my labor: the Chocolate Covered Cherry Cupcake. It may not have the perfect cupcake dome, but in this case, the bug is now a feature, since the lack of slope allows the melted chocolate to harden without running off. As an additional bonus for the extended experimentation, the Cupcake Hero contest theme for May turned out to be cocoa powder, so this will be my first submission to that huge event. Despite initially being geared more toward Mommy's tastes, The Kid adores the the cupcake with a surprise in the middle. Allowing him to eat one results in a chocolate covered child!

Creamed Ingredients:
1/2 C dairy free margarine, softened
3/4 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:
1 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Liquid Ingredients:
1/2 C plain soy yogurt
1/2 C boiling water

Additional:
12 large maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a standard muffing tin with 12 cupcake liners. Sift together dry ingredients and set aside. Cream margarine then add sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla extract. Slow mixer, then gradually add in half the dry ingredients, then the soy yogurt, then the rest of the dry ingredients. Continuing to beat mixer slowly, add boiling water and mix until fully integrated.

Divide the batter evenly between the 12 cupcake liners. Very, very gently push a maraschino cherry into the center of each cupcake until even or just below surface. Using a spatula or knife, gently smooth batter over the top of the cherry. Bake for twenty minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Remember not to stick the toothpick exactly in the center due to the cherry! Allow to cool completely, then commence with the chocolate overkill, which may be blamed on Jill O'Connor and the Daring Bakers. (You know who you are.)

Melted Chocolate Topping:
1 C allergy safe chocolate chips, i.e. Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
1 Tbs vegetable shortening

Place chips and shortening in a small, heat safe bowl fitted atop a small pot of boiling water. Stir until melted, then spoon onto cupcakes. If necessary, spread with a circular motion. Allow to cool before consuming, if you can.

Makes one dozen decadent cupcakes and provides incontrovertible proof that food allergies do not cause a life of deprivation.

Apple Baby Cakes

My fellow Daring Baker, Holly of Phe/Mom/enon (she really is one) posted a request looking for a birthday cake recipe appropriate for premature babies who had reached one calendar year of age, but developmentally were not yet able to process eggs and milk. That started me thinking about writing a very "gentle" applesauce cake recipe, and the idea joined the dozens of other recipe ideas churning around in the back of my head.

That's where the idea stayed, until Holly announced that she was going to be walking in the March of Dimes Walk for Babies, a cause near and dear to my heart. To help spread the word, she decided to host a food event, Blogging for Babies, inviting submissions of "little creations." Well. It looks like it's time to bake cupcakes for preemies.

These cupcakes are very dense and moist, not to mention yummy. I have diligently used the most inoffensive ingredients possible, but I am not a doctor or nutritionist by any stretch of the imagination. If you are planning a birthday party for one of these brave babies, please check the recipe with your pediatrician before feeding it to your child. The Jello in the frosting may need to be replaced with a vegan gelatin or eliminated. If that is the case, you could simply dust the cupcake with powdered sugar.

Before baking the cupcakes, you will need to make a small batch of applesauce. I like Macintosh, but any cooking apple will do:

1 lb apples (about 3 large), cored, peeled, and sliced
1/2 C water
1 tsp lemon juice

Place all three ingredients in a pot with a tight fitting lid. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature to medium high and continue to cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool, then puree with a stick blender. (Be careful, hot applesauce can burn.) This should make a little over 1 Cup of applesauce. Reserve 2 Tbs for the frosting, and use the rest in the cupcake recipe.

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients:
1 C applesauce
1 banana, thoroughly mashed
1/2 C sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place 12 cupcake liners in a standard muffin tin. (You may not need them all.) Sift together dry ingredients and set aside. Cream the wet ingredients together, then continue mixing, while gradually stirring in the dry ingredients. When completely incorporated, Fill cupcake liners three quarters full with batter. (Initially I overfilled the liners, since I didn't expect much rise from the cupcakes. I was pleasantly surprised.) You most likely won't have a full dozen. Remove excess liners, and bake for 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the frosting, I didn't want to make anything that would have hard to digest fat in it, so I tried whipping up Jello, which resulted in a nice pink foam. This is the only part of this recipe that I still wish to improve some more; hopefully I will update this post with an improved frosting, or possibly a glaze. You also may not wish to try it unless you have a stand mixer. (At least have some powdered sugar on hand in case of disaster!) Because the foam does tend to set up, I would recommend not mixing it up until within an hour of when the cupcakes are going to be presented.

1 3 oz package of Strawberry Jello (or flavor of your choice)
1/2 C boiling water
2 Tbs applesauce

Combine Jello and boiling water. Beat on high speed with a whisk attachment until it begins to cool, about five minutes. Add applesauce, and continue beating for another ten minutes. The Jello mixture will become a light foam. To apply to the cupcakes, gently hold the cupcakes upside down and dip the tops in the foam. (You may have quite a bit of the foam left over.) Serve immediately.

I would love to hear any feedback or suggestions from anyone who runs this recipe by their pediatrician and tries it out for their extra special birthday baby. When my son had his first birthday, we had just begun to learn about his food allergies. I didn't even try to make him a cake. Since his favorite food at the time was sweet potato, I baked these patty shaped sweet potato things for the party and stuck a candle in one. Let's just say my baking skills have improved considerably since then! If I can spare anyone that kind of birthday cake disaster, I'll be thrilled.

Want to know more about Little Wonders March for Babies Team? Fantastic!! Here is the Team Page. Any amount that you can sponsor is extremely appreciated. Please, please help spread the word and sponsor Little Wonders if you can! Thank you!

Shrek Cupcakes

Going to a birthday party is one of the more stressful situations for the parent of a child with food allergies. It has all the pressures of trying to make sure your child is included, but still avoiding potentially deadly allergens while smack dab in the middle of a horde of sugar crazed kids. Usually it means bringing a safe cupcake along, so that the allergic child isn't left out of the cake eating extravaganza. As I've gotten more confident as baker, I've changed my tactics, and if I know the birthday child's mom well enough, I'll offer to make a cake for the whole party.

When my coworker invited us to her son's fifth birthday party and I found out that it was going to be Shrek themed, my imagination ran wild with new colors for my Red Velvet Cake. She agreed to let me make (green!) cupcakes and planned to buy Shrek cupcake picks herself to put on them. Unfortunately, none of the stores locally carried them, and there just wasn't enough time to order any. I decided to try to make gum paste "ears" for the cupcakes. As much as I like the way they look, I suggest buying the picks for all the trouble the homemade ears caused! (Hint: they may take from several days to a week to dry. I made them the night before.)

Since I'm already getting questions as to how to make a "normal," i.e., non-allergy friendly version, you may reverse the substitutions by replacing the soy milk and lemon juice mixture with 1 1/2 C buttermilk, and replace the water and egg replacer mixture with two eggs. For the frosting, replace vanilla soy milk with cow's milk and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

This recipe is also my entry for the Food for Plastic Kidz Challenge hosted by Ben of What's Cooking. The plastic in question is Tupperware, since the company is celebrating April as Children's Month, during which time they are donating a portion of sales to the Boys and Girls Clubs.

Dry Ingredients:
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp allergen free cocoa powder

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/2 Tbs lemon juice + soy milk to equal 1 1/2 C
1 C vegetable oil, preferably canola
1 1/2 C sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 Tbs yellow food coloring
10 drops green food coloring
1/4 C warm tap water + 1 Tbs Ener-G Egg Replacer

Stir together lemon juice and soy milk and set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place 18 cupcake liners in standard muffin tins. Sift the dry ingredients together into a medium bowl and set it aside as well.

In a mixer bowl, gently mix together the wet ingredients. Be careful not to splash the food coloring. While mixing, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ones in three batches. Stop as soon as they are completely combined. Divide the batter evenly between the 18 cupcake liners. (The batter will reach within half an inch of the top of the liners.)

Bake cupcakes for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out cleanly. Cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Mud Frosting:
1/2 C dairy free margarine
(As usual, I recommend Earth Balance.)
1/2 C allergen free cocoa powder
2 1/2 C powdered sugar
1/4 C vanilla soy milk

Cream margarine in a mixing bowl. Add cocoa powder and continue beating until fully integrated. Add powdered sugar and vanilla soy milk, then continue to beat until nice and creamy.

Red Velvet Cake

This is my go to egg and dairy free cake recipe that I reach for whenever I need a child's birthday cake, including Elmo cakes for The Kid's last two birthdays. I've made it in every color of the rainbow, and once even made a rainbow layer cake. I'll be using it to make green cupcakes for a Shrek themed party in a couple of weeks. Today I used it to try out my heart shaped silicone muffin mold that I picked up from a post Valentine's clearance. I was disappointed by the mold, but the cake itself was good, as always!

Dry Ingredients:
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp allergen free cocoa powder

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/2 Tbs lemon juice + soy milk to equal 1 1/2 C
1 C vegetable oil, preferably canola
1 1/2 C sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbs red food coloring
1/4 C warm tap water + 1 Tbs Ener-G Egg Replacer

Stir together lemon juice and soy milk and set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9" round cake pans. Sift the dry ingredients together into a medium bowl and set aside. In a mixer bowl, gently mix together the wet ingredients. Be very careful with the food coloring. (You may want to wear clothes you do not mind getting stained!)

While mixing, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ones in three batches. Stop as soon as they are completely combined. Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans and bake for 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the cake.

Allow to cool in the pan for about five minutes, then run a knife around the edge. Turn out onto a cooling rack until completely cool. I usually use a commercial "Cream Cheese" frosting that is dairy free, but if you would like to make your own buttercream frosting, here is my recipe:

1/3 C dairy free margarine, softened
(I prefer Earth Balance Buttery Sticks)3 C powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tbs lemon juice

Cream margarine in a mixer bowl, than gradually add sugar while continuing to mix. Once combined, mix in the lemon juice.

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Piña Colada Cupcakes

Last night was time to bake, so that The Kid wasn't the only preschooler without a cupcake in his hand and frosting on his face for Valentine's Day. First I considered making an applesauce cuppy cake, since I'd be able to effortlessly make a nice moist batter without egg while reducing the fat. That seemed a little...boring. Maybe crushed pineapple instead? Much better! With a cherry frosting, so it would taste like a pineapple upside down cake...then I decided to mix in some shredded coconut. As soon as the smell of pineapple and coconut hit my nose I said "It's a Piña Colada Cupcake!"

I'm a sucker for umbrella drinks, and I was sorely tempted to start mixing rum and cream of coconut for the frosting, but I stayed on the straight and narrow. With the help of a brand new book on cake decorating and my mom's old Wilson decorating kit from the 1970's, I even got up the courage to try piping the frosting for the first time!

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 C cake flour, sifted
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 C dairy free margarine, softened
1 C sugar
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple
1 tsp vanilla extract

Additional:
1 C sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a standard muffin tin with 12 paper baking cups. Sift together all dry ingredients into a small bowl. In a separate small bowl, toss together the coconut and several tablespoons of the flour mixture. Set both bowls aside. Cream margarine and sugar together in a large mixer bowl. Continue mixing and add pineapple and vanilla. (Don't worry if you get a cottage cheese texture, just continue beating the mixture until the "curds" are smaller.) Add flour mixture in small portions while still continuing to mix until completely combined. Stir in coconut by hand.

Divide batter evenly into muffin tin. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven when a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely, then frost.

Frosting:
1/3 C dairy free margarine, softened
3 C powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbs lemon juice
2 Tbs cherry spreadable fruit or cherry preserves
12 maraschino cherries (optional)

Cream margarine in a mixer bowl, than gradually add sugar while continuing to mix. Once combined, mix in the rest of the ingredients except cherries. (I had planned on adding vanilla soy milk, but the frosting was so tooth achingly sweet, that I switched to lemon juice plus vanilla extract.) Frosts one batch of cupcakes!