Bonus "Wedding" Post: Allergy Free Vanilla Cake

I was planning to share this recipe in my next 7 Quick Takes, but I realized it deserves a whole blog post of its very own.

Now, before you hit the "back" button and decide not to read this because a). no one in your family has food allergies and b). you want to make a cake that actually tastes good and these dairy-free egg-free ones usually taste like sawdust, keep reading! This may be just what you're looking for. (By the way, that sawdust thing? Just a myth.)

When I made our vanilla cake with sour cream frosting, I also wanted to make a cake that Allergy Boy Moe could eat. I asked him if he wanted me to fix the banana cake I usually make for his birthdays, (click here for the recipe; and to see a few cakes I've made for him, go here and here) but he said no, he wanted a vanilla cake. That's OK, I assured him, because I don't have to put bananas in it; I can leave those out and add more vanilla instead. No, he said, he wanted a REAL cake. Whatever that means.


Often when I'm baking for Moe, I'll use Egg Replacer in place of eggs Normally I'll mix a tablespoon and a half (heaping) of Egg Replacer with two tablespoons of water for one egg. It usually works very well, as long as the recipe doesn't call for more than a couple of eggs; things like brownies and cakes usually call for three or more. (Your should have seen the brownies I tried making with it. What a mess.) I'm a little apprehensive of trying a new egg-free cake recipe for fear of what it might turn into. I decided to pull out our box of Egg Replacer and see if there were any recipes on it I could use (I've made the pancakes--actually, my mother makes them every time we come visit and the kids finally convinced me to try them too. I'll share that one with you sometime as well.)

Anyway, I showed Moe this recipe



and he took one look at it and said, "Yes! Make that one!" and then skipped off to finish his Wii game or whatever it was he was doing. Well, all right then! I guess by a "real" cake, he meant something different than what he usually gets.

EGG-FREE VICTORIA SPONGE CAKE

2 cups all-purpose wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons (one tablespoon) baking powder
1 teaspoon Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/4 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon shortening
1-1/3 cups water
Flavor of your choice(optional)*


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix the first four ingredients together. Add the shortening and mix well. Add the water and flavor and mix two minutes. Pour into a greased eight-inch cake pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the middle is firm to touch.


*I added about a teaspoon of vanilla. I also added soy milk powder to the dry ingredients to give it even more flavor. I'm sure you could replace the water with soy or rice milk (or cow's milk, for that matter) and it would probably work just fine.

Using brown sugar gave the cake a nice golden color, and a slight nutty flavor.





Most people cringe at the idea of eating cake made without eggs because sometimes, they're not quite as good as the traditional variety (personally I think allergy-free baked goods have gotten a bad rap). This one, however, was delicious. I know because I snuck a bite. (I'm supposed to be on a gluten-free diet, but hey, I HAD to test this new recipe out...) And it met with Moe's approval, too.

Around here, a 16-ounce box of Egg Replacer usually costs around nine dollars. That might seem like a lot, but considering that (and I haven't actually done the math, so I'm only guessing here) eggs cost somewhere between two and four dollars a dozen--depending on where you get them and what kind-- and one box can last me several months, I KNOW each box is equivalent to several dozen eggs at least. You'd be spending less money because you don't have to buy all those eggs. (If anyone has figured out how many "eggs" you can get from one box of egg replacer, I'd love to know.)

I made some double-chocolate cookies the other day with it, and guess what? You'd never know they were egg-free. Larry just wolfed down three of them and raved about how good they were.

Stay tuned in the next few days for 7 Quick Takes, and a new recipe for barbecue I tried recently!