I am making a cake for a 3 year old who has many food allergies. He can't do anything with eggs, soy products, nuts, or anything produced in factories that package food with those ingredients...that includes Crisco/shortening. I did some research on CC, but couldn't find anything that didn't use shortening. His Mom said I could use lard in place of the shortening....which sounds disgusting to me!!! Does anyone have any cake or icing ideas? I am at a loss!

can you use butter?

Yes, I can use milk and butter, but the party will be outside, so I was worried about it melting with a lot of butter. Guess that would be better than lard though!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Plain-Eggless-Cake/Detail.aspx

i'd suggest a butter/p.sugar/vanilla/milk/salt recipe or a simple glaze. add fondant or chocolate accents for decoration.

thanks melysa!

you're welcome. this one looks good as well. it should be tender and moist w/ the vinegar added. http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,176,131177-253194,00.html and some more recipes: http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,eggless_cake,FF.html

Ok. I talked to the Mom again about this cake, and she doesn't really like fondant. She wants the cake itself to be white, not yellow, chocolate, or any other color. They want Thomas the train with the closest thing I can get to decorator buttercream for the entire cake, decorations and all. She is afraid if I do anything "fancy," like fondant, that they might not like it. This allergy thing is already making me nervous. If I use the butter/p.sugar/vanilla/milk/salt icing recipe, will it hold up enough to at least pipe out some stars for the Thomas image without melting too much on me as I decorate? Would a border even hold up in the heat? I just have visions of this cake melting into a blob after 5 minutes of sitting outside.

i havent put too many cakes outside in the summer heat to be honest. what is your temp like?

it should hold up fine, it will soften, but i dont think it'll be sitting in a pool of melted frosting. have you ever tried a frozen buttercream transfer? i think this method will give you a cleaner looking picture especially if the icing softens or spreads at all in the heat. with stars, i imagine if it did soften and spread at all that it would look rather sloppy.

honestly, i think the mother is asking alot without giving you much to work with. i would suggest simple cupcakes or a single cake, frosted with the bc and just a thomas candle. possibly a chocolate transfer thomas decoration.

i'd even suggest ganache or a glaze or sifted powder sugar over the cake or cupcakes and just ask her to get the candle or thomas pic.


i think the bc should do just fine. borders will work, stars will work. if you keep it thicker it will be more stable also. just add more sugar if you need to.

ps. if she wants a white cake instead of a yellow cake, i dont think there is anything to worry about. to my understanding, a yellow cake, gets its color from the egg yolks. so without eggs, there are no yolks to worry about. viola ! white cake~

I haven't tried a frozen buttercream transfer before, and don't know much about it. Now sounds like a good time to learn! I agree, the Mom is asking a lot! She is a friend of mine, so I think she feels like she can ask a little more of me than she would someone else. The temp. around here will be mid 80's, or so. I was thinking the stars would look sloppy too. I don't really like piping loads of star images anyway!!!

Oh yeh, as far as the cake goes, I will have to make it with egg replacer, because of the egg allergy. I have no idea if egg replacer has color, or even if it is liquid, powder, etc... If it is yellow to resemble real eggs, there won't really be a choice. This will really be an experiment!!!