Because of a dairy allergy, I need to make a non-dairy birthday cake that will be dense enough to support fondant. so...

>> will substituting vegan margarine for traditional margarine/shortening have any effect on the density of the cake? (vegan margarine uses expeller pressed oil versus margarine's and shortening's hydrogenated oil...trying to be a bit healthier if i can.)

>> will substituting soy milk /rice milk for cow's milk have any effect on the density of the cake?

>> suggestions for non-dairy ingredients that will add density to the cake, since i need it to stand up to fondant and can't use sour cream or peanut butter (peanut allergy too!).

any additional suggestions are appreciated. thanks for your help!

There's a brand of soy sour cream that I use sometimes, but I used regular tofu (not the extra stiff kind, or whatever it's called) the last time I did a vegan chocolate cake, and it was fine. That replaces the sour cream, if your recipe has any in it. You can use soy milk instead of milk, the fat is similar. I also had a suggestion from a corn allergy website to replace amy milk with water then add a teaspoon of oil per cup of milk to replace the fat. I haven't tried that yet, but it should work.

The vegan margarine might not work as well, since it's lower fat than real butter. Check the fat content, I don't know if brands vary much. I'd just use crisco, or you could get some Spectrum brand organic shortening. That has saturated fat but no trans fat in it.

When I do vegan chocolate cakes I just use my regular recipe and substitute out the non-vegan ingredients for soy-based, and I use egg replacer for the eggs. They usually come out denser than the usual recipe, and they'd be fine for fondant. Try to just replace whatever you use in your regular baking that has dairy in it for soy products and you should be fine.