While I was at my local Whole Foods the other day, I noticed a new GF food to try, Ian’s Maple Sausage and Egg Wafflewich. I go into trying a new (to me) GF product skeptical but with an open mind. I will try anything to see if I can “discover” some new gluten-free godsend, just as I had with the Udi’s bread.
Here is a photo of another birthday cake I did for my friend’s daughter. The palm tree and brightly colored cupcakes were what we came up with for a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom themed party.
Caden (birthday girl) has a little friend who is allergic to wheat and eggs, so Kristen asked if I would make the cake to prevent wheat cross-contamination. The fact that I could not use eggs was the challenge. I usually make cakes from scratch since I am in pursuit of that ever elusive recipe that I know is just waiting to be found. Most scratch cake recipes call for A LOT of eggs. Knowing that it is not a good idea to replace more than 3 eggs with flax seed gel or manufactured egg replacer (it’s true…15 cakes later I gave up!).
I opted to take the easy route, I grabbed a Betty Crocker GF cake mix and subbed out the additional ingredients of eggs, oil and water for an old diet trick that I had heard about. A can of diet soda. The first batch of chocolate cupcakes I used Diet 7up and the second, I used Diet Pepsi.
Yuck. The first batch tasted like Diet chocolate 7up and the second batch tasted like Diet chocolate Pepsi. My 2 year old, who would eat a chocolate covered roach if I would let him, wouldn’t eat them. The party was the next day and I was beginning to panic, now what?
Sparkling water! The carbonation with zero additional flavor. It worked, and while the texture was a little spongy; it tasted like chocolate cake! The kiddos gobbled them down and didn’t seem to know the wiser. Most importantly though, Caden had a great time with all of her friends on her very special 4th birthday!
A quick shout out to my hometown although I am actually from Westerville, Ohio; a suburb of Columbus. I found this website from a post on the Silly Yak Yahoo Group. So, to all my friends back home who have asked me about the gluten-free diet, and to all the Buckeye Fans in town for a game, here is a great resource for you…
Columbus Gluten-Free Food Examiner
Thank you Kimberly Bouldin for all of your research!
Here is the link to the Scientific American article that has garnered quite a bit of attention in the CD community. It is amazing what this man, and others like him, have done to try and understand this elusive and “chameleon” of a disease, as I like to refer to it.
I was one of those that he described in the article that wasn’t “obviously” affected until later in life, at age 30 when my thyroid went crazy. I do know though that DH entered my life at about 15 (my “grass” allergy).
My oldest son was “diagnosed” at age 5 by a blood test, the anti-tTG IgA. His “score” was a 36. It was a 4 at age 3 when I first had him tested. The normal range is 0 – 19. My pediatrician sent us on for the biopsy and it came back negative. No inflammation. Not yet anyway. It can take YEARS of repeated gluten exposure for the villi to flatten so a “positive” diagnosis can be achieved. Everyone is different, with different levels of permeability of the small intestine, the genes involved, etc. Why do we have to have the flattening and at what cost does that come with? Enter what I refer to as the “sidekick diseases.” Like my Graves disease. Or Type-1 Diabetes, among many more. Diseases that once you get them, there is no going back. I will take thyroid hormone replacement medication for the rest of my life. Those with Type-1 Diabetes get insulin for the rest of their life, etc. These may have been prevented had the celiac disease been caught and stopped much sooner. With diet modification. No drugs or worse.
Sam was blessed with the best pediatric gastroenterologist I could have hoped for. A doctor ahead of a lot of his colleagues in the area of CD. Just in my experience…”If your test was negative this time, you will never have to be tested again.” “Do you have diarrhea?”, “No,” “Well, then you can’t have Celiac Disease.” Really???
We spoke extensively on the phone when he called me with Sam’s negative results. We talked about the “gold standard” for diagnosis, the flattened villi. We also talked about what the positive tTG test indicated. Sam’s body was reacting to gluten. That, coupled with his mother’s positive diagnosis of CD & DH… it was highly unlikely this was not NOT going to turn into “full blown” CD at some point.
I agonized over the decision I needed to make. My husband supported me either way but was going to leave it to me. Do I let Sam be “normal” for as long as he can and eat the Happy Meals, pizza, cake, etc. that is typical of the American diet? Or do I stop the progression now, let him grow and be healthy and attempt to avoid the “side diseases” that he will never escape? I voted for his health. I want better for him, I do not want him to battle the health problems that have plagued me.
Reading this article has quieted the demons in my head that haunt me everyday, wondering if I am doing the right thing. I now know I am. I am buying him good health time until there is a treatment for Celiac Disease, and he can break the chains that bind us. Thank you Dr. Fasano and everyone else who has worked so hard to try and understand this disease and others like it.
If you do not have them already, you simply MUST get a copy of Triumph Dining’s Gluten-Free Restaurant Guide and Gluten-Free Dining Cards. I have recently received my 3rd edition of the restaurant guide and bought a second set of the dining cards. I could not live without them. The restaurant guide is updated annually, offers restaurant options by state and cities, lists the contact information and even lists select menus at the back of the book.
The dining cards are of high quality. There are 10 different cards for 10 different cuisines. Each card is printed in English on one side and the corresponding language for each cuisine type on the back. For example, there is a Mexican Cuisine card that is written in English on one side and Spanish on the back. They come laminated and can easily be folded (they come with score marks) into the size of a business card. I carry mine in a separate business card “wallet” in my purse. My husband keeps his set in his car. The restaurant guides are always in the car.
When we are on vacation, all I need is my guide, my cards and my GPS!
I love this… I have all these envelope sealers around the house and in Sam’s school supplies for when they do “mail week” at school and guess what? Envelopes are GF!
Back in the spring I decided to take a cake decorating class at a local cake supply store. I will admit that the idea of going into a room filled with gluten laden cakes freaked me out; but I was a mom on a mission. Armed with vinyl gloves and sitting at my own table to minimize cross contamination, I dug in. It was a lot of fun, and my curious getup prompted some great questions from the other students so I took it upon myself to do a little Celiac Disease education! Instead of taking my cakes home (too risky), I gifted them to friends, family and the other students. Maybe it will inspire a real professional to start a gluten free bakery in Albuquerque!
There is one bakery in town that makes gluten free cake but it is not a dedicated bakery and the cake just wasn’t that great. It was heavy and loaded with pineapple and nuts… not exactly kid fare. I also knew I didn’t want my boys to grow up just having plain frosted cupcakes for every party or what I call a 9 x 13 “Pyrex cake.” If my boys have to be gluten-free, then I want all of their friends to be envious of their food! 
So, where to start? The cake recipe or the cake decoration? I figured that the decorations were most important. If it is bright and not a color found in nature, then I have a foot in the door with the under 10 set. The new GF Betty Crocker cake mixes are pretty good and they are quick. I still want to find a great scratch cake recipe, but time is of the essence, they are already 5 and 2!
Luke’s 2nd birthday party is around the corner, so I decided to do a practice cake before his party. He loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar book by Eric Carle, so that is the theme. Now I need a caterpillar cake! I found a Caterpillar Cakelet Pan from Williams Sonoma which was quite helpful. I made several batches of cakelets out of chocolate and yellow cake batter from the GF Betty Crocker mixes, this way I could alternate each segmented body part with the different flavors. One thing that I learned in my cake decorating class was how to use an icing bag and several different tips. The #21 and #32 tips are good staples for decorating most cakes that you can bake in the little kid shaped pans you can find at a craft store.
Here is my practice caterpillar cake:
My cake board was a bit small so I couldn’t give the caterpillar the accurate shape, but it is a start! I used 2 purple lollipops for the antenna. Luke loved it.
Actual Birthday Cake:
So, I decided to try and make some Twix candy bars. Twix were my husband’s favorite indulgence before he decided to jump on the GF bandwagon when our son was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Mike’s support has meant the world to me so I thought I would try to bring back a little nostalgia for him!
Twix are essentially a shortbread type cookie covered with caramel and chocolate. I found some gluten free shortbread cookies by Schar (which are very good by the way), grabbed a bag of Kraft caramels that I had in the cupboard from the fall when I was in caramel apple making mode, and a bag of Wilton’s chocolate candy melts, which I bought at my local craft store.
In the above photo, The cookie in the top left is just dipped with caramel. The cookies in the bottom right are the finished product with both the caramel and chocolate.
Over the years, since going gluten-free, I have been trying to make a Rice “Krispie” treat with the GF crisp rice cereals. Something was always missing and I assumed it was the taste of the malt flavoring in the name brand Rice Krispies cereal. A friend of mine told me she uses Rice Chex, since General Mills has done a great job of replacing the malt flavoring with molasses. I gave it a try and tada! GF Rice “Crispy” treats… the square shape is actually nice because it lets everyone know it’s gluten-free!
Gluten-Free Rice Chex “Crispy” Treats
1/4. Butter (I use Smart Balance)
36 Large GF Marshmallows
6 cups GF Rice Chex Cereal
Melt butter in a large pan, add marshmallows and stir until melted. Add cereal and mix until all the cereal is coated. Spread in a greased pan and let set until cool.
* I am an AMATEUR photographer and I haven’t mastered the lighting in my pictures yet. I am working on this so the food looks as great as it tastes!!
My friend Allison, from the yahoo group, “Celiac Kids,” made a post about a gluten-free concession stand at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies!!! I think I will be planning a little trip to Denver to take in a game and go to Udi’s Bakery for “real” bread!
For anyone around Denver, or those who want to encourage a local ballpark by sharing this info, this was on my local celiac list …
Posted July 22, 2009: I went to a Rockies game today and was thrilled to see a gluten-freeconcession stand! They had burgers, hot dogs, Boulder Chips, Glutinopretzels, and pre-packaged brownies and cookies (I had a brownie and I wishI remembered the brand–it was delicious). They were located on the westside, near the entrance that’s right next to the playground (behind Section148).
