I will go into this later but I had so much fun today at my “Stage Cakes” cake decorating class that I wanted to show all my GF and Food Allergy mom friends our potential in making fun and safe birthday cakes for our precious children.
There are definitely some flaws if you are looking at this from the standpoint of a professional cake decorator, but I am just a mom who wants her boys to have something “more” than the typical homemade cake for their birthdays. Children with dietary restrictions have to do without so often that their special day should be just that, special.
Sam and Luke haven’t seen this yet (mom and dad are having a “date night” tonight so they are having a sleep over with Nana and Papa). I cannot wait to show them!!
And welcome to my blog!
Whether you're here looking for advice on how to go gluten free (with delicious kid-approved recipes of course!), or to read some of the latest medical research on celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity...or even to read about one woman's rise from the depths of gluten-free despair to a place of downright enthusiasm, it makes no matter. The point is, you are here now so let's have some fun!
I love it!!!! You did an awesome job as always!!!
Oh my goodness, Heidi! That looks amazing! My co-author, Heather, has always been a creative cake-maker. The FA diagnoses brought even more interesting twists to her creations, which are always as delicious as they are visually enticing. My personal favorite was a pirate ship with licorice nets and malt ball cannon balls. Keep up the great work. :o)
Kerry,
Taking these cake classes have been amazing, not only in learning the easy techniques to make a cake like this but peering into the world of bakery cakes. It has been a real eye-opener for me in regards to food colorings (the sheer VOLUME of food coloring it takes to make a real red color is mind boggling), the shortening used in decorator icing (during my first class, my instructor actually blasted the "non-trans-fat" shortenings and how it has affected the "quality" of decorator icing!), and I just love this…she makes icing roses on the tip of a sharpened pencil!
It has been like watching Food, Inc. "the bakery version" for me. Just knowing how many bakery cakes are made has made me thankful to make my own and I am really wanting to find healthier alternatives to chemical food colorings, without losing the "wow" factor!
OMG, that is so totally awesome.
Wow, that is amazing.
Great job.
I would be interested in seeing your recipe.
Lisa,
I am going to be doing a series of cake and cupcake pictorials coming up, still working on all my photos.
This cake was actually made using Betty Crocker's GF Deviled Food Cake mix and I omitted the eggs, butter and water that the box calls for and replaced with 10-ounces of room temperature sparkling water (going off the "Diet Soda" idea for a low-fat cake. I wanted to try this not only to "lighten up" the cake but to see if this world work for an "egg-free, dairy-free" version of the cake.
I had been working on this off and on for a year, but the end result was always gummy. Then I realized (duh) that the Better Crocker GF Cake Dessert Mixes have less mix in them than standard gluten mixes so 12-ounces (typical can of diet soda) of sparkling water was too much. I scaled it back a couple of ounces and that did the trick!
Great cake!!!
Are the rocks on the cake candy or are they actually rocks?
What an amazing cake! I am going to try the 10 oz sparkling water tirck with the mixes, see if it works for us. Have you tried it with the yellow cake yet?
Elizabeth,
The rocks on my cake are chocolate and the place where I took the class did not have an ingredient list!! I used them anyway assuming I could find a gluten-free version somewhere (I THREW THIS CAKE AWAY, I only wanted to learn how to do it!!). I did find some gluten-free, non-dairy "candy pebbles" on the Chocolate Emporium website: http://www.choclat.com/GFCF/gfcf.php
It is funny though that you asked if they were real rocks… I actually thought of that too!! I learned much more than how to build this cake during the class and decided that using real rocks (run through the dishwasher a few times!) is a definite possibility (depending on the age group of course, and that someone tells the kiddos NOT to bite down on one!!).
I am going to be going into detail on everything I have learned all next week. Just remember, I am NOT a professional cake decorator, just another mom who wants a better birthday cake for her kids! 🙂 My cakes are not perfect, but they are good enough, especially since I do not have any other option! 😀
As for the sparkling water, I have tried it on the BC Yellow Cake Mix and it did not do so well. There is something funny going on with that yellow cake mix. I talk about it a little more on this post: https://www.adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com/2010/03/31/…
Are you looking for GF and dairy-free or egg-free (or both)?
I cook GF and Egg free, Soy free when at all possible (I have a kiddo that can tolate soy in small doses). My husband and three daughters have Celiac, so I have learned to re-cook for all of them.
Like you, I try to make my girls' cakes the best — I made an alligator with cupcakes for one of the girls last year, and try to experiment with cupcakes vs cakes since most kids (GF or not) usually just eat the frosting anyway!
I'm experimenting with the "flip-flop" ice cream cake on the better homes and gardens website – it calls for pre-made pound cake. GF cake is pretty dense anyway, so I'm hoping it the BC yellow cake mix will hold up!
Elizabeth,
You're right GF cake mixes are pretty dense on their own but my instructor recommended to my classmates (those using a gluten based cake mix) that adding dry, instant pudding mix to the cake mix would help make their cakes more dense. Is dairy okay for your family?
Yes, dairy is okay for us. We were dairy-free for about a year when we started GF (that was 6 years ago), re-introduced it and have been fine ever since.
I will try adding pudding to the BC yellow cake mix – I tried the sparling water and the devil's food mix today, and the cupcakes are AMAZING! THANK YOU for this great tip!
Great article, I'm a big fan of your blog, keep on writing these great posts, and I'll be a regular for a long time.