Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Cake

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!