Christmas Greetings

Wishing each and every one of you wonderful days filled with family, friends and much cheer! Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year!

“Not Too Ginger” Gingerbread Cookies

The secret ingredient in these cookies is the cinnamon. I love gingerbread cookies but sometimes the ginger taste is a bit strong for our family so I add some cinnamon to the recipe which seems to work very well with this recipe. Other kids must agree because I have made these cookies for lots of school Christmas parties and all the kids love them.

Cookies:

½ C Non-dairy margarine

½ C Granulated Sugar

½ tsp. Egg Replacer + 2 T warm water

¼ C Light Molasses

2 ¼ C All-purpose Flour

¾ tsp. Baking Powder

1 T. Ground Ginger

2 T. Ground Cinnamon

Decoration:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons rice milk

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the egg replacer and water and set aside. In a mixer, beat the margarine and sugar together until creamy. Beat in the mixed egg replacer and molasses. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, ginger and cinnamon in a bowl. Slowly add to the creamy mixture. Divide the dough in half and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough into ¼ inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut out your Gingerbread shape and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Don’t forget to roll together any extra scraps for more cookies.

Bake cookies for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Mix powdered sugar, rice milk, corn syrup and the vanilla extract together and spread on cookies. Add food coloring to make different colors and decorate as you like.  Anyone want the cyclops gingerbread man?

Snowball Cookies

As I am writing this post, we are watching one of our favorite movies, ELF. I have been thinking of
this movie ever since we made our Snowball Cookies the other day. When ever I think about snowballs I think the ultimate snowball fight scene from the movie, Elf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbQZ8GK2usU

Growing up I had a number of snowball fights with my brother and the other neighbors. For some reason, my brothers and there friends were always ganging up on me. Back then I could have used a buddy like Buddy.

I love this picture because these Snowball cookies look just like real snowballs ready for their next fight. Most Snowball Cookie recipes have almonds in them but I did find one recipe without nuts from The Food Allergy Mama for her Russian Teacake recipe. These are pretty good but I did have trouble getting them to clump together so I added 2 T of rice milk to the mixture. It did change the texture and the taste a bit but I found that I liked them better because they were not dry like some other recipes. These cookies didn't last long in our house so I guess that is a YES vote for us!

DAIRY, EGG AND NUT FREE SNOWBALL COOKIES

1 c.    Dairy free margarine

½ c. Powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla

2 ¼ c. All purpose flour

¼ tsp. Salt
2 T.  Rice milk

1 c.   Powdered sugar (for rolling)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. This is important so the bottoms don't get burned.

Using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine margarine, powdered sugar and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Stir in flour and salt until dough comes together into a pliable ball. Add rice milk, one tablespoon at a time if you the dough is not sticking or of you like them a bit more moist.

Shape dough into one inch balls and place onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. While the cookies are still warm but cool enough to handle roll in powdered sugar. Now for the final step, cool completely and roll in sugar to top it off. 

Snoopy for the Holidays

One of our favorite Christmas movies is A Charlie Brown Christmas so it was so much fun that the first Christmas movie of the season we watched as a family was this movie. What's not to like with the cast of characters including the miss-understood Charlie Brown, the snarky Lucy and his trouble-making dog, Snoopy. So with our recent "blanket of white" and the holiday inspiration from Charles Schultz, Katie and a friend have created their very own Snoopy holiday decoration.

Now all we need are the holiday lights! They did such a great job that I have the urge to make one of our favorite holiday desserts, the every easy Snowball Cookies. Stay tuned for the recipe.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

A friend decided to have a Thanksgiving holiday party this year and asked us to bring something festive. Since I love ANYTHNG pumpkin and I love cookies this recipe was the perfect fit. This is adapted from Happy to be a Tableof  Two. I used Wholesome’s Fair Trade Natural Cane Sugar instead of the evaporated cane juice used. I love the texture this sugar gives cookies.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Cookies:
3¾ cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup Fleischmann’s Unsalted Margarine or Earth Balance, at room temperature
1 cup Wholesome’s Natural Cane Sugar of evaporated cane juice
½ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup pumpkin puree
1 flax “egg” (1 T ground flax seed + 2 T warm water)
4 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
½ cup evaporated cane juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
Pinch of allspice

To start, make your flax “egg” and set aside at least 10 minutes to thicken. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In an electric mixer, beat together the non-dairy margarine, cane sugar and light brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Blend in the pumpkin puree. Beat in the flax “egg” and vanilla until incorporated. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Cover and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine the sugar and spices for the coating in a bowl and mix to blend. Scoop the dough and roll into a ball. Coat the dough ball in the sugar-spice mixture and place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough to fill the sheets, spacing the dough balls 2-3 inches apart. Dip the bottom of a flat, heavy-bottomed drinking glass in water, then in the sugar-spice mixture, and use the bottom to flatten the dough balls slightly. Recoat the bottom of the glass in the sugar-spice mixture as needed. I love this trick.

Bake the cookies for 11 minutes, or until just set and baked through. Let cool and transfer to a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining dough.

These cookies got rave reviews from all! Make some today!

EOS Lip Balm Is Hot

It seems like every year there is a new product that every tween and teen MUST HAVE! So when my teen approached me the other day to ask for the latest, coolest thing that every girl in school has to have, I tried not to groan. I must not have tried very hard because one escaped anyway. This latest craze is the new eos Lip Balm by Evolution of Smooth.

The eos Lip Balm comes in a round, plastic container that twists off to reveal the actual lip balm in the same round shape as the container. Cool! It comes in many different flavors including Blueberry Acai, Sweet Mint, Strawberry Sorbet and Pomegranate Raspberry. Yummy! It’s also 100% natural and 95% organic (not sure which ingredient isn’t organic), paraben and petrolatum free. Bonus! At $3.29, this lip balm wouldn’t break the bank so I went ahead and bought the Pomegranate Raspberry flavor because it was a cute color and I thought the flavor sounded great. Good marketing!

What can I say; I’m a sucker for cool products! As I am writing this post, I have twisted the top off and smelled the lip balm at least a half a dozen times. These people have totally sucked me in, they are ingenious! I put it on my teen’s bed and waited to hear her excitement. I didn’t have to wait long. My teen was so excited she could barely contain herself.

That is, until she looked at the ingredients. “Is Shea Butter okay for me?” Drats! In all my excitement, I forgot to look at the ingredients closely. I knew Shea Butter was probably one of those ingredients on her NO-NO list but I was having a hard time remembering whether it was a dairy, egg or nut product. Shea Butter is a fatty substance derived from the Shea Tree. FAAN and the FDA classify Shea as a tree nut even though there have been no documented allergic reactions to it. It is in the same family as coconut oil and cocoa butter.

With this in mind, we are going to have her try it on her skin for a couple of days and see if she gets a reaction. If everything appears okay, I will have her test a small amount on her lips, while she is at home, so I can watch her. Hopefully, she will be able to share in the same excitement her friends have with this latest fad. If not, my teen has talked about creating her own lip balm. Maybe she’ll start her own fad!

President Signs Epinephrine Bill

Last week President Obama signed into law the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act. This is the first federal law encouraging schools to stock epinephrine for use in allergic emergencies. This is because of a two year campaign by the FARE organization. With this law financial incentives are given to the states to encourage schools to keep lifesaving epinephrine on hand and ensure school personnel are trained on how to use them.

Right now, 30 states currently have laws or guidelines allowing schools to stock epinephrine for anaphylactic emergencies. Only four states (Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada and Virginia) currently require this practice. During the signing ceremony, President Obama revealed that his daughter Malia, age 15, has a peanut allergy.

This Act is important because many students who may need epinephrine may have no known history of an allergy and would not have a prescription of their own.

Apple Cinnamon Donuts (Dairy, Egg, Nut Free)

As I mentioned in my last post, we drove out to Jonamac Farms, 45 minutes west, for some apple picking, pumpkin picking and a real Amazing Race adventure in their corn maze. On our way out, we made our usual stop to their store to buy their warm apple cinnamon donuts. The smell of these warm donuts is so strong that it took all of our willpower to wait until heading home before sinking our teeth into them. We always feel sad because Katie can never have any because of her allergies so I felt that this was the year we were going to make our own apple cinnamon donuts.

I found this recipe on the Food Allergy Mama’s website http://www.foodallergymama.com/2009/02/25/dairy-egg-and-nut-free-apple-cinnamon-doughnuts/. I’ve made baked donuts before but we wanted to try frying them. Yikes, I was a bit nervous having never fried in oil before. Frying them was a bit tricky and it took us about four donuts before we started getting the hang of it.  

Apple Cinnamon Donuts (Dairy, Egg, Nut Free)

4 ¾ C  Unbleached All Purpose Flour

3 ½ tsp. Baking Powder

½ tsp. Salt

1 tsp.  Cinnamon

½ tsp. Nutmeg

¾ C    Unsweetened Applesauce

2 tsp.  Vanilla

¾ C    Granulated Sugar

3 T     Dairy Free Margarine, Melted

1 C     Soy or Rice Milk

Vegetable Oil for Frying

Cinnamon Sugar for Topping:

½ C Granulated Sugar

2 tsp. Cinnamon

Makes 12 doughnuts and 12 donut holes

In a mixer, combine applesauce, vanilla and sugar. Add melted margarine and mix well. In a separate medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add flour mix and non-dairy mix to margarine mix, alternately. Add more flour if needed to make the dough smooth but not too sticky.

In a large, heavy pot, heat 2-3 inches of vegetable oil until the candy thermometer reaches 375 degrees.

In the meantime, transfer dough to a lightly floured board. Knead and roll out to a ½ inch thickness.

Dip doughnut cutter into flour and cut into dough. Remove trimmings and re-roll. Repeat the process.

Slide a few doughnuts carefully in oil. You do not want to crowd the pot. 

Fry until the doughnuts rise to the surface, about 2 minutes, then turn over with metal tongs to fry over the other side. Doughnuts should be golden brown. Lift out with metal thongs and drain on paper towels.

Place cinnamon sugar mixture in brown paper bag. Place warm doughnuts, one at a time in the brown bag and shake. Shake off excess sugar. Enjoy, they are best warm! Even Gumby enjoyed them!

Fall Harvest

Every fall we head an hour west to spend the day picking apples, pumpkins and partake in a friendly competition through this year's corn maze race. 

Some years the apples are all picked over. We were lucky this time with plenty of Empire, Ida Red, Cameo and Breaburn varieties to chose from. This is Katie's favorite!

A friendly competition has always been healthy for our family but it is getting a bit out of hand. This year it felt like we were running a 5K instead of a friendly trek through the corn maze. What happened to the "no running" rule?

It was such a beautiful day that even the bees were buzzing.

Pumpkin picking was extra hard this year with most of the pumpkins rotten or devoured by the squirrels. We did find four very large, not to bad looking ones. We are a very picky crew. One likes it tall, one likes it round, one likes it a bit more oval. I look for the unusual, not necessarily pretty, pumpkin. I believe the word being passed around this year was "ugly".

Our carved pumpkins and a recipe to follow.

Allergy Testing

The results are in for Katie's new allergy testing. Her last one was two years ago so we felt like it was time to see if things had changed since then. The blood test was done on 16 different items which included peanuts, all nuts, sesame seed, milk, eggs and chickpeas.

The bad news is that she is still severely allergic to peanuts and several tree nuts, sesame and chickpeas. The good news, her milk and egg allergies have gone down to the point that the doctor wants us to start introducing them slowly into her system. Yeah! Maybe Katie will eventually be able to eat food she has never eaten before.

I talked to Katie about this new opportunity and the reception was a bit lukewarm; "I have been not eating these ingredients since I was little but now you want me to eat them?" How do you change something that has been part of you for 13 years? How do you start eating items with an egg or some butter or milk when you have been avoiding them for so long? Has this become an identity issue?

Katie's confidence has grown since we have stated this blog to the point that she has been sharing her "yummy" baked goods with neighbors and friends. She even has a couple of friends who are vegetarian and vegan. She is proud of what she has accomplished and we are too!

How do I feel about this? Could I also have some reservations? How do I change the way I've been cooking for the last 12 years? Actually, I like cooking this way! I have no desire to use butter, milk or eggs in my baked goods. And my son and I only have dairy on a limited basis because of various problems with them. So now does it becomes a question of our way of life. Do we continue as we have always been or do we change the way we look at those "forbidden foods"?

I believe that it is in Katie's best interest to know whether she actually can or cannot eat these items, so we will gradually test her on eggs and dairy. Once we know how these will affect her, Katie can decide how she wants to incorporate them in her life. It will definitely make things easier when she goes out with her friends or at other social situations. I'm not sure if I will change the way I cook now but we will see. Who knows, maybe we can get a deep dish pizza and she can actually eat it!

It's Just Peachy

Look at those peaches! Sweet, juicy, amazing! Hurry up and buy those peaches from the local Farmer's Market before they are gone. I'd recommend that you stand over the sink when you bite into them, they are that juicy!

I have made this recipe year after year because it is a quick and easy recipe that everyone will love! You can substitute apples, pears or apricots in this recipe.

Peach Fruit Crisp (no dairy, eggs, nuts)

 5 C     Sliced peaches

3 T      Sugar

½ C     Regular rolled oats

½ C     Packed brown sugar

¼ C     All-purpose flour

¼ tsp.  Ground nutmeg

¼ tsp.  Cinnamon

¼ C     Dairy-free margarine

Cut up fruit and place in a 8 inch square baking dish and stir in sugar. Next, make the topping by mixing oats, brown sugar, flour, nutmeg and cinnamon together. Cut in dairy-free margarine until mixture is in crumbles. Sprinkle topping over the peach filling.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes until fruit is tender and topping is golden. If you like, serve with favorite dairy-free ice cream.

FARE's Eight Annual Teen Summit

It's time to sign up for the FARE's 8th Annual Teen Summit on Nov. 15-17 for teen's with food allergies. This year the Summit is going to be held at the Hyatt Regency on Capital Hill in Washington D.C.

This summit is open to pre-teens and teens from ages 11 to 19 years of age who have food allergies. There will also be special sessions for siblings and friends of allergic teens and for parents to share their experiences and concerns.

FARE has set up group sessions by age during the day and fun activities at night. Some of the specific topics they will be discussion include:

• Social Issues
• Peer Pressure
• Dining Out
• How to Be Your Own Advocate
• Friendship and Dating
• High School Navigation
• How to Prepare for College

This is a great opportunity for allergic teens to be around other kids from all over the country who are just like themselves. For a detailed list of activities, speakers and topics simply go to www.foodallergy.org/teensummit.

Kissing and Allergic Teens

Who would have thought that life for allergic teens could get even more complicated than they already are? Now it seems that they need to worry about something that is a normal part of growing up and something every teen thinks about. What will their first kiss be like!

A teen’s first kiss is the rite of passage that every teen dreams about and experiences sometime in their life. In fact, the innocent first kiss is a favorite subject among many teen writers and the Hollywood film industry.

Who doesn’t remember the scene from the coming of age tale, Sixteen Candles, where sixteen year old, Samantha finally gets a kiss from her dreamy crush, Jake Ryan.

Or from one of my favorite movies, Pride and Prejudice, where Mr. Darcy leans over to kiss Lizzie on the forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks and then her mouth all the while saying “Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy.” Which by the way was not in Jane Austin's book or in the European version.

Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic but I believe that, good or bad experience, everyone remembers their first kiss. But for those teens with food allergies, their first kiss can be one of terrible fear or anxiety— What if they ate something I’m allergic too? What if I am too embarrassed to tell them about my allergies? Maybe I won’t tell them and see what happens? These are all serious questions for those kids with allergies.

This recent article from Time Magazine's Health and Family titled How My Nut Allergy Made Me More Monogamous http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/16/how-nut-allergies-made-me-monogamous/ is a great “read” on this subject. The author, who is now out of college and has been through the teen years, talks about what dating has been like with severe allergies. She admits there were times when she was younger and took chances that could have ended up badly because she was too embarrassed to talk about her allergies. She admits that she was not acting smart at the time and urges other teens not to do the same, “… I worry that young teens will act as recklessly as I have, with dire consequences.”

It is for this reason that we have already had a brief, age appropriate talk about our allergic teen being very careful. I hate to think about my 13 year old being interested in boys but I am also realistic to know that just like Samantha or Lizzie, her first kiss will happen whether I want it to or not. I just hope, for her, it is much, much later!

Can You Live on Zucchini Bread?

If you are my son, apparently you can! I made this super yummy chocolate chip zucchini bread yesterday and he ate 5 slices and had another 2 this morning. He was even thinking about taking it to school for lunch. Hold on buddy, what about the rest of us?

I have zucchini everywhere so I've been looking at zucchini recipes all week but I wasn't sure of the reception I would get when they found out there was zucchini in it. We have a bunch from our backyard garden and our neighbor has been sending them over from her garden. Apparently she has radioactive zucchini in her garden because it was three times the size of one of ours. Only half of her zucchini was used for this recipe which made both loaves of bread. Now that's a zucchini!

Yesterday dawned cool and rainy and I know it was the perfect day for me to bake one of my favorite foods from growing up. I've found a great recipe from the Hell Yeah It's Vegan blog http://hellyeahitsvegan.com/vegan-zucchini-bread/. Since the recipe was already vegan I didn't have to convert it too much but I did make a few changes. I cut the nutmeg in half to 1 tsp., changed the type of sugar to a combo on white and brown sugar and used 3 c of all purpose flour. I also used mini-chocolate chips from Enjoy Life instead of the larger ones because I like the mini-chips better and then I chopped the zucchini instead of grating it to hide the "green stuff" better.

This zucchini chocolate chip bread was really "tasty" and the zucchini and flax seeds made it a healthy snack. The top was especially good with the perfect amount of crispness to it. My son actually asked if he could just eat the tops from both loaves. I loved that no only did my son enjoy it but everyone else in the family loved it as well. 

Vegan Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread (no dairy, eggs, nuts)

Makes: 2 loaves

Ingredients:

6 tbsp ground flax seeds
½ C warm water
1 C light brown sugar
1 C sugar
½ C oil
½ C applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
2 to 2½ c grated zucchini (I chopped ours)
3 C all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 C chocolate chips (I used mini chips) or raisins, optional

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9 x 5 loaf pans. Mix together flax seeds and warm water and let sit for 10 minutes. Add the sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla and beat well. Chop (or grate) the zucchini and add to the wet ingredients and stir until combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the remaining dry ingredients. Add dry mixture to wet and stir until they are mixed well. Add the chocolate chips in then divide the batter between two loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes, or until knife inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Let cool a few minutes before slicing.

Food Allergy Documentary on Discovery Channel

On September 7, FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education) and the Discovery Channel debuted a new documentary about food allergies called “An Emerging Epidemic: Food Allergies in America.” This hour-long documentary was narrated by Steve Carell and showed several families and individuals who are coping with severe food allergies and what it is like to live with life-threatening food allergies. Also mentioned were some of the new research and clinical trials going on today. Did you know that food allergies affect every 1 in 13 kids in American and that food allergies have increased 50% since 1997?

Even though it is an hour long segment, I think it is worth watching. I thought the documentary was very well done especially for those skeptic individuals who do not understand how scary it can be for the child and parents affected by life threatening allergies. Some of the stories really bring home the severity of their unique situations. I'm also glad the documentary chose to highlight several severely allergic teenagers because of the unique circumstances they face and how hard it is the older and more independent they get. One teenage girl has such a long list of allergies that she has only been out to a restaurant a dozen times and only with her family but was thrilled when they finally found a restaurant she could go to with her boyfriend.

I was happy to hear that of the kids highlighted, they all seem to have a sense of ownership when it comes to their allergies, even the young ones. While they know their allergies can be life threatening, they don't want them (allergies) defining who they are and what they can do. Some of their comments included:

"I'm not going to let a food allergy hold me down."

"There's always another solution."

"I don't let it define me."

I think our allergic kids are very special indeed and much more grown up then we ever were!

If you missed it last Saturday but missed out, it will air again on Saturday, September 21 at 8 a.m. ET/PT or you could watch it they way I did, online at http://www.discoverychannelcme.com/patient-education/food-allergies or available for download on iTunes.

Saying Goodbye to Summer

The start of school (last week) and the Labor Day weekend are reminders to us that summer is officially over. These reminders always make me a bit sad this time of year. Why is it that I have such a hard time letting summer go? Like most parents, I like having a clean house again and not having to drive everyone from one place to another. So what gives, why the melancholy?

I think, for me, these special memories are just too fresh in my mind which is why they are so hard to let them go. I am thankful that, as a family, we will always have these memories with us.

The new fire pit where the conversation with friends and relatives flowed and pounds of marshmallows, non-dairy chocolate and graham crackers were consumed.

The rich colors and flavors of fresh blueberries, peaches, tomatoes, and sweet corn on the cob from the local market that made the late night dinners on the porch taste so special.

The magnificent view of dunes grass, sand and the lake from the backyard. The best place to watch the storms come in from the west.

Those calm days where hanging out on the lake is preferable to hanging out at the mall or the movie theater.

The early morning walks on the beach with just you, your dog and no one else. The evening walks watching the gold, orange, and magnificent red sun as it melts into the lake. Or gazing at the hundreds of stars in the blackest of skies with no other light but the local lighthouse 4 miles away?

The occasional escape to the local beach shops with family and friends for the latest in summer wear, pretzels, Temptations ice cream and slushies. Even chalk art is encouraged here!

Travelling on the M-22 roadway almost to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for barn sales, kayaking, hiking and the 7:30 p.m. swim at the Point Betsie Lighthouse near Manistee.

Even though we will miss being with our family and friends, we will have the comfort that summer will be here again soon and we may start our memories once again. One of the great things about the Midwest is that it is ever changing so we'll head up there in November and we'll still have our walks on the beach but now they will be a bit heavier with snow shoes instead of sandals.

It's Official! She's 13!

That's right! Katie is now 13 years old, let the teen years begin! 

More opportunities to walk downtown, go to the Popcorn Shop, eat out with friends, go to Starbucks and legally go to PG-13 movies. Katie is very excited about the last opportunity to see a PG-13 but I'm thinking that our movie selection might need to be on a case-by-case basis. Have you seen what they put in some of the PG-13 movies these days?! Yikes!! 

We celebrated Katie's birthday like we do all her birthdays; with crab legs, corn on the cob, new potatoes and a big chocolate cake. I've included the recipe below because it is really the best chocolate cake I have ever had! Not only is it yummy but it is also so easy to make that you place all the ingredients in in a bowl together and then you just mix it up. A winning combination; simple and delicious!

Chocolate Cake (no dairy, no eggs) 

3 C       Flour

2 C       Sugar

6 T       Cocoa

2 tsp.    Baking Soda

1 tsp.    Salt

3 T       Vinegar

2/3 C    Oil

2 C       Water

1 tsp.    Vanilla

Starting with the flour, add all ingredients in the above order. 

For a cool effect, pour the vinegar right on top of the baking soda and see what happens!  Blend in a mixer on medium speed for approximately 1-2 minutes or until the batter is no longer lumpy. The batter will appear runny but do not worry, all that liquid makes the cake very moist.

Next, pour the batter into an ungreased 9x13 cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. We have served this cake at all of Katie's birthday parties and even the picky eaters ask for more!

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting (no dairy, no eggs)

1/2 C     Dairy-free margarine

3/4 C     Dairy-free sour cream

1/8 tsp.  Salt

1 tsp.     Vanilla Extract

2 1/2 C  Confectioner's Sugar

(1/2 C Cocoa for chocolate frosting)

With a mixer, cream the margarine, cream cheese, salt, and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Slowly add the confectioner's sugar and mix on low for a couple of minutes. Increase speed and beat until light and fluffy. Add more confectioner's sugar in small amounts if needed. Chill for about 30 minutes before spreading on your cake.

Want to make cupcakes for your child’s class or party? This is a great recipe to use because it will usually make more than 24 cupcakes so you will have plenty to pass around. Simply place batter into paper-lined cupcake pans and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.