An Egg-free/Dairy-free Happy Birthday

When my co-worker asked me to make a smash cake for her son's first birthday, I really didn't know what I was in for.  She asked me months in advance and I started looking for ideas on what she was wanting.  Then the call came.  About 3 weeks before the party, I get a phone call.  "Hi....so...how hard would it be to make a cake that is egg-free and dairy-free...?" Um.....yeah.  Not what I was expecting, but I'm pretty good at Google-ing and pretty handy with Pinterest, so I knew how to search for a recipe.  So after a quick search, I soon discovered I had already pinned a recipe that was both egg-free and dairy-free....I must have known I was going to need it at some point.  (Oh...and this recipe is also butter-free!)

And what's a birthday without a cake...not to mention a 1st birthday?!  My co-worker's son had recently been tested for allergies and was even given an Epi-pen for the egg and dairy allergies.  So now, this cake was going to be even more special.  It was not only going to be his first cake, but the only cake he might ever be able to eat!

The cake is called Crazy/Wacky Cake or Depression Cake...what would be really depressing would be life without cake.  This cake was created back in the Great Depression when eggs, milk, and sugar were scarce or too expensive.  I tried this cake before I finished decorating it for the birthday boy and as a "I'll take extra eggs, dairy, and butter in my cake" kind of girl, I could tell there was something different about this cake.  But...if I had gone to a party and was served a slice of this cake with frosting on it, not knowing that it was missing some key cake-making ingredients, I might not have been able to tell a difference.

Birthday boy's mom reported that he loved his cake...mission accomplished!

Now...you may be asking yourself...if he is dairy-free, how did you make the buttercream icing?  Buttercream by its name is made with butter and butter is most certainly not dairy-free.  And even though you can find margarine that is dairy free or close to it - margarine doesn't work well when making buttercream.  Over the last several years, shortening has gone through a transformation in attempts to make it healthier.  Turns out when you change shortening, you now need to find another fat to make really good buttercream and really good pie crust.  An alternative was needed.  Welcome, sweetex.  A little info on sweetex can be found here.  Sweetex is what I've used to make buttercream for the last couple of wedding cakes I've made.  The icing turns out bright white, has a great consistency, and tastes great.

The site where I found this recipe also stated that other's have made this recipe with gluten-free flour mixes and it turns out great.  Sweet Little Bluebird also posted other recipes for other flavors of Crazy/Wacky Cake on her site.  Special thank you to Sweet Little Bluebird for all of these great allergy-friendly recipes.

Crazy/Wacky Cake - Chocolate
Crazy/Wacky Cake - Vanilla and Spiced
Crazy/Wacky Cake - Lemon
Crazy/Wacky Cake - Coffee & Kahlua
Crazy/Wacky Cake - In a Mug

Now those of you who have egg and dairy allergies can have your cake and eat it too!

Happy birthday and happy baking!