Creating an Egg-Free Egg

One thing about being an allergy mom...you have to start planning.  You can't run to the store at the last minute for a birthday cake, you can't head out the door with vague plans to 'eat on the road' while shopping with the kids, and if the Easter Baskets aren't planned by Maundy Thursday....you're not going to have a restful weekend!  

Our baskets are usually filled with Peeps,  jelly beans (we love Gimballs) and some special chocolate treat from Divvies or Amanda's Own.  But this year, I really wanted the kids to share in my favorite Easter treat from my childhood basket...the Cadbury Creme Egg.  So I wracked my brain, did a little "field research" tasting the originals, and here is the result!  

The real Cadbury eggs are made by taking two halves of a hard chocolate shell, filling with fondant, and sealing up the edges with some chocolate welding material.  That procedure assures a true egg shape.  I don't have a chocolate egg form in my candy-making box (yet), so I went about this backwards,  making the fondant center in an egg shape and then dipping in chocolate. True to the original, they are complete sugar bombs.  The difference is that mine have a flat bottom from having to set them down after dipping. After wrapping in foil, the shape doesn't matter...and the kids didn't mind at all!

Oh, and another thing about being an allergy mom...you have to have a sense of humor (see bottom).

Egg and Dairy Free Cadbury Eggs! 

Dare I say "Vegan Eggs"?

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup dairy-free margarine or shortening (margarine tastes better and the final result is softer, but shortening holds its shape better during the process)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 pinch of salt

3 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 cups of safe chocolate chips for dipping (I used Enjoy Life this time)

1 tablespoon shortening

With a hand mixer or stand mixer, blend the corn syrup and margarine together until creamy, add in the vanilla and salt and blend again.  Carefully add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and mix until creamy and smooth.  Divide 1/3 of the fondant out and color with yellow food coloring.  Wrap both colors in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1/2 hour.

Spray the insides of some mini plastic Easter eggs with cooking spray ( I found mine at Hobby Lobby for 50 cents!) Have fun filling the eggs, then put in the freezer for an hour or so before dipping.

Slowly melt the chocolate chips and shortening in the microwave.  (The shortening helps thin the chocolate, and is a cheater's way to avoid the dusty "bloom" that happens when ill-tempered chocolate dries...I can't temper chocolate to save my life...so I've given up) Remove the fondant centers from the plastic eggs.  Reshape slightly if needed. 

Dip!  I actually did a double dip.  First, I did a really messy thin coat to make sure all the fondant was covered and let them freeze again.  Then I re-dipped in a more pretty fashion.

Wrap in foil and store at room temp if you plan to eat them in a few days, otherwise refrigerate for a few weeks.

Just in case the irony of making egg-free chocolate eggs isn't enough, how about my allergic kid's favorite little song...that she knows word-for-word.  Go on, click the link, I know you're so curious.

Going along with the Princess thing...

Daring Baker challenge 3 days before Disney...this is insane!  Packing and cleaning and cooking for the grandmothers stuck here watching unruly toddler boy, cooking and shopping for that same unruly boy and his allergies, making princess costumes, talking to Disney food people, oh and I have a job too...arggh!  But lucky for me, I could get points with the girls by adapting this month's Tuile Challenge to fit the princess obsession of the moment. 

 In all honesty, ever since I got my first Silpat 2 years ago...I have been wanting to make tuiles. Tuiles are the reason to own a Silpat...and I've now justified the purchase! This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.  

Adapting the recipe to be egg and dairy-free was pleasantly easy, I just substituted dairy-free margarine for the butter and flax eggs for the egg whites.  One of the great things about this recipe is the infinite adaptability in style and timing.  You can make any shape you can imagine, if your fingers can take the heat.  The dough can sit in the fridge for days, so you can bake them up when you want....and they hold up for a few days after baking too!   Check out the other Daring Bakers and their creativity, I am in awe!

Dairy and Egg-Free Tuiles 

(Adapted from “The Chocolate Book”, by Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.

¼ cup softened dairy-free margarine ( I used Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine)
½ cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 pinch of salt
1 flax egg (instructions below)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
Food coloring of your choice


1.) Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle,  cream margarine, sugar and vanilla to a fluffy paste. 

2.) Make the flax egg while the margarine creams.  To make a proper flax egg, grind 1 tablespoon of flax seeds in a spice grinder to a fine powder. Mix with 3 tablespoons of warm water and beat the heck out of it with a beater or an immersion blender... it will get all gummy and thick...weirdly like an egg white.  

3.) Add the flax egg to the creamed sugar mixture. 

4.) Slowly add the flour to the bowl and mix well, but not too much.
5.) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. The batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it.

6.) Make a cute stencil out of cardboard or plastic.

7.) Find that Silpat that has been patiently waiting for this day, or line a baking sheet with parchment.  

8.) Spread the batter thinly onto the pan using the stencil, don't make the cookies too close.
9.) Bake in a preheat oven at 350 for 5-8 minutes, until the edges just get browned.

10.) Quick, quick...shape them before they harden!  Wear some plastic gloves if you are tender-fingered.

I wish I could say my girls noticed the unintended similarity to a scene in one of their favorite books, but it was my husband who immediately exclaimed..."those look just like the Fancy Nancy Sundaes!"

I got my templates from Family Fun, made them a bit smaller and cut them into the cover of one of my unused Mead notebooks... Aurora, Belle, and Snow White.

Sugar Season

Sugaring Maple Tree version for the girls (with rolled and cutout Starburst Candy leaves!)

It's the weekend after Thanksgiving, official start to Christmas shopping and Sugar Season. It's the time of year that I pick up 5 pounds of sugar or a liter of corn syrup every time I'm at the grocery...with no particular use in mind...yet. Apparently, the Daring Bakers were feeling the call of sugar this month too.
This month's challenge was Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, as created by Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater with an optional challenge of Alice Medrich's Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels. The challenge was hosted by Delores of Culinary Curiosity, Jenny of Foray into Food and Alex of Blondie and Brownie.
As usual, I attempted the challenge twice. The first time through, I tried the original recipe with the optional caramels to share with neighbors and friends. The second time through, I adapted it for my allergic kid. Of the two recipes, I think we actually liked the egg and dairy-free version a bit more. It may have been the extremely low expectation I had for it, followed by my surprise at how great it turned out....but even my husband agreed the kid's version was better.
A few words on this cake...it is dense...dense like a pound cake. The sheer heft of the cake when I removed it from the pan was what made me sure the cake was a disaster, if you made cupcakes with this...it probably would be a disaster of hockey pucks. The heft comes from using a true butter-cake technique of creaming butter and sugar together, then alternating additions of flour and milk....rather than the usual "quick bread" technique in vegan baking of mixing wet ingredients carefully into dry ingredients (more like muffins than true cake).
The thing that really makes this cake work is the caramel syrup. It gives the whole thing a subtle, rich, buttery flavor. For the kid's frosting version, I didn't attempt to caramelize the margarine...browned soy just didn't sound like a good idea.

Caramel Cake with Caramel Buttercream

(Dairy and Egg-Free Adaptation on Shuna's Recipe)

10 tablespoons dairy-free margarine ( I used Fleishman's Unsalted Margerine)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup Caramel Syrup (recipe below)
2 Ener-G egg replacers whipped until thick (I use an immersion blender)
Splash of vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup plain soymilk thickened with 1 T. cider vinegar


Preheat oven to 350F
Line two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans with a parchment round and spray well with oil.

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream margarine until smooth.
2. Add sugar and salt, cream until light and fluffy. This takes forever, I'm not kidding.
3. Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl.
4. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add egg replacers and vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.
5. Sift flour and baking powder together.
6. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the flour mixture.
7. When incorporated, add half of the soymilk, a little at a time.
8. Add another third of the flour, then the other half of the soymilk and finish with the flour. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}
9. Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform.

Divide batter among the two pans. Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Remove from pan to a cooling rack as soon as you can, if it sits in the pan for too long, it gets really soggy. Cool cake completely before frosting.

Caramel Syrup

Sugar and water...this stuff is simply magical

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water 1 cup water for "stopping"

1. In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand.
2. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush.
3. Turn on heat to highest flame.
4. Cook until rich amber. You can test the color by dabbing a bit on a white plate.
5. When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and prepared to step back.
6. Whisk over medium heat until it the sugar is dissolved and the syrup has reduced slightly. It should be the sticky thickness of maple syrup or warm honey. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

Caramel Buttercream

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup dairy-free margarine
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 T. Caramel Syrup (recipe above)
1 t. vanilla
2-4 T. soymilk


Cream shortening and margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add syrup and vanilla. Add enough soymilk to make a thick frosting.

The Adult Cake, a nice way to celebrate the start of Sugar Season.

Ariel, the Vegan Princess?

   I'm pretty sure Ariel is a vegan because land mammals and bees don't do well under the ocean...and her dad objected to the "fish eating barbarians"....although she does wear shells as apparel...which might be the human equivalent of leather shoes.  At any rate, here she is, against my better judgement in the form of two egg and dairy-free princess birthday cakes for my girls.  The girls turned 6 and 4 this past week and had their neighborhood party together this weekend.  The 4 year old wanted chocolate cake ("but still pretty, ok mom?") and the 6 year old wanted pink, as usual.  Our local grocery has a Barbie cake on perpetual display in the bakery case and the girls wishful looks every time we passed by shopping just got the best of me. 

 The cakes are three layers, two 8 inch rounds and one 6 inch round with layers of buttercream in between.  For the cakes, I doubled the chocolate and vanilla cake recipes from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World".  The chocolate and vanilla buttercreams came from the book as well.  I covered her shells and bare midriff up with a Laffy Taffy and Nerds bodice so she'd be a bit more modest!  I had to enlist my engineer husband to help when the cake wasn't as tall as the doll, so he built two boxes with holes to set the cakes on so her fins could dangle below! 

A pinata filled with only safe treats, grab what you want kiddo, no worries!!

Part B on the Bee!

Once my kitchen (and my nerves) recovered from the Opera Cake Bomb that went off last week, I felt up to attempting an allergen-free replica of the Bee Cake for my kids.  I can't tell you how excited they were to try it.  So excited that I had to give up any thoughts of feeding them a real lunch with Bee Cake for dessert.  Bee Cake was the lunch today.  Oh well.  

For the joconde, I used the Rustic Coconut Cake batter from MadCapCupcake.   I just poured it on to a parchment lined jelly roll pan and baked it at 350 for 20 minutes.  In  retrospect, I should have poured 3/4 of the batter in and saved the rest for cupcakes.  The cake layer ended out being a bit thick and the finished cake was really tall, but the texture and taste were similar to the nuttiness of the almond joconde.

I made a vanilla bean syrup to soak the joconde.  The first try at buttercream was hilarious.  I seriously created a non-Newtonian fluid.  The original buttercream was so cool.  Hot sugar syrup was whipped into pasteurized eggs until fluffy, then butter was slowly whipped in.  I had the really dumb idea of substituting plain gelatin for the eggs and shortening for the butter.  The stuff whipped up so high and fluffy and looked cool, but tasted like a weird greasy marshmallow.  I whipped some strawberry jam into it and used it as the mousse layer, it was so bizarre, but the kids liked it.  My redo on the buttercream stayed with the basics.  Shortening, vanilla, soymilk and powdered sugar.  Why mess with it!

     Instead of marzipan, I used marshmallow fondant for the bees and honeycomb top.  It was a lot easier to work with than marzipan, tasted better and was cheaper.  For the wings, I made burnt caramel disks (1/2 cup sugar, 2 T. corn syrup, 2 T. water....heat until boiling and golden, then spoon out disks on a Silpat to cool).  

The Judge (And Her Jury!)

My Muse is Pleased

Happy Mom, Happy Kids, Happy Bee

Mom's Baking and It's Dangerous!

So I think I may have joined the culinary equivalent of the Freemasons.....a secret baking society. I've been eyeing the Daring Bakers for a while, especially the Daring Alternative Bakers, and what with all this extra daylight, I thought I'd give it a try. Every month, a different challenge is given and the member has to give it a go, then post the success or failure on the reveal date with the other members. The Alternative Bakers try to tweak the recipe to fit allergies/veganism/other issues. 

Unfortunately, on my first month, the recipe was for an "Opera Cake" with a dozen eggs, 2 sticks of butter, 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, 1 1/2 pounds of white chocolate and 2 cups of almonds. Any attempt to tweak this recipe to be egg/dairy/nut free would have been a whole lot of work for a literal pile of beans (albeit soy)...and it would have tasted horrible. So my option was to sit the month out or just make it an adult cake. I happened to be hosting a baby shower for my sister-in-law, so this cake was perfect.
The recipe was 12 pages long with 5 different parts to make. A joconde (the almond sponge cake), soaked in a syrup, layered with buttercream, topped with a white chocolate mouse, then glazed with a white chocolate ganache. The flavors are traditionally chocolate and coffee based, but this challenge was to be light in color and flavor. I didn't get too crazy with my flavors, because I was already getting over-the-top with my design! I chose amaretto and vanilla bean for the joconde, syrup, buttercream and mousse. For the ganache, I infused the cream with lavender and made it a bit thicker than the recipe called for because I wanted the honeycomb to set up. The bees were made from marzipan and the glaze was melted peach jam and honey.

The Flight of the Bumblebees

The design was inspired partly by this month's Martha Stewart Living bee cake cover (thanks for the subscription Beth!) , partly by the lavender almond tea cakes in Jerry Traunfeld's The Herbal Kitchen and partly from a vague recollection of a honeycomb pie in my vast reading of cookbooks. I searched through my cookbook collection and couldn't find the honeycomb pie, but then I remembered the book! It was a honeycomb pie from The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum that I checked out from the library when we lived in Maine. Whew, that was a long time ago! I never tried her pie, but I remembered the picture and the brilliant use of bubble wrap to make the design!
The unique challenge I encountered while making this was the issue of baking with allergenic materials in a house of rashy kids, one of whom likes to army crawl around on his belly scavenging up random bits and treats. I ended out baking the cake over the course of 3 days, when kids were either in bed or mostly napping. I felt like I was using toxic waste! I'm a messy baker, so it was a bit stressful when egg/nut/dairy goo went flying around the kitchen. Every time I splattered on the floor I wiped up carefully so the baby wouldn't find it. Every cloth I used I double washed in the washing machine. I washed my hands repeatedly before opening cabinets or the fridge. I wiped the floor down after baking to hopefully get any errant almond meal or egg white. Not exactly a relaxing experience to be yelling "No one step foot in the kitchen, mom's baking and it's dangerous!", but the results were worth it.

Now is the time for panic...

There was a point however, when I seriously doubted what I had done. About the time I pressed the bubble wrap into the final product of 3 days work and $40 of ingredients, my heart sank. I was sure I had created a mess. I was so sure it was going to be a disaster that I whipped up a batch of Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes as a back up. But, the ganache firmed up, the bubble wrap released reasonably well and the cake was a success. I got to share the cupcakes with the neighbors instead.
So my apologies to those who read Speedbump Kitchen for allergen-free recipes, hopefully next month's challenge will be tweakable. I learned a lot of new techniques that I know I can transfer to the allergen-free kitchen in the future. Plus, I'm so dang proud of myself I can hardly stand it. Alas, as we say around here, my moments of sheer brilliance are always overly tempered by moments of chicken nuggets and tater tots.( How many meals in a row is it legal to feed that to your kids?)

Treasure Chest/ Jewelry Box Cupcakes

This project was a bit over-the-top and would only happen in March in Michigan, when it's cold and sloppy outside. This was an excuse to try my hand at homemade fondant and hard candy-making. The cupcakes can be your choice of dairy/egg free cupcake. I used the Vegan Lunchbox recipe for Fluffy White Cupcakes. Divvies or Cherrybrook Kitchen would work too.

For the fondant, I used Peggy Weaver's excellent recipe and instructions for homemade marshmallow fondant. It's incredibly messy to make (pick a time when the kids are well-occupied and no diaper changes are imminent), but lasts a long time and is sooo cool to use. It's like sweet edible play-doh. I think I smiled the entire time I made it and played with it while decorating. I colored the fondant with Wilton concentrated gel color, there are more color choices than with the dropper-stuff (and it doesn't taste funny). I also bought some basic fondant tools at Hobby Lobby (2nd home for most Midwest Moms) like a small roller and a cutting-wheel which worked really well. The fun extra that I picked up at Hobby Lobby was the edible Pearl Dust that you brush on and make everything sparkly!

The jewel candy was fun also. I think finding the jewel shaped candy molds at Hobby Lobby is what started this whole crazy project. I used both the hexagon and rectangle break apart molds from LorAnn Oils, a Michigan-based company. I think a recipe came with the molds and candy concentrate flavoring, but I lost it and used the Stove-Top Hard Candy recipe from their website. Here is my condensed version for the candy.

Hard Candy Jewels

Hard candy making requires the use of very high cooking temperatures. Caution should be used at all times to avoid being burned.

Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
¾ cup water
1 dram LorAnn flavoring oil (1tsp.*) (or as desired)
Food coloring (as desired)


Directions:
Have all ingredients and tools assembled and within easy reach of the stove. The use of metal spoons and measuring utensils is recommended. Lightly spray the clean, dry candy molds with cooking spray .

In a 2-quart saucepan, mix together sugar, corn syrup and water. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Insert candy thermometer if using, making certain it does not touch the bottom of the pan. Bring mixture to a boil without stirring, washing down any sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush.

Remove from heat precisely at 300 degrees F (temperature will continue rising), or until drops of syrup form hard, brittle threads in cold water. After boiling action has ceased, add several drops of food color (if desired) and flavor. Stir to combine. USE CAUTION WHEN ADDING FLAVORING TO AVOID RISING STEAM.

Pour candy into prepared molds, it is better to underfill than overfill.

Cool completely. Pop out of molds and store covered in a dry place.

I can't wait to use the left-over fondant for other projects. Stay tuned! And if my brother looks at this post and doesn't tell me how cool I am, I'm going to send sticky left-over fondant projects via snail mail into the Arizona heat for him to enjoy opening.

Spring Cupcakes!

The latest obsession in the kitchen was fueled in part by a cupcake decorating contest sponsored by Divvies. I guess this shows how little incentive I need to excuse myself to play around with frosting and candy. For the cupcake itself, there are many options. Divvies has some great vanilla cupcakes they can send you, they freeze really well. Or you can try a Cherrybrook Kitchen mix or try the super-simple Fluffy White Cupcakes recipe from the Vegan Lunchbox. This Spring Cupcake was inspired by a snowdrop cake in the March Issue of Martha Stewart Living. Because the Divvie's rules said "no inedible decorations" I used a gummy worm instead of paper snowdrops. I don't even want to imagine how much time it would take to make crepe paper snowdrops anyway. Next time I should probably use a different colored gummy worm for the photo shoot, it just looks really....red....and a bit weird. For the nest, I used shredded filo dough (it comes that way, don't try to cut it up!), wrapped into a nest shape and baked in a mini-muffin tin at 375 until browned, about 10 minutes. The eggs are jelly beans, of course. For the grass, I tinted some shredded coconut with green food coloring. For the dirt, I crushed up the some Wheat-Free Dairy-Free Newman-O's. I think it turned out even cooler than Martha's snowdrops!

(The nests before baking)

First Off, Let's Start with Some Sugar

This December, I was delighted to realize that 4 of the recipes on Gourmet's holiday cover could be adapted to be dairy/egg/nut free. These marshmallows were a riot. The original recipe is for a toasted coconut marshmallow. Speedbump isn't a big fan of coconut (it looks like sawdust apparently), so I created some other options. The peppermint marshmallows are so cool looking and are fantastic in hot chocolate soymilk. My girls called them "Unicorn Food", and they look just like what unicorns should eat! The S'more marshmallows are just plain awesome. Yeah, they're sweet, but were talking about a recipe with sugar, sugar and more sugar....so let it be what it is.

Epicurious Toasted Coconut Marshmallows

2 cups unsweetened dried coconut
3 (1/4-ounces) envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 cup water, divided
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350. Toast coconut in a shallow baking pan, stirring occasionally, until golden, 7-10 minutes.
2. Line a 9 x 9 baking pan with oiled aluminum foil, sprinkle 1/2 cup toasted coconut over bottom.
3. Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup water in the bowl of a stand mixer to soften.
4. Heat sugar, corn syrup, salt and remaining 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved.
5. Raise heat to medium and bring to a boil, swirling occasionally, don't stir or scrape down the sides. Continue boiling until a candy thermometer reaches 240, or soft ball stage. Remove from heat.
6. With mixer at low speed, pour hot syrup into the softened gelatin slowly, until incorporated.
7. Crank the mixer up to high and beat like crazy for 15 minutes, it will be really fluffy and thick.
8. Add the vanilla and beat 1 minute more.
9. Pour into 9 x 9 pan, smooth the top as best you can and sprinkle with 1/2 cup coconut.
10. Let stand, uncovered at room temp until firm, about 1-2 hours.
11. Invert onto a cutting board, peel the aluminum foil away.
12. Cut into 3/4 inch strips with a greased chef's knife, then cut each strip into 3/4 inch squares.
13. Roll around in toasted coconut to cover completely.

Peppermint Stick Marshmallows AKA "Unicorn Food"

Use the same vanilla marshmallow recipe as above, but this time, pulverize 12 candy canes with a tablespoon of cornstarch in a blender/spice grinder/ mini-food processor. Use this to roll the cut marshmallows around in, until all the sticky edges are covered in candy powder.

Homemade S'More Marshmallows

This version is so fun. This time, make the vanilla marshmallows, but at the very end, dump about 3/4 cup coarsely chopped chocolate chips into the warm marshmallow "batter". I use Divvies chocolate chips. Mix it around a bit by hand and the chocolate will partially melt. Pour the batter into the 9 x9 pan, lined with greased aluminum foil. Instead of coconut, sprinkle the bottom of the pan with crushed graham crackers, and sprinkle the top with graham cracker crumbs. Dredge in crumbs after cutting as well.