Allergy Friendly Birthday Cake, Three Ways

I think the hardest part about having an egg allergy in your family is dessert, but even more than that, birthday cake. What do you do for an egg-free birthday cake? There are mixes you can buy that are pretty good, but I have a hard time paying five or six bucks for a box of cake mix. A vegan bakery is a great place to get allergy friendly cake (just make sure they know about any nut allergies you may have), but again, I have a hard time paying that much for a cake. So that pretty much means you get to figure it out yourself. Here are three ways I have found to do an egg-free cake. 

Egg-Free Cake #1

This cake is super simple and yummy, but very crumbly. Seems to work better as cupcakes. 

Ingredients:

1 box of regular cake mix

1 can of lemon-lime soda

Mix cake mix and soda. Do not add any of the other ingredients listed on the back of the box. Pour into cake pan and cook according to cake mix instructions.

Egg-Free Cake #2

I have to put the disclaimer here that I haven't tried this one yet, but I wanted to include it because it's super simple and is only 180 calories per serving. 

Ingredients:

1 box of regular cake mix

1 cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt

1 cup water

Mix cake mix, yogurt and water. Do not add any of the other ingredients listed on the back of the box. Pour into cake pan and cook according to cake mix instructions.

Egg-Free Cake #3

This is the most yummy cake I have ever had, even including regular cake with eggs in it! I was given this recipe years ago by someone who knew someone with food allergies, and it has been tucked in my cookbook since then because I was too lazy to get away from my cake-mix-plus-soda routine. Silly me! I should have done this so long ago!

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp white vinegar

2/3 cup vegetable oil (I have also substituted sugar-free applesauce and it has worked well)

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups cold water

Sift dry ingredients together. Add vinegar, oil, vanilla and water. Mix well. Bake at 350 degrees in a greased 13 x 9 pan for 35 to 40 minutes or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cupcakes cook for 15 to 20 minutes. 

Variations:

For lemon cake, omit cocoa and add 2 tsp lemon extract and yellow food coloring. This cake doesn't make a very good white cake, the taste is too plain.

For all these cakes, frost when cool. If you need an allergy friendly frosting recipe, go here. 

So now you can make a delicious allergy-friendly birthday cake. When it comes to decorating that yummy cake, the picture above shows all my mad decorating skills, which basically consists of putting on a few sprinkles, so I'm afraid you are on your own. But at least it will taste good, right?