Soy, Egg, Tree Nut, Peanut, Chocolate and Dairy-free

My daughter's birthday is the first day back after Pesach vacation.

It is important to me, as a mother, that I not send her with just pecklach (a bag of potato chips and some candy) to give out to everyone*. It is important to me that she have something homemade.

However, there is a child in the group who is allergic to soy, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, chocolate and milk.

It will be simple for me to pick up soy-free margarine (all Pesach or at the Health Food store) but am at a bit of a loss of how to make a cupcake with the remaining restrictions.

So far, the best I've come up with a banana muffin that, to start out with, doesn't have any of those ingredients in the recipe. But, I'd really like something less muffin-y and more cupcake-y.

Does anyone have a go-to recipe that fits the requirements?

*no judgement on anyone who does this. I'm a crazy person.

Platinum Member Joined: May 06 2007 Posts: 8518

cupcake = muffin + frosting
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Just Plain Frum!

That isn't really true. A cupcake is much sweeter and usually more moist, too.

Also, how do you make a dairy and soy free frosting?

Platinum Member Joined: Nov 17 2008 Posts: 5050

I ask because I don't personally like buttercream frosting, with butter or margarine. So I would be hesitant to try it with kosher l'pesach margarine.

Platinum Member Joined: Nov 17 2008 Posts: 5050

you can make any eggless cake recipe and put into cup cake holders for cupcakes.

the only frosting I can think of is the one ootbubby mentioned.

@small bean: all the eggless cake recipes I've found tend to call for soy milk to add some moistness. I would replace with rice, but his mother said that while he doesn't have an outright allergy, he doesn't tolerate it very well.

I've gone through both of my Allergy Friendly baking books and only came up with the muffins, which is why I'm asking here.

Gold Member Joined: Feb 12 2008 Posts: 2386

You can sub juice or water for the soy milk.

Moderator Joined: Aug 14 2005 Posts: 4555 Location: Ohio

There's a possibility to make cupcakes.

Whole Foods has a kosher egg replacer called Ener-G Egg Replacer. Works great in baking. (Not a substitute for eggs as in scrambled eggs, but okay for baking.)

If you need milk, you could use coconut milk or rice milk, both available with a reliable hechsher, just check the ingredients panel because some are made on equipment that processes nuts, which could cause a cross-contamination issue. (Silk brand coconut milk, which is OU-D, although clearly there is no dairy involved, notes that it is processed in a plant that processes nuts, but not on the same equipment and that they test for cross-contamination. I don't have a rice milk container here I could check for you.) I often replace milk with water in my baking for my allergic child and it works out fine. But the coconut milk or rice milk will definitely be richer.

Get parve chocolate chips, kosher l'pesach so there is no soy issue. Again, just check the package. Mix in enough and you won't need frosting. It will be festive enough, especially baked in fancy little holders.

All that being said, I would talk to the mother of the child first. Because frankly, depending on how allergic the kid is, your guarantee that there are no allergens in what you are baking may not be good enough.

My little allergic one has never bli ayin hara had an anaphylactic response, but he has had angioedema from an accidental exposure to milk, which where the mucus membranes start to swell up, eyes, nose, throat, etc. (It's also potentially fatal, but usually slower progressing so you have more time to react.) And he's had instantaneous projectile vomiting from accidental peanut exposure. And hives that wouldn't go away for hours where he scratched himself where until he bled, even after Benadryl and steroids. So I would be very wary of letting him eat a product that I wasn't sure about the person making it and if they really got how serious the issue is. But, if a mom called and said, I'm going to use this, this and this product to make something, could your child eat it? I would be likely to say yes, as my child only rarely reacts to cross-contamination (e.g., you used your spoon to make something with milk and it wasn't washed properly or you are cooking something at the same time and a little of that allergen mixes into the allergy-free thing you are making) and when he does, the reactions are mild and manageable.

If I had a child with a severe cross-contamination issue, I would be more restrictive, so this mother may say no and it's no reflection on you. We just have to weigh the risks. I've had my kid break out in hives from touching the handle of a shopping cart (obviously, an allergen had touched it earlier and it hadn't been cleaned, and my kid is not at the most allergic end of the spectrum, so you can see how parents get wary.

If the mom says no, or if you don't want to go to those lengths, look at Whole Foods and see if you can find some nice cookies that meet all these restrictions. (They have carried them in the past with a good hechsher.) That way the mom/teacher could check the package and the kid would be getting something special when the other kids get whatever you bake. As a mother of an allergic child, I would be very touched by that because you clearly went out of your way, even if you couldn't provide a home-baked good.

And you sound like a lovely, thoughtful person.
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Silver Member Joined: Dec 30 2010 Posts: 737

I have a recipe for cupcakes that ALMOST fit the restrictions, but they're chocolate. You can probably leave out the cocoa and add vanilla or something. Here's the recipe:
� 3 cups flour
� 2 cups sugar
� 2 tsp. baking soda
� 1 tsp. salt
� 2 cups water
� 2/3 cup cocoa
� 2/3 cup oil
� 2 T. vinegar
� 1 tsp. vanilla
Combine all ingredients. Pour into cupcake pan. Bake for 25-30 min.
These come out really good! I also have a frosting, but it calls for milk or soymilk, so no help there.
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Gold Member Joined: Mar 14 2006 Posts: 1879

What part of the chocolate is the child allergic to - is it cocoa or chocolate? If he can have cocoa, there is a no egg no mixer chocolate cake aka crazy cake http://allrecipes.com/recipe/crazy-cake/ which would work. Also, you don't need to do a frosting, but can do a glaze (just icing sugar and water), and colour it if you want, and then dip it in kosher lepesach sprinkles (which are soy free) or coloured sugar (mix some sugar and colouring) - either dip the whole upside down thing in the glaze and then in the topping, or drizzle over, or dip in glaze then sprinkle topping...
ETA I see this recipe was given already without the mixing method

YOU might not like buttercream frosting (nor do I) but in my experience kids love it. And it looks nice on cupcakes.

I love everyone in this forum. Virtual hugs and (allergy-free!) cookies for all!

@shnitzel (and all): I know about substitutions and have used them myself for my daughter, when she was allergic to eggs. I also know that they don't taste as good -- they're passable. I already know from his mother that everything she has tried to make (though since I had a lot going on this week, I didn't get a chance to discuss it with her as much I would have liked to) has not gone over well. This is why I am looking for a recipe that doesn't use flax seed meal or Ener-G egg replacer, but rather something that was created to work without those things. My go-to is normally the Divvies baking book or Kelly Runicki's baking book -- but those are only milk, egg and nut-free and most recipes have either chocolate, soy or rice-based ingredients to make up the difference.

Like I mentioned, while he doesn't have an outright allergy to rice, his mother said he doesn't tolerate it well.

@ElTam: You are a lovely person, too!

He's allergic to chocolate, which eliminates many options that use chocolate to add flavor. I had no idea that there was a difference between being allergic to the chocolate or the cocoa part of it? I will ask his mother. I also have to ask his mother about coconut because I know many people differ on whether that's considered a tree nut or a fruit.

If I cannot come up with a recipe that meets my standards I will either pick something up from Enjoy Life for him or do what everyone else did (which was send in a silly peckele and be disappointed for my daughter who honestly won't know the difference).

(I am trying to be lovely now because honestly, when DD hit her first birthday after diagnoses, a neighbor across the street who is now a close friend and has nieces and nephews with multiple allergies, baked DD a safe birthday cake and I actually cried from how thoughtful it was. I know what it feels like to watch your child be excluded and, being slightly nuts, do a lot of imagining for the future too. If the mother of a food-allergic child can't sympathize with another, who can? That being said, I told my husband that next year we have to make sure that there aren't other food-allergic children in DD's playgroup because while we're trying to be fair to him, we aren't being fair to her; she's young enough now to not be bothered but she won't be next year.)

@c.c.cookie: thank you! I will try these!

@Raisin: that is very true!

If you look for the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, you'll find LOTS of nifty-cool recipes for cupcakes that will fulfill those requirements (and it's a fun book to read too!). BUT,as a mom of an child with a severe allergy (peanut), I would ask the mom what to do first, like the posts above suggest.
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Ask if hemp milk would be OK. AFAIK, it doesn't fit any of those allergies.

Moderator Joined: Aug 14 2005 Posts: 4555 Location: Ohio

Most people who are allergic to chocolate are allergic to the soy, the milk or the nuts that are usually in chocolate. Not to the cocoa bean itself. So mixing cocoa powder in should be good. There are chocolate makers who cater to multiple-allergy people. Just checked Hershey's cocoa powder and it is pure ground up cocoa beans. No allergy warning on the package. They are very good with their products about listing possible allergens in their products.

Coconut is not a tree nut, despite growing in a tree and having nut in the name. My allergy boy is allergic to both tree nuts and peanuts and can have coconut with no problem.

Gold Member Joined: Feb 12 2008 Posts: 2386

Can you do something a bit outside the box like fruit cut out into flowers on a stick? Like the edible arrangement pictures.

If they are little that could be exciting enough. A vanilla cake with that many restrictions is going to be really difficult to make taste yum.