Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Dairy-Free White Cake with Vegan Buttercream Frosting

Do you have a child with a dairy allergy or sensitivity to dairy? We do! And it made coming up with a birthday cake a challenge. After testing out a few different recipes, I found one that turned out so delicious that our guests didn't even realize I hadn't used milk or butter. Yes, it really is that good!
You may remember me telling you in this post that my youngest son Caleb is highly allergic to milk. Early tests even indicated the possibility of a soy allergy. We found out about all of this when Caleb was about one-month-old.

It has made the introduction of solid foods a challenge, but we have gradually been figuring it all out. He drinks rice milk instead of cow's milk. Almond milk isn't an option because my picky little guy hates it. (Update: As he got older, he started loving almond milk.) I have baked with almond milk to sneak it into his diet since certain types have more protein. Even though there are a lot of foods he can't or won't eat, one of his favorite things is vanilla yogurt made from coconut milk.

Neither Lydia Grace or Eli, my other two children--have a milk allergy, so it has certainly been a new adventure for us. Figuring out a cake option for his first birthday was a full-on kitchen quest. I came up with some delicious options, though. As my mother was eating a slice, she made sure to ask, "You wrote down everything you did, right?" Yes, I did! And I'm even sharing it with you today...

White Cake
Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (You could also use vegan butter.)
  • 1 cup rice or almond milk (vanilla or regular)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 4 egg whites (If you want the cake to be vegan, substitute the egg whites for 1/2 cup of non-dairy yogurt.)
Directions:
Grease (with vegetable shortening) and flour two round baking pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the sugar and shortening together. I would recommend using a mixer. Stir in the almond milk, vanilla, and egg whites. Mix the remaining dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Gradually pour the dry ingredients into your batter and mix until smooth. Pour the batter evenly into the two pans. Bake for around 30 minutes. Cool for a few minutes before removing the cakes from their pans.

Vegan Frosting
Ingredients:
  • 2/3 cup vegan butter (softened)
  • 1/2 cup non-dairy milk 
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 cups powdered sugar
Directions:
Beat vegan butter in a mixer until creamy. Add rice milk, salt, vanilla, and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Blend the ingredients together. Continue adding 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar at a time. Mix until smooth. (If the frosting is too runny or too thick, you can add a little more sugar or non-dairy milk.)

Frosting the cake:
 Make sure the layers have cooled completely before frosting. Place pieces of parchment paper all around the edges of the cake stand. You want to be able to pull it away once you are done frosting the cake. Cut off the top of the layer you are going to use as the bottom of the cake. You want this layer to be as flat as possible. Place it on the cake stand. Spread a thick layer of frosting over the top and pull the icing to the edges and down the sides. Put the next layer on top. Use the same technique to frost this layer by spreading the frosting in the middle first and then pulling it to the edges and down the sides. Add more frosting to the sides, if needed, smoothing it out as you go. Pull away the parchment paper.



9 comments:

  1. What a great cake!!
    I make a lot of dairy-free cakes, as we don't eat meat/chicken together with dairy (we wait 6 hours before we can eat dairy food), so it's a wonderful cake for me :)

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    1. Thanks! That means a lot coming from you because you are such a talented baker. I hope you'll give this recipe a try. Have a wonderful day!

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  2. Cool! Did it taste like a regular cake? Also, I am curious, does he generally eat only vegan? Or is he able to eat meat products and such?

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    1. It tasted wonderful! He has a severe milk and possibly even soy allergy. I mainly try to avoid those things.

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  3. This is great! Pinned. Hugs! Lou Lou Girls

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  4. What a beautiful cake! It's amazing what we can make when we set our minds to it, even with ingredient limitations! Pinned and shared though the #stoptheyuck party. Please join up with us this week! Chrystal @ YUMeating

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  5. I’m needing to make a 3 tier 9” cake....Will this recipe work for that?

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  6. Curious how do you mix the vegetable shortening into the cake? Usually you cream with the sugar and it's not mixing very well with other wet ingredients

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  7. My granddaughter has a severe lactose allergy and wanted a white cake for her birthday. I was amazed when I found this recipe because it’s so similar to a white cake recipe my mom used for years in the 50’s and 60’s for wedding cakes. She got it from her aunt so it’s been around since the 1920’s. The only real difference is she used butter and whipped the egg whites into soft peaks and folded them in at the end. What a happy coincidence that I found your great recipe. I did whip the eggs and used cake flour and the cake tasted great! Thanks!

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