Ella's Birthday Cakes

This year, Ella managed to squeeze three birthday celebrations out of us. They seem to grow with the years. We invited her classmates over for a play date after school and I made a wheat free cake, as well as regular cupcakes for the kids. Both were cherry chocolate chip flavored with cherry butter cream frosting. The only difference was that the cake had 2 layers of chocolate whipped cream, as well. Guess which was our favorite? I am telling you, if you make wheat free things the RIGHT way, you cannot tell the difference. It was light, fluffy and delicious!

I also made dairy free rice crispie treats for a guest who is allergic to milk. Those were gone before the party was over with. I decorated the cupcakes with lollipops that I found at Michael's. I think the kids liked them.

Cake #2: Classic Cherry Chip

Ella wanted to have another cake at her big birthday party, and who am I to say "no". One of the cakes that I remember fondly from my childhood was cherry chip with cherry butter cream frosting. And since Ella has recently discovered the Maraschino cherry, I thought it would be fun to recreate my nostalgic favorite into a wheat-free cake. Once again, I used the Vanilla (Butter) Layer Cake recipe from the Annalise Roberts cookbook. After making the mix, according to instructions, I folded in 1/2 cup of well drained, finely sliced Maraschino cherries and 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips. I frosted the layers with cherry butter cream and topped the cake with rolled fondant butterflies, that I colored to match the theme colors of the party.

Along with the cake, I made 2 different types of cupcakes for our guests to choose from: Dark Chocolate with Orange Cream Cheese Butter cream and Cherry Chip Yogurt and Buttermilk cupcakes with Cherry Butter cream, both with wheat flour. Several people tried both the cake and the cupcakes and each told me that while liking the cupcakes, they found the cake to be even better. Two of my Mommy friends are either Celiac or allergic to wheat and they were thrilled to have a chance to try the cake.

Needless to say, I will be making this one again. Now I had better get myself some of the leftovers!

Cake #1: Abby Cadabby

Ella has been celebrating her birthday in high fashion this year. She has had three parties to commemorate turning 4, each a little different from the other. On Tuesday, we celebrated with family and friends at Disneyland. On Thursday, she had an ice cream party at school with her classmates. And on Friday, we had a bigger birthday party that included everyone. She has recently rediscovered Sesame Street and is very into Abby Cadabby. One of her birthday wishes was to have an Abby Cadabby cake. No cupcakes, Mom. Just an Abby Cadabby cake. So I visited a local bakery who is known for making wheat- free/gluten-free cakes. And after looking through many books, I decided that I could make a cake that would be better than anything that I was seeing. So I went online and found a great mold from Wilton and took on the task of making Ella's cake.

I was not sure how the wheat-free cake recipe I had would do using a cake mold, but it actually was no different that traditional cake ingredients. I greased the pan REALLY well and then lightly dusted it with rice flour. Once the cake came out in one piece and I sighed a giant sigh of relief, I went buttercream crazy. It was actually a lot of fun. The directions that came with the mold were fairly easy to follow. Naturally, being a perfectionist, I had my issues. I had tried to save money by using food colorings that I already had rather than the suggested ones made by Wilton. And the pink ended up looking a lot like Madonna Inn pink, rather than Abby Cadabby pink. (You can take the girl out of San Luis Obispo, but you cannot take the Madonna Inn out of the girl!) And I was not happy with how the eyes turned out. Like I said, I am a perfectionist.

We took the cake with us down to Disneyland and enjoyed it with everyone at the hotel. The cake was delicious. I used the Vanilla (Butter) Layer Cake recipe from Annalise Roberts' Baking Classics cookbook. The frosting was traditional buttercream. The best part was that I served it and no one knew that the cake was wheat-free until I told them! Actually, the BEST part was seeing how happy the cake made her. It was all worth it!