I had some free time tonight, so I decided to try my hand at making an allergen-free cake. I have several friends with food allergies, and I try to limit my gluten intake, so this seemed like a fun experiment. I used Namaste Foods chocolate cake mix, which is free of gluten, wheat, soy, nuts, potato, corn, dairy, and casein. The mix does call for eggs, but I’m betting that if you’re allergic (like Lindsay) you could use unsweetened applesauce as a replacement. This particular mix calls for 2 cups of water, which led to very wet batter. The cakes didn’t cook evenly throughout, and I think this is why. The edges were a bit crispier than the middle, though not burned. 

The vanilla frosting I used is by Pamela’s Products and is wheat and gluten free. It calls for butter, which I used, but I’m sure an Earth Balance replacement could be used to make it vegan. I actually didn’t like the butter in it, and I wonder how the frosting would turn out if it were omitted altogether. In the end, the frosting tasted okay, but with a weird aftertaste.

The cake didn’t turn out to be that pretty. The frosting mix doesn’t make very much and the cake really soaked it up, so there wasn’t enough for the sides. As for the taste, my husband enjoyed it with his coffee. I thought it was okay; certainly not bad if you have food allergies. Not the best cake I’ve ever made, but I think I would try it again (maybe without the frosting; powdered sugar as a topping would be a good alternative) to serve to one of my food allergic friends.