What I Do Now:
Book Review: The Cake Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free
While my son has multiple food allergies, it just happens that Gluten isn't one of them. However, like Anne Byrn author of The Cake Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free I love to play around with boxed cake mixes like Cherrybrook Kitchen. I also enjoy the texture of certain gluten free baked items (like gluten free chocolate cake) as much I enjoy our usual dairy, egg, soy and nut free version. When done right, gluten-free baking can be fluffy and delicate and it will melt-in-you-mouth a bit more.
What I appreciated about The Cake Doctor Bakes Gluten Free:
1. The baking instructions are numbered and each recipe is visually clear. That's a good thing for those unexpected and harried moments when I forget my son is going to a birthday party and need to bring a substitute treat.
2. Side Notes - There are helpful and informative side topics like "Making Mini's" or "Bundt" or Tube Pan...That Is the Question."
3. Quick Tip Lists - "3 Cookie Tools I Love" or "5 Cake Taking Tips" offer practical solutions for issues like travelling with your allergen free goodies or the never ending quest to provide variety.
4. "Keep It Fresh!" Each recipe has a "Keep It Fresh! section. As an allergy parent I'm forever stockpiling my son's baked goods for myself, teachers and the like. Very helpful.
5. Options, options, options - The Cake Doctor Philosophy seems to be all about tinkering and adapting recipes according to ingredients on hand, taste, and dietary restrictions. I love having a lot of options and I think it's important to offer my children variation within a restricted diet.
Readers Note: My son is allergic to dairy, soy and nuts. Nuts are an optional ingredient in some of these recipes however the Cake Doctor offers a viable dairy free alternative for every recipe. Also there are three eggs in most recipes "for texture." And even so there are many recipes for me to try.
And of course I wouldn't sign off without reporting on one recipe. I made the Pumpkin Raisin Muffins with an Orange Drizzle. Except I didn't have raisins so I substituted drained frozen blueberries. And three eggs is too many for my son (he is mildly allergic) so I reduced it to two eggs and some ground flax seeds. And I didn't have muffin tins or liners so I turned it into a cake. Oh . . . and I didn't bother with the "orange drizzle."
In other words, I doctored the Cake Doctor's recipe. But guess what? The cake was delicious, moist, fluffy and "just right" in sweetness. Oh I like this book.