Cakes - Decorating for Everyone

Notice that the decorated football themed birthday cake looks like any other decorated cake sitting next to two conventional decorated cakes. Decorating birthday cakes was a hobby until my nephew was born. When my nephew entered school he asked me if he could have a decorated birthday cake like the other kids. Until this time we used a dusting of confectioners sugar on his cakes per his allergies. I said of course you will have a decorated cake and we searched for alternatives to food coloring using natural jams or jellies. The cake on the far left, a football cake, is made with frosting using natural ingredients he could tolerate. The top cake and the one to the right are cakes made with the usual food coloring for others in our family.

I took cake decorating as a hobby but never expected it to bring such happiness to someone that would not otherwise have a decorated cake. The cake itself is eggless, dairyfree, and modified from the recipe used when eggs and milk were rationed, thus one may think of it as a patriotic cake instead of an "allergic cake" as the kids would call it. The "special" birthday cake tastes the same as any decorated cake and can be made in flavors and any types of jams or jellies, that are permitted per the person's allergies, mixed into the frosting.

It takes me over 20 hours to prepare the "special" birthday cake but it is much fun. Variations of the football theme will be appropriate for many years.