For a long, long time Emilia and I followed a Gluten Free Dairy Free diet. (Allergies suck!!) A year and a half, to be exact. I love making cakes, cookies, and muffins, but as you can imagine, gluten free dairy free baking is not easy. But you know what’s even worse? We had to avoid eggs, coconut, sesame, and soya, too. So, in those cases where the recipe called for 2 eggs to hold the thing together, I could not use eggs. I used substitutes. Substitutes for flour, substitutes for eggs, substitutes for milk. The end result usually looked like a big mess and was hard as stone. BUT! Then I found this miracle recipe by Goodness Is Gorgeous and tweaked it to my liking to get the results that I wanted. It took me many attempts to get the perfect cake, but I did it!

Cooking with Emilia

I often include Emilia in the cooking process. I do it for several reasons (other than fun!):

• Cooking is a form of unstructured sensory play and teaches her about the different textures, scents, tastes of the ingredients.
• I can cook without worrying about what she’s doing in the living room while I am focused on the food. She’s on her learning tower beside me, actively involved in the process and therefore not throwing tantrums to try and get my attention.
• She learns to appreciate food. When she eats something she’s made herself it tastes so much better! And she can feel that nice sense of accomplishment.

She did try to talk me out of blending those yummy Medjool dates, but in the end, she agreed that they would make a great sweetener for our yummy cake, so she put them in the blender herself (after eating a couple!). And oh, I didn’t know dates could make a cake so sweet! They are the perfect substitute for sugar and they gave the cake that lovely golden brown colour.

The Gluten Free Batter

The batter may stay a bit rough and lumpy, don’t expect it to be as smooth as a normal cake batter.Those of you who are familiar with gluten free dairy free baking  know that the textures differ quite a bit depending on the flours that are used.

This batter is golden in colour (thank you dates!) and quite thick. The scents of the ground almonds, the vanilla extract, and the dates mix so perfectly.

The Cake

This cake has a fairly dense texture, like most gluten-free cakes. However, it’s still fluffy and soft inside, and oh so yummy! Unlike other cakes I’ve tried to bake before, this one was very easy to make and so delicious it was gone by the end of the next day. Emilia enjoyed it quite a lot, as you can see in the photos. Gluten free dairy free baking is not a mission impossible, yay!

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