At the end of this summer, my young son was diagnosed with Alpha Gal Syndrome (AGS). People with this tick-born disease exhibit of range of symptoms and allergies, and because we are at the beginning of figuring out what he can safely eat, we’re proceeding with caution. Even though he hasn’t shown reactions to dairy, this ingredient is still being limited. What we know for sure is that he reacts to mammal meat and by products (which seem to be in everything). On the heels of drastically changing his regular diet, and with the holiday season fast approaching, I was thrilled to find an allergy-safe alternative to the classic holiday tradition of decorating gingerbread houses: The Tomte Cake set.
But, Jackie – this is a Christmas cake set! Why would you bake it for autumn? Because, making a from-scratch cake allows me to control the ingredients. And using this cake for Halloween/Thanksgiving will allow us to get more use out of this special set. And having delicious cake to decorate and eat is always a good thing.
I modeled my cake recipe after the basic Wilton pumpkin spice cake, subbing in safe ingredients as necessary.
For decorating the cakes:
We followed the instructions for Wilton cake, using the AGS-safe ingredients. Before mixing up the cake batter, I combined the vinegar and almond milk in a bowl. This will make the vegan version of “buttermilk” required for the recipe.
When baking with my young kids, I have them crack eggs into a separate bowl before adding to the batter. This allows us an easier opportunity to fish out any eggshells when necessary.
After making the batter, I used avocado oil spray to liberally coat the inside of the Tomte Cake pan. I baked the cakes for about 50 minutes at 325 degrees, until a knife inserted in the middle came out clean. After 10 minutes, I flipped the cakes out and onto a wire rack to cool completely. I made these cakes in advance, so when the cakes were completely cool, I wrapped each first in saran wrap and then in aluminum foil. I placed the cakes in the freezer. The day before we planned to decorate the cakes, I moved them from the freezer to the fridge to thaw.
The day prior to decorating the cakes, I set to work making decorations that my son can eat. I placed a sheet of waxed paper on a cookie sheet, and used my icing spatula to smear dollops of the Duncan Hines icing into ghost shapes. A toothpick dipped in black gel color created the “eyes.” Then, I followed these instructions to pipe pumpkins. I popped the tray into the fridge so that the decorations could harden up.
I helped pipe icing onto the cakes so that my children could stick on decorations. The piped pumpkins and ghosts were dainty, but pretty easily smooshed back together if needed. We all really enjoyed decorating the Autumn Tomte Cakes! And best of all – they are tasty! We look forward to making these again, during the Christmas season.
Jackie Baird Richardson is an interior designer, editor at The WON and avid junker. Watch for her design tips and occasional crafting ideas, bringing the outdoors indoors. View all posts by Jackie Richardson
