Help! Baking a Birthday Cake Ain't So Easy.

This year the mini requested only one thing for her birthday: a cake free of eggs, nuts and seeds. She was very specific about her desires: it has to be the same cake for everyone. It has to be layers, with chocolate on every layer. And, of course, chocolate icing on top.

Mini tolerated the chocolate chips with the understanding that her mother would remove them all in order for her to be willing to eat it.

Poker Chick used New Year's Eve as an opportunity to "test" a cake. The one on the right was made thanks to the help of Vermont Nut Free chocolate as an ingerdient. Mmmmm. It's definitely the best egg-free chocolate cake she's had. So it is a contender. But not perfect. It tasted ok. But the texture of the cake itself could have been lighter. And the layers (there were two, with icing in between), were so thin, the whole cake was pretty much as tall as one.

And here's the other problem. This cake could serve 6 or 8 kids but not 20. How does one make a cake that looks as impressive as a store-bought "real" sheet cake with a recipe like this? And how does a "non-cook" do that? And by "non-cook", we mean the above is about the best this non-domestic girl could do, and it still took three hours.

Not to put anyone on the spot or anything, but we're hoping some of our allergy-mom friends can offer some been there, done that advice. Whether it be daring bakers, the allergic kid, nut-free mom, or anyone else, we're sure someone out there has been brave enough to bake a cake for a kid's birthday party.

Help!

The Joy of Giving is Enough

It was great to hear the mini's squeal "YAY!" when she opened her new dolly last night. Of course, that was immediately followed by "hey! Do her clothes come off?" as she rips off the pants, and later, a whole leg.

Kids.

Just When You Were About To Write Off Your Day As Terrible

The conversation went like this:

Mommy?
(whispering in the dark, drifting off to sleep)
Yes? (lying down on the floor next to mini as she drifts off to sleep)
What are you going to dream about? (Note: mini never talks about dreams)
That's an excellent question. What are you going to dream about?
I'm going to dream about you!
That's a wonderful idea. Well then I'll dream about you too! What will we be doing in our dream?
Playing....(big smile, voice fades out, her eyes close...)

Yup. This totally makes up for the twenty-seven time outs we endured together this weekend.

Halloween For Neurotics

This one is for all you parents who were guilty of "going there" at any point in your head tonight.

Ah, Halloween. Candy, and smiles. Costumes and trick-o-treaters. But - uh oh. With candy comes evil ingredients and recalls. With costumes come disguises and thiefs.

Hmmm. It's all good until you start thinking too much:

In a friend's lobby:

Oh look! How cute - it's SpongeBob! Someone's parent went all out. Wait a minute, there's no kid with him....he's just walking around by himself taking pictures with all the kids in the lobby....can someone say "Pedophile"! Walk away, slowly, slowly....

While walking around the neighborhood:

Hey, that building is having a party in the lobby for the little kids! How cute! They even have a clown making balloon animals. Our building should do that next year. Maybe I'll organize it.....Oh, wait. Clowns are creepy. Hmmm.

And now, we refer you back to the SpongeBob sentiment.

While Trick-or-treating in our building:

Ok - Nestle crunch, ok to put in bucket, yellow M&Ms - no. "Take the blue one", "Take the red one..", yikes all I want to do is make sure mini is not putting something overtly peanut (i.e. Reeses, Snickers) into her bucket. Even though she's not eating anything in her bucket. I know, I know....but who knew a little orange square could be so scary?

In truth, we had a great Halloween. Mini understood the concept for the first time ever and had a blast. We trick-or-treated, hung out with our neighbors and brought treats to friends. The best part of not being able to eat your candy? Giving it away at the end of the night. Fun, plus a bonus good deed. Not such a bad lot.

Calling Fellow Neurotic Parents....

If anyone out there with a kid with food allergies has taken a cruise, then Poker Chick needs your advice! Good news: Poker Chick's family is trying to get together on a cruise. Bad news: cruises mean lots of buffets, a food allergy nightmare, especially when you're miles and miles from a hospital. Now, she can't believe she's about to say this, but after some initial research she's seriously considering a Disney cruise. Stories of special chocolates on the pillow. Nut, dairy and egg free birthday cakes. Entire menus prepared just for your kid. This is the stuff dreams are made of.

But before she shelves her grownup coolness and resigns to a gambling-free (gasp! no poker?) trip, she wants to see if anyone has heard anything good about food allergies on any other cruise line. There's also the question of whether or not a Disney cruise will be upscale enough for Big Boy, she still has to sell him on it. Any tips, advice, links would be greatly appreciated (including where to go, which is also open!)