Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Auntie Abby & Uncle Jake!

Since Eliott's diagnosis of Fructose Malabsorption, we have had many trials with cake at multiple banquets and birthday parties. Since we've kept his core FODMaP diet stable, his GI symptoms have been minimal, we weren't sure what to expect adding something as 'big and bad'  as cake. So, throwing caution  to the wind, we tried a piece of cake. That evening, he had belly aches and puked in the night. Next was a 1/2 piece of cake...same result. Yuck. Then a mini cupcake, with the icing scraped off. Success! The fourth try was a regular sized piece of cake with no icing, but again, the night puking. Erg...so frusterating!  So, it seems that his tolerance lies at a single naked mini 2-bite cupcake.

As a Mommy, I hate to say 'no', so I have decided to, while strongly guiding (and occasionally laying down the law), let him make as many of his food choices HIS, so that when he doesn't have me there with him, he can still eat safely. Most recently when there was cake available, he (sadly) chose not to have it. Kinda broke my heart to see him have to miss out on the things that make 'celebrations'.

I want him to grow up with memories of celebratory events revolving around family, friends and fancy foods, just like every other person gets to do. Not feeling deprived or denied the little luxuries and treats because of a FODMaP diet.

It is things like this that makes special times extra special!



The cake was made with corn flour and dextrose (corn sugar), which in not nearly as sweet as trditional sugar (sucrose). The over-all result was a little dry and cornbread-y for me, similar to a semolina cake. It was also a sponge, so there were no added fats. I will be working on this and have many ideas for improvement. Eliott ate a 1/4 of the cake in one evening (don't judge, it was only a 6" round) and another big piece the next day, so it was obviously a great starting point! The frosting however was a TOTAL success, and I will not be changing a thing the next time!

Soon he'll be having cake-with frosting- and eating it too!

Brownies!!!

Joe's favorite thing, and thus Eliott's favorite thing, has always been my chocolate chip cookies. Thats a big N-O on the new food plan, and while I've tried my hand at a couple different cookie recipes (I fully plan to share that experience at a later time!), I began to research other sweet treats for Eli to enjoy! I ran accross multiple chocolate cake/cookie/brownie recipes, probably because the strong - and delicious, I might add- flavor of the cocoa adds depth and richness to baked goods and also covers up the 'off' taste of the non-wheat flours. Eliott thought brownies sounded like a great idea, so I put on my recipe-combining hat and using basic ratios from a few different recipes, adjusting them to use only ingredients that are "happy belly", and my newly ever-expanding knowledge of alternative baking ingredients, I derived a recipe that I felt would result in passable brownies.

Well, the looked like brownies, and they smelled like brownies, and they pretty much tasted like brownies, but they still had a "grit" in them that I find to be unappetizing in wheat free home-baked items. However, flavor, loft, crumb- all great, so though not 100% satisfied with the result, I considered it a successful trial; especially for a first!

Eliott likes these a lot, and continues to eat them when they are cool...3 days later...so that is a very good sign.  I think he just downs the little buggers so fast that he doesn't  even feel the tell-tale grit!

This grit was STILL nagging at me, so I did a raw flours taste test (which is to be discussed more in-depth in "Non-Wheat Flours"). I have narrowed it down to RICE flour as being the culprit, and revised my recipe to remove it, made a few other minor tweeks, and I am happy to say that this was the result:

Now, THAT is a success!!! Though they weren't baked yet, I had very high expectations for this, my second ever batch of wheat- and (conventional) sugar-free brownies. Does that look like a NORMAL pan of brownies, or what!!!

They are moist and dense, as a brownie should be. They have a tender crumb, but with a slight chewiness to them (yay for oat flour!), and a rich, undeniably chocolate taste. With a now-smooth finish, this pan of bad boys is about to hit my taste-testing guinea pigs!

So, the verdict is in, and I have mastered a FODMaP Brownie recipe in a record of  only *2* tries!

(Eliott says that "These are th BEST brownies ever in the whole wide universe, Mom!" and that is really the only opinion that matters to me!)