When I was a little girl, a slice of birthday cake, whether it be someone else’s or my own was certainly one of my favorite treats. However, I remember, even with my childish naivete feeling a little bit of guilt as I licked the last of the frosting from the plate. My little brother, who has a severe corn allergy never got to enjoy the cake and was stuck on his birthday with my mom’s homemade gingerbread cake. Betty Crocker mixes were full of corn flour, corn syrups and my brother had to stoically avoid them. Knowing what I do now about how unhealthy corn syrups are, I wouldn’t eat a Betty Crocker cake if you paid me, but looking back that cake was an important part of my childhood.

So, today as a baker for adults and children with food allergies and special diets, I keenly understand the joy that a “custom” cake can bring…especially when your name is written on it in frosting. A couple of weeks ago, I loaded up my car with several GF-CF-Soy Free -Vegan cakes and drove to Irvine to deliver them to the California Integrative Hyperbaric Center, a facility for children affected by autism. Like my brother, these children can’t have traditional cakes and it was wonderful to see them enjoying a big piece. Seeing how happy cake made the parents and the kids, was touching and nostalgic.

It is a privilege to bake for people and every cake that I make is validating and special to someone. If you can’t have gluten, dairy, eggs, soy….no worries….you can still have cake! Who knew?!