3 Tips for a Food Allergy-Friendly Birthday Party

We've had a month of food-allergy friendly birthday celebrations for our Little Guy who just turned 5. It's amazing how one birthday can turn into three celebrations! A family party, treats for friends at school on his actual birthday, and a kid birthday party (mainly his school class!). 

Now that's a lot of cooking for this food allergy Mom. 

Even though I've only been in the world of food allergies for 5 years now (I know some Moms who have been at it much longer!), I feel like I could share some food allergy friendly birthday party suggestions.

1. Schedule the party at a non-meal time

We scheduled Little Guy's recent party at 3pm. One hour of play time and then time to sit down for for snacks and cake at 4pm. I even went so far to mention on the school party invitation that "cupcakes and snacks" will be served, just to let everyone know!

The kids enjoyed the play/sports time so much, that the rest of the birthday party time was just "icing on the cake" (allergy-free cake of course).

2. Keep the food simple

If you deal with multiple food allergies (we deal with nuts, milk, egg and sesame), you're going to be doing all the cooking. There's nowhere I can order safe pre-made food for a big birthday party event like this. I would love to order a cake and pizza and call it a day, but that's not possible.

Since I do all the cooking, I need to keep it simple. For Little Guy's recent party with classmates we served:

Healthy and food allergy friendly snacks! I cut up a huge watermelon and some honeydew melon and cantaloupe for fruit, cowboy caviar (bean dip) with tortilla chips (thanks to MY mom for making it!), and sesame free hummus. We also had Wheat Things, Rold Gold pretzels and Twizzlers for other snacks.





Dairy free and egg free cupcakes. Although I've made cakes in the past, I try to make cupcakes more often as I find them less stressful and easier to decorate. Little guy and the kids loved these Spiderman Cupcake Rings also used as cupcake toppers that we found on Amazon.

I think everyone had their fill of good food, and loved the sweet cupcake treats at the end of the party. Thankfully, everything was a hit with the kiddos and parents!

3. Ask for help

For our Easter/birthday party with family, I said "YES" to my mother and mother-in-law bringing food because I trust they understand how to make it safe for Little Guy. 

If you don't have help you can trust, or just like to control all the food (hey - I get it! It's nerve wracking to have others cook for your child with food allergies), then ask for help with other things like drinks, plates, napkins, or even cleaning before or after the event!

How about get someone else to stuff the party goody bags? Kids love to do stuff like this (thanks to my Hubs for helping with these!).

Gift bags included: superhero themed picture frame, sports ball and fruit snacks!

Whatever you do, don't try to be a Supermom. Accept help in any way you can.

What are your tips for hosting food allergy friendly birthdays? How have you handled them so far?

Other food allergy birthday posts which might interest you:

Gluten free birthday cake

Healthy first birthday cake

Music themed allergy-friendly second birthday party

Fireman third birthday party

  

Easy Birthday Cake Decoration: Sprinkle Numbers (No Cookie Cutter Needed)

If you make your own birthday cakes like I do, you're probably always looking for fun ways to decorate your cakes. It would be much easier to just buy a birthday cake from our local bakery or store. But as you know, Little Guy has food allergies to dairy, eggs, nuts and sesame, so we do our own baking.

So, what's a mama to do when she needs a fun and festive birthday cake topper for her Little Gal's second birthday?

Add on a sprinkle number topper in less than 5 minutes flat! 



I love this decoration because it's a little different than the usual #2 birthday candle. You only need a few supplies that you probably already have in your kitchen:

• Sprinkles (I used Cake Mate Rainbow Sprinkles (affiliate) since they contain soy only. However, please check labels for your own needs every time). 
• Scissors
• Wax paper
• Pencil

Here's how I did it. 

First tear off a piece of wax paper that will cover the whole top of your cake. This will protect the cake from rogue sprinkles falling on it.

Draw your number on the wax paper with a pencil and place the wax paper on a cutting board. 

Use one side of a sharp pair of scissors and cut out the number

Place the wax paper carefully on your cake.  Again, make sure it covers the whole thing so it's safe from falling sprinkles.

Carefully place and press sprinkles onto the icing. Fill up all those icing spots!

Remove the wax paper and you have your sprinkle cake topper!

Have you ever tried this fun decoration? What's your favorite easy way to decorate cakes other than candles?

Want more fun birthday ideas? Check out these posts:

Birthday cake recipe: Gluten free, dairy free, egg free and nut free

Healthy First Birthday Cake

Fun and Festive 3rd Birthday Party

Healthy First Birthday Cake: Dairy-free, Egg-free and Gluten-free

A few weeks ago I wrote about Little Gals' perfect first birthday party. But I didn't write much about the yummiest part - the cake and cupcakes! Although we haven't seen signs of food allergies in Little Gal (saying prayers that we don't!), I still needed to make the cake and cupcakes gluten, egg, dairy, nut and sesame free since Little Guy has food allergies. That means no bakery made cakes!

I not only wanted to make safe cakes and cupcakes for Little Guy, but I also wanted to make a healthy first birthday cake for Little Gal. I decided to use the oat muffin recipe from Sophie-Safe Cooking to make Little Gal's healthy birthday cake. I like that the recipe focuses on oats and contains less sugar than other birthday cake recipes I've found. This recipe makes 12 small muffins, so it also fit perfectly into a 6 inch cake pan - a perfect first birthday cake size!

Little Gal's First Birthday Cake. Main ingredient: Oats!

I also used Cybele Pascal's recipe for allergy-friendly vanilla frosting and it turned out GREAT. It's thick enough to make pretty decorations and it tastes just like traditional frosting. *Sadly, Cybele's blog is no longer available! Here is another allergy friendly buttercream icing from Kids with Food Allergies that looks similar and just as easy and tasty!

Here are some other tips of how I made Little Gal's first birthday cakes and cupcakes:

1. Make a small special cake just for baby. Why? Because it's fun! Buy a 6 inch cake pan for the baby cake. I think it's fun to put a small cake in front of them rather than a cupcake or REALLY big cake. So, you have one cake (and/or cupcakes) to serve the guests and one for baby to get messy!

I used a 6 inch cake pan for baby's first birthday cake.

2. Buy a pastry bag and cake decoration kit. You can buy this at the grocery store or online. It doesn't have to be expensive, but it works much better than a Ziplock bag!

I wasn't about to decorate all this with a ziplock bag. Pastry bag to the rescue!

3. Keep it simple with the icing decorations. This is especially true if you are a novice cake baker and decorator like me! I made simple designs with my pastry bag like dots and swirls.

Keep the icing decorations simple!

4. Use fresh flowers for colorful decoration. This is especially great if you want to avoid artificial food coloring and dyes, but I still wanted a pretty cake with a little color!

5. Be creative with your "1" decoration. I used Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips which are dairy-free to decorate the cake for the guests. We put a "1" candle on Little Gal's cake. I've also seen cool "1" designs with sprinkles, fruit or other safe candy.

I planned on making one big chocolate cake using Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devil's Food Cake Mix and one oat cake for Little Gal. I was worried I didn't have enough (boy was I wrong!) so I made one more batch of cupcakes using Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix.  I made the cake in the same way as I did for my strawberry twist cake, and Little Guy's Fireman third birthday party cake.

Here are all the allergy-friendly cupcakes and cakes that are dairy-free, egg-free and gluten-free!

I was happy that someone asked me for my recipe for the chocolate cake. I had to tell her it was directly from Betty Crocker's kitchen! 

Here are some examples of the supplies I used to create the first birthday cakes and cupcakes. Hope they're useful to you!

This is NOT a sponsored post, and I was not paid to include these products. This is what I actually used for our first birthday party celebration! This post does include affiliate Amazon links. That means I may get a few cents if you buy something on Amazon from these links. Thanks for your support!

Recipe for a Perfect 1st Birthday Party

I think I found the recipe for a perfect 1st birthday party. We celebrated Little Gal's 1st birthday party this weekend with a small family party. Although I was tempted to create an elaborate Pinterest-worthy first birthday celebration, I decided to make it an easy and simple first birthday party. The most time consuming part was making the gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free cakes and cupcakes. But they turned out great and everyone enjoyed them!

Perfect 1st birthday party ingredients:

A sweet year old birthday baby, and balloons of course!

Fun birthday decorations.

These are Little Guy's blocks and we put flowers in a few Ball jars.

Tasty snacks (the party was at 2pm so no need for a full meal!):

Sesame free hummus

Bean salsa and chips

Fruit salad

Yummy cake and cupcakes which were of course gluten free, dairy free and egg free for Little Guy.

A loving family.

Perfect 1st birthday party directions:

• Mix together and ENJOY this first birthday celebration!

I'll do another post JUST about the CAKES! I understand how much thought and time goes into allergy-friendly cakes since I've made a few of them recently, so I plan to do on blog post focusing only on the gluten-free, dairy free, egg free cakes and cupcakes soon! 

Birthday Cake Recipe: Gluten free, dairy free, egg free and nut free

We celebrated yet ANOTHER birthday last week....Mamacado's 1st Birthday!  

Yes, it's been one year since my first blog post. It's been a busy year filled with a new little love coming into our lives, bedtime battles (which are still ongoing in some respect), and also lots of FOOD, FAMILY and FUN!

There is still so much more I want to do with this blog, but I'm only able to work on it a little each week. So I'm going to continue posting every Monday for now. Slow and steady, ya know?

Now, let's focus on MORE birthday cake :)

I didn't make a cake for Mamacado's birthday, but I do want to post a little more about the allergy-friendly cake and cupcakes from Little Guy's 3rd birthday party at the firehouse since a few people have asked for more details.

Even though the cakes and cupcakes were very simple in the decoration department, I was so relieved they tasted great. Yes, gluten free, egg free and dairy free cakes and cupcakes CAN taste just like or even better than traditional cakes!

Gluten free, dairy free and egg free cake and cupcakes

The CAKE: I wanted to make a red velvet cake from Cybele Pascal's cookbook, The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook. But since I was making so much other food for the party I decided to take a cake shortcut.  

I used Betty Crocker gluten free yellow cake mix. I wanted to make a double-layered sheet cake, but I realized that one box of the cake mix only makes one 9 x 9 round cake. So, I used two boxes of cake mix to make two round cakes.

I followed the directions exactly, except I substituted 1/4 cup of applesauce for the eggs (1/4 cup applesauce = 1 egg). Applesauce is a great egg substitute for baking, although there are also many other options like bananas, flax eggs, etc.  I also substituted Earth Balance (casein and dairy free) butter for the butter in the recipe.

Made with applesauce instead of eggs

The CUPCAKES: Since the cake was smaller than planned, I also made cupcakes. It was actually nice to have a variety of flavors so everyone could taste the vanilla cake and chocolate cupcakes.

I used Betty Crocker's gluten free devil's food cake mix. I really like this mix because it doesn't taste as sweet as the yellow cake. Again I substituted 1/4 cup applesauce for the eggs and followed all the directions on the box.

Gluten free, dairy free and egg free chocolate cupcakes

Now, onto the ICING: I used Cybele Pascal's icing recipe from her cookbook, The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook. It's a simple recipe, and it's important to follow directions as I found out the hard way.

This was my first try at the icing. I've used Earth Balance butter for icing in the past, and sometimes it comes out well, but sometimes it doesn't as you see here. Earth Balance butter is a staple in our house and is great for everything else, but is not the best option for icing!

Yucky, grainy icing - first try.

Then I went to the store to buy shortening as the recipe suggested. The icing was close to becoming a disaster, but a little help from a fellow blogger who I randomly saw at the store was my saving grace! She helped me find Spectrum Organic Vegetable Shortening, and it worked like a charm.

Fluffy, creamy icing: Dairy free.

See the difference between the two?  The "before" icing is on the right, and the "after" icing is on the left.

"Before" icing is on the right and "after" is on the left.

The icing tasted great on both the cupcakes and cake, and I was happy it didn't have all the crazy ingredients in the regular containers of icing you find on store shelves.

I'm still new at allergy-friendly baking, but here are my tips for other newbies out there!

• Use shortening, not Earth Balance butter or any other substitution for icing.
• Betty Crocker gluten free cake mix only makes one 9 x 9 cake. Plan accordingly!
• The gluten free cake and cupcakes stayed fresh for about one day, and then started to get a little dry two days after. Plan to make the cake the day before the party.
• Use Kids with Food Allergies baking and cake tips to help you through it all. I've even heard suggestions to Google cake decorating on YouTube - something I plan to do in the future!

I'm actually excited to make a more creative cake soon...maybe raspberry or strawberry filling with some pretty decorations on top.  

I need inspiration! What's your favorite cake flavor?  

Here are the allergy-friendly products that were SO helpful in making these birthday treats!

This post contains affiliate links.

Fireman 3rd Birthday Party

We've sure had a busy and fun week of birthday celebrations!  It was Little Guy's 3rd birthday this past week, and we had his birthday party this weekend. But it wasn't any old birthday party. It was a FIREMAN birthday party. 

We had his 3rd birthday party at a local firehouse, and it worked out wonderfully!  Fireman was the game of choice for Little Man throughout year 2, so we thought it would be appropriate to "ring in" year 3 with a fireman birthday party!

Little Guy "driving" a firetruck at his 3rd birthday party!

We met some firemen....wait...that's not a fireman, it's Fireman Daddy! Yes, my hubby got to try on the real fireman gear and Little Guy just LOVED it.

Fireman Daddy at Little Guy's 3rd Birthday Party

We of course had red tablecloths, red and white balloons, and birthday and firetruck decorations.We also had fire hats and fun party bags for the kids.

The fireman-themed gift bags were simple yet fun and were filled with fireman stickers, a fireman pencil, a water squirter and allergy-friendly DumDum lollipops.

We also had a make-your-own fireman badge as a craft. It was something for the kids to do when they weren't eating, touring the firetrucks, or running around!

And we of course had FOOD. Since most of my blog posts are about food and how we manage Little Guy's multiple food allergies, I of course can't forget the FOOD! With a lot of help from my Mom, we had a nice array of yummy, healthy and allergy-friendly foods including:

• Veggies and sesame-free hummus 
• Salsa and chips
• Glutino pretzels
• Baked ham
• Roasted turkey
• Three bean salad from this recipe
• Quinoa pasta salad - I'll post the recipe another day
• Fruit salad
• Enjoy Life cookies
• Vanilla birthday cake with vanilla frosting (gluten free and vegan)
• Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting (gluten free and vegan)

A quick snapshot of some allergy-friendly birthday party food

This isn't the best food photo, but I'm amazed I snapped one at all!  The only thing that Little Guy couldn't eat was the sandwich rolls. He doesn't care about those since there was so much other food to eat...and cake...and cupcakes...

So why don't we get to the best part?

Mmmm, the cake.

Gluten-free and vegan birthday cake...SO good

Despite it saying "Birthday Happy" as my hubby pointed out (oh well :) , I was happy with how it turned out and tasted. It honestly tasted just as good - if not better - than a traditional birthday cake made with eggs, butter and white flour.

I made both the vanilla cake and chocolate cupcakes with Betty Crocker Gluten Free cake mix to keep it easy. I substituted applesauce for the eggs and followed all the directions. It turned out moist and delicious!

Moist and delicious!

The cupcakes were great too. I won't go into the details of the difficulties I had making these - that's for another blog post! - but I was pretty happy with the end result.

I ended up making the cupcakes at the last minute. I wanted to add red sprinkles to these to go with the fireman theme, but I couldn't find any allergy-friendly red sprinkles. I also thought it was better to go with pure white icing instead of adding fake and unhealthy red food dye.

Gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free birthday cupcakes

Little Guy and Grandma had fun cutting his 3rd birthday cake and we ALL had fun eating it!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Little Guy! 

Here are examples of some of the things we used to make it a fun and festive fireman themed 3rd birthday party!