Allergic Girl's Birthday Celebrations

My birthday is this month and I had my annual Allergic Girl birthday celebration, joined by beloved friends and family. This year, I hired La Fonda Boricua to cater. Whilst watching people go back for third helpings [!] I knew I had made the right dinner choice. Here’s the menu which satisfied both the vegetarians and the meatatarians:

White rice
Yellow rice with pigeon peas
Black beans
Red beans
Fried sweet plantains
[all vegetarian]

Baked chicken
Oxtail stew
Goat stew
[for the meat eaters!]

And a green salad.

For dessert, there were strawberries and black grapes and two chocolate cakes: one glutinous and one gluten-free.

After I blew out the candles [yes I still make a wish, world peace hasn't happened yet, has it?] and the cakes were cut, I heard my dad ask, over the din: “Did you make this cake? This ‘gluten-free’ cake?”

“Um, yes. From a mix but yeah I made it, yeah,” I replied.

“It so good! I mean really so much better than the one with gluten!”

This was my dad's way of announcing to the guests at my birthday party that my one layer gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free cake, Cherrybrook Kitchen’s chocolate cake and white frosting was better than the Costco chocolate cake that usually gets raves.

What a surprising yay!

My cake, which was moist with a tender crumb, tasted like an Oreo cookie. Or what I think an Oreo would taste like if it were a cake. Or what my memory of an Oreo tastes like. I didn’t taste the “other” cake but my creation disappeared and I still have half of Costco cake left.

I think I may have turned some of my friends and family to the GF side of life, pretty easy to do with cake that was delicious. Thank you Cherrybrook Kitchen for making an easy vegan mix [I made the frosting with butter but you could make that vegan too] which was perfect for my meat-eaters, Indian vegetarian friends, my Kosher vegan auntie, and those that were wheat allergic, egg allergic and this Allergic Birthday Girl.