Gluten Free 7th Birthday

As we travel through the year, each holiday and celebration brings a new challenge to develop new recipes and recreate old favourites now we need to cater for the dietary changes Coeliac Disease brings.  Eight months into our family's new diet, our daughter's 7th birthday was fast approaching I knew I wanted everything to be just right so she could enjoy all the same food along with her friends.  She has been to so many events this year where I pack a special lunchbox of healthy snacks. fruit and gluten free treats but there are times when it's hard to miss out.  She is amazing at not getting upset when the main cake gets cut or her friends indulge in cupcakes for a birthday at school but sometimes it's lovely to eat everything on the table and not have to think twice.
 
Now every party in this household just has to have a theme!  We have done dinosaurs, bugs, pirates, safari style, magicians ... you name it but this year we were having a movie party to see The Smurfs and as much as I loved little blue people in the 70s I wanted to make something pretty and girly for my daughter this year and step away from the character figures.  Over winter I made my daughter a double bed throw using two different layers of fleece which I bound together with some homemade satin bias tape.  Now the top side features a beautiful owl design and after workshopping through her current loves we decided on the owls!  (Cue Mommy launching into google image research for some 'to die for' design ideas!).

Now flavoured popcorn and fizzy drinks were never our usual style anyway, however I couldn't be sure that the popcorn made at the cinema would be gluten free and I knew none of the lollies would be so I thought I would pop together a movie bag of treats for each child to enjoy throughout the film.  Some clever shopping over a few weeks (I can never find all I want in one shop!), some glow in the dark bangles and some cute bags and here we have it ...

As a keen cake and cookie maker prior to going gluten free I have been trying out lots of recipes this year and searching for the perfect 'sugar cookie' was proving difficult!  I found loads of recipes for fabulous cookies such as choc chip but nothing suitable for decorating until I discovered the Sweetness and Bite blog through a recent publication of Australian Cake Decorating.  Now this New Zealander makes some beautiful creations and I was keen to give her cookie recipe a go.  It uses rice flour (I made mine in the Thermomix) and the cookies turned out beautifully, held their shape and had the perfect crunch.  I always like to give children a decorated cookie as a take home gift.  I often find myself removing the dollar shop toys before they get swallowed or battling it out with the kids as to when they can devour all of the sweets they just acquired so this new cookie recipe was going to work well for the take home treat.  I didn't have any owl cookie cutters but a simple round cookie with a fondant owl shape on top (made quite simply using an egg shape cutter with a half circle cut out) with some oval and mini rounds for eyes and wings these cute little guys were done.  As I had some cookie dough left over I made number 7 cookies to go into the bags too.  Some more cute bags and the party favours were done :)

There are some beautiful flourless and gluten free cake recipes around.  The Torta Caprese in the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook is delicious and many flour recipes can be remade using gluten free blends but my go to party cake this year has to be the chocolate banana cake by Quirky Cooking.  I have made it several times and it's so rich just like a traditional mud cake (as well as deep so perfect for decorating).  I knew it wouldn't keep for as long as a traditional mud cake so I decided to make a two tier cake and put all of the detail on to the top layer which would be a 6" styrofoam round so I could make this ahead of time and then bake Quirky's chocolate cake for the bottom tier the day before.  I've been itching to make a ruffle cake for ages and this was the perfect opportunity!  I researched the ingredients of store bought fondant, gumpaste and colours earlier in the year and on this occasion I used Satin Ice fondant/gumpaste and Americolour for tints you can however make your own fondant at home and use natural colours if you want to.  I covered the dummy cake with a little syrup, covered it in white fondant and then cut LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of frills in shades of white to pink.  I was a little impatient in letting them dry but I was really pleased with the overall effect.  I made the owl topper with some gumpaste and finished off with a few little fondant flowers.  The bottom tier was a 3 layer 8" cake with dark chocolate ganache, pink fondant and a name plaque I made with fondant and letter cutters (left to dry ahead of time).  I only put it altogether on the morning of the party which was cutting it fine for me but I made it and surprisingly got it all to the venue with no mishaps.  Gotta love those precarious car journeys to the beach, park, movies, shopping mall balancing a cake on my knee!

Here is the finished product and one very happy just turned 7 year old ...

 

All in all the party went really well.  I was so happy to provide food everyone could enjoy and the other children didn't even notice any changes in taste.  It took a little research, time and effort but to be able to celebrate as we have always done with good food and friends and not miss out on anything was priceless.  Roll on gluten free Christmas!