You attempted your first GFCF cake, eh? Not pretty? It. Never. Is. What butter substitute did you use? What gluten free flour blend? Are you nut free? No soy, right? Shit, can you do phenols or oxalates?
When you have a child that can’t eat the same things that their classmates/party-goers/teammates can, you get creative quickly. And desperate for food that will fit the bill.
Kids are having brownies??? Well…OK! I can find an allergen free brownie…let me check The Spunky Coconut. I can always count on her to have what I need to pull off some crazy “Let’s Make It Look Like The Real Thing” adventure. You have saved my bacon many a day Spunky Coconut…I salute you.
And so we bake, and kneed and mix and cook and let all this rise and hope these gluten free images we have in our head become a reality. We work tirelessly to make sure our kids have something delicious they can enjoy when the birthday treats roll in or simply so they can have a have a lunch on bread like the rest of the kids.
But starting out ain’t easy. It’s usually not pretty either. Sometimes our cakes look like this:
Or this:
Or even this:
And when you really throw in the towel, you come up with something like this:
Yes…that is a watermelon cake. Well, it’s gluten free, isn’t it?
I have made many a gnarly looking loaf of GFCF bread. One of my esteemed colleages, Poppy managed to produce this fine specimen after a day of baking:
The lovely Julie Matthews commented on her photo, “It looks like a brain!”
Well…it really did, but word on the street is that bread tasted great. Poppy, is a GFCF cooking guru. Not all baking experiences turn out perfect…right?
I happened to find a great recipe in my Cooking to Heal Little Tummies cookbook, for peanut butter muffins! Hello! Where have you been? SCD legal too. Now I just needed frosting and a few pages later…BOOM. Frosting. Not just any frosting. Frosting I’d serve to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Three ingredients…peanut butter, honey and vanilla. Sweet, savory, yummy.
I have an extremely sugar-sensitive kid, so any desserts sweetened with honey are great! We have developed quite a repertoire of treats we can enjoy. Look at me…Super Mom!
Well, Super Mom got ambitious. Here’s the thing. Growing up, cupcakes got frosted one way…with a knife. My mom didn’t know how to decorate a cupcake any other way. I had surely watched enough Food Network programming to realize that there is an art to decorating cupcakes. So I watched and learned. I felt ready and confident that these all natural, GFCFSF, grain free, peanut butter muffins with peanut butter frosting would be the best ever!
Into the bag the frosting went and I got to work. It was smooth sailing! I thought they all came out great until Q rolled in to have a peek. (Have you been to the blog Cake Wrecks? NO? Well this was the perfect Cake Wreck. Do check it out when you have some time. You will laugh your ass off, I promise.)
“Why do those cupcakes look like poop?”
((Q has had these EXACT same cupcakes before but with the knife smear frosting method.))
“Mom…those cupcakes look like poop on top.”
Stop! It is peanut butter frosting!
“Peanut butter looks like poo.”
NO THEY DON’T!! Come on…they aren’t that bad.
*with a mouth full of poo cupcake* ‘Mmm…they are still good!’
They certainly did look like a pile of crap. But they are most delicious and SCD legal and packed with protein so I suppose Poo cupcakes are here to stay. Happy baking!
~Sunshine ☼
You will be pleased to know that I have invested in a star pastry tip and learned to dust these cupcakes with coconut.
🙂 Nice poo” cupcakes recipes. I just love looking at this beautiful cake and know that, as with all your recipes, it tastes delicious!:) 🙂
Oh, I’m crying now. Laughing so hard I’m crying that is. I’ll be forever grateful for showing me the cake wrecks site! Gret blog post, too! Five years plus into gfcfsfcof dooking and baking, I totally recognize this, and kudos for the poop cupcakes 🙂
Sunshine, I need the recipe for the Poo cupcake icing. My son’s Birthday is this Wednesday and he saw the picture of your cupcakes on the computer. [email protected]
Love it! Love the watermelon cake too…must try that!
I so remember the beginning days of gluten/casein/soy and corn free cakes … The cookbooks lied … their recipes tasted like rocks. But through the years I have learned to be a very accomplished cook. Would have to say, never made poo cakes … but they do look yummo … I did however make a cake once that my daughter told me she thought poo might taste better … sigh. Loved your post.
Thank you, great article!
The four-year old and I are still cackling and snorting at the “poo” cupcakes. Too funny. You have to send this to Cake Wrecks.
That was hilarious! Thanks for the laughs!
Thanks for starting my day with a nice chuckle!! Those desserts rock! 🙂
LMAO Sunshine!!!!! LOVE YOU!!
This post is SO FUNNY. It just makes me feel good that there are others who go through this constant struggle with making sure their kids feel like they fit in with food. One question I have is that we’ve been doing GAPs, for over a year and slowly coming off it. We let her have some jelly beans (very small amount over 4 days) no artificial stuff, but of course sugar. WOW. Sugar is her enemy. I didn’t realize other people had this problem too. Does anyone have a quick explanation of why honey is fine and sugar is not? We do use raw honey only.
Thanks for the laugh!
“The simpler the structure of the carbohydrate, the more easily the body digests and absorbs it. Monosaccharides (single molecules of glucose, fructose, or galactose) require no splitting by digestive enzymes in order to be absorbed by the body. These are the sugars we rely on in the diet. They include those found in fruits, honey, some vegetables, and in yoghurt.
“Double sugar molecules (disaccharides: lactose, sucrose, maltose and isomaltose) and starches (polysaccharides) are primarily avoided on the diet.”
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/beginners_guide/the_science_behind_the_diet2.htm
“Complex carbohydrates which are disaccharides (double molecules) and polysaccharides (chain molecules) are not allowed. Complex carbohydrates that are not easily digested feed harmful bacteria in our intestines causing them to overgrow producing by products and inflaming the intestine wall. The diet works by starving out these bacteria and restoring the balance of bacteria in our gut.”
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/beginners_guide/beginners.htm
Here is a picture:
http://chemistry2.csudh.edu/rpendarvis/monosacch.html
“A quick glance tells us that a monosaccharide has just one ring, a disaccharide has two, and a polysaccharide has many.”
We went GAPS in January of this year. I would kill for the ability to make GF cakes – so many starchy ingredients to choose from! Tapioca, rice, potato, arrowroot, xantham gum – . Seems like every GAPS bread recipe has the same ingredients: almond flour, coconut flour, egg and honey – mix, bake and use your best imagination!
All kidding aside – GAPS has been great for my son and family and it takes a huge adjustment, just like going GF/CF if all you’re used to is the Standard American Diet (SAD). I’ve fallen down yet another rabbit hole but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
We first went GF because all of the “experts” said all we needed was 25 hours a week of behavioral therapy – something we could not access in our area and even if it was available, we wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Going GF was my first Thinking Mom’s action – something I researched, something I didn’t need “professionals” to help with or to approve and something that provides me with a deep satisfaction as I watch my son heal (slowly) from the messed up condition of his guts. Oh yeah, and there’s the satisfaction of saying F*ck You to all of the “professionals” who have told us bio-med and diets don’t work and that we should just love and accept our child. Um – I do accept my child because I know the truth and it’s because I love him I make sure that he is well-nourished physically and emotionally.
Awesome post! I’d love the recipe for the “poo” cupcakes…and I already have a star tip! lol. 🙂
I am a soon to be licensed OT, and aunt to a precious teenage boy with autism and CP. I LOVE your blog. I share your stories with several families that I work with. This blog post takes the cake though (pun intended!) Loved the picture of the poo cupcakes. Thanks for the morning giggle and for sharing those great websites!
Oh man. Thank god I wasn’t mid sip in my cup of coffee or I would have sprayed my laptop with it. But I did have tears of laughter. The tears that only a mom who has had to do this can have. The funny thing is, I have always been so bad at baking that my GF stuff has turned out better than conventional. Just don’t ask my kids about the quinoa breakfast cake I made last week where I didn’t have the flakes so I just used whatever regular quinoa that I had, uncooked. Let’s just say it would give your poop frosting sprinkles. And my pizza also does not rock.
We’ve has watermelon cakes too! But the poo cupcakes look much yummier!
Ugly Cake #2 was mine and I am so proud to be featured alongside poo cupcakes. But as long as it tastes good, who cares, right??? 😀
Dust with coconut? Love it! Poo cupcakes with little white worms! HAAAHAHAHA! I’d eat ’em!
You guys Rock!
Sugah, you had me laughing out loud.
Still have a smile on my face!
Thanks, those poocakes really made me giggle, I needed that today!
Too funny. I made a peanutbutter icing last night that is supposedly gluten free (I’m not sure, because I’m still learning) but it was the same. Big old pile of poop on a cupcake. Tasted great! I’ll be back. Great blog!
I’ll trade you my Brainbread recipe your Poopcake recipe 😉
Ha, I remember my son’s 4th birthday(7 years ago). SCD diet, so cashew butter birthday cake it was. Good times;)
*dyingoverhere*…I’d eat you guys’ poo cakes and brain breads any day! My mom has always done the GFCF cakes for the birthdays and the first year we actually could have a class party without the constant SCREAMING and tantruming, we were experimenting with milling black beans. One of the kids saw me cut the cake and shouted, “THERE’S PEPPER IN THE CAKE! ARRGGG!!!” A few refusals followed. But in all seriousness, here’s to the Moms that will even try to help their kids with diet. Most won’t even go there. xo