By Heddi Nieuwsma

Over the weekend, we celebrated my son’s first birthday. We recently learned that in addition to his milk allergy, he is severely allergic to eggs. For his party, my husband and I prepared two dairy/egg-free cakes as a baking competition to see which one my son liked better. The little guy takes after his mother and preferred my chocolate cake. My mother has been making it since I was young, and I’m sharing the allergy-friendly recipe below because it’s easy, fun for kids to make and tastes delicious.

Crazy Cake

1/3 cup cocoa

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tablespoons vinegar

3/4 cups vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups water

Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cocoa into ungreased 9×13-inch cake pan. Make three wells in the dry ingredients and add oil, vinegar and vanilla in each of the wells. Pour water over all and blend well with a fork, but do not beat.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

For some allergy-friendly frosting recipes, check out The Vegan Chef.

Moving to Switzerland

This will be my last blog post on Merrimack Valley Moms because my family and I will be moving to Switzerland this summer. We are so excited to begin this new adventure, but sad to be leaving our friends and family. I’m grateful to Lowell General Hospital for giving me this opportunity. It has been great connecting with other local moms and sharing my experiences in the Merrimack Valley. If you want to continue following us in Switzerland, particularly as we figure out how to manage my son’s allergies in the land of chocolate and cheese, please check out my new blog.

Thanks to you all, and best wishes to the Merrimack Valley Moms blogger community!