Celiac Birthday: Let Them Eat Cake!
Friday, Feb 18, 2011
It’s hard to believe that last week marked the one year anniversary of my middle daughter Sarah being diagnosed with Celiac Disease. This past year has been full of challenges as well as rewards, as we embarked on transitioning our household to completely gluten-free. Last weekend may have been one of the greatest rewards yet, when my Sarah was able to not only enjoy, but LOVE her first gluten-free birthday!
In line with following our family tradition, Sarah got to choose what she wanted as her special birthday dinner (dessert included). Her request was Berghoff Bourbon Short Ribs, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin cake. While I (and with much help from my team at Berghoff) have managed to convert most of my family’s recipes to gluten-free, it is the baking that I have found to be the biggest struggle. A year ago Sarah would have told you that she wanted Chocolate Sacher Torte Cakes, or what I call, “part of my last meal”, but has since changed her tune after discovering she has an intolerance to chocolate as well (just to add another one to the list).
Thus began our journey for finding a delicious gluten and chocolate-free cake that Sarah (and hopefully the rest of my family) would enjoy. This was a job that called for my amazing Pastry Chef, Chon Reynozo. His finished product was Spiced Pumpkin Cake, with cream cheese frosting and toffee chips, and what Sarah calls as “Too Good”. “It is best to wait till after people try it, to tell them that it is gluten-free, because it is too good to go untried”, Sarah says. We even made Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cupcakes that Sarah could take to school as a birthday treat. So while Sarah turns another year older, my team and I grow another (gluten-free) year wiser.