Fairy cakes, American Girl Place and rebar…sounds like a standard September at our house! We’ve started construction on our back addition, mud is everywhere. I had a table full of cookbooks from the library on fancy fondant cakes and other crazy plans, but seeing the hole in my backyard pulled me back to reality.
This year was the perfect chance to try out some Edible Images. Our local grocery store is one of the few left with an in-house bakery. My girls love gazing at the cakes and flipping through their glossy cake book to plan their birthdays. Lucky for me, after explaining our situation, the bakery has been willing to sell me their ‘cake toppers’ without a cake.
This year, to my surprise and delight, they were also willing to print and sell me an Edible Image with a photo to put on our allergen-friendly cakes. $4 each. Amazing.
If you don’t have a local bakery, you can order these up on Etsy too. All you do is frost a cake with a light color, and then drop the sugar image on top and let it dissolve into the frosting. So cool!
The cakes were chocolate and lemon, and we were split on which one was the best. Add on a trip to American Girl Place to pick out their dolls, and you have a perfect September weekend. Now, if I could just fix that hole in our backyard…




Basic Chocolate Cake
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: Makes 24 cupcakes, one large 9 x 13 rectangular cake or two 9 inch round layers. 1x
Description
This is my easy basic dairy-free egg-free chocolate cake, suitable for all sorts of occasions.
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 2/3 cups cocoa powder ( I use Nestle)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients
- 2 cups dairy-free milk (I used Silk Coconut)
- 1 T. cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2/3 cups oil
- 1 T. vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Prepare your cake pan. I used the birthday as an excuse to buy a new rectangular cake pan, but a Pyrex casserole pan should work fine. Fold a sheet of parchment so it lays crosswise into a 9 x 13 pan and hangs up over the edges (this way you can ‘lift’ the cake out of the pan by the paper to the cooling rack) . Spray well with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, soda, baking powder and salt. My cocoa and baking soda are always lumpy, so I sift mine into the bowl through a mesh strainer to get out the lumps.
- Whisk dairy-free milk of your choice and vinegar together in a medium bowl and let thicken. Then add the sugar, oil and vanilla. Mix well.
- Carefully dump and mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Just blend until most of the lumps are out. Don’t beat the heck out of it.
- Pour batter into your prepared pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the center is set and you can poke a knife into the center and it comes out clean. Let the cake rest for a few minutes before turning over and cooling on a rack. Cool completely before frosting.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: dairy-free egg-free chocolate cake, vegan chocolate cake, allergy desserts

Basic Chocolate Frosting
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 3 cups 1x
Description
This dairy-free chocolate frosting is smooth and delicious. No crazy ingredients, no tempering chocolate, it’s a snap to make.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) dairy-free margarine, softened
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1/8 teaspoon of salt, or a couple pinches.
- 1 cup cocoa powder (I use Nestle Cocoa Powder)
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup dairy-free milk( more if needed)
Instructions
- Cream the margarine and shortening until fluffy.
- Add the salt and cocoa powder.
- Add the powdered sugar slowly. You can add a little of the dairy-free milk as you are trying to mix in all the powdered sugar if things get too thick.
- Once all the powdered sugar is mixed in, you can start adding dairy-free milk until you get the frosting thickness you want. Sometimes I like it dense, sometimes I like it fluffy and mousse-like.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Mixed
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: dairy-free chocolate frosting, vegan chocolate frosting, allergy dessert

Basic Lemon Cake
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Makes 24 cupcakes, one large 9 x 13 rectangular cake or two 9 inch round layers. 1x
Description
This basic dairy-free and egg-free lemon cake can be easily adapted to other flavors. You can add spices, other citrus flavors, vanilla, rum, be creative!
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 2 cups dairy-free milk (I used Silk Coconut Milk)
- 1 T. cider vinegar
- 2/3 cup oil (I used melted coconut oil)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 T. vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon oil (or 1 teaspoon fine lemon zest, don’t use lemon extract or the cake will taste like floor polish)
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Prepare your cake pan. I used the birthday as an excuse to buy a new rectangular cake pan, but a Pyrex casserole pan should work fine. Fold a sheet of parchment so it lays crosswise into a 9 x 13 pan and hangs up over the edges (this way you can ‘lift’ the cake out of the pan by the paper to the cooling rack) . Spray well with cooking spray.
- Whisk dairy-free milk and vinegar together in a medium bowl and let thicken. Then add the sugar, oil and flavorings. Mix well.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, soda, baking powder and salt. My cornstarch and baking soda are always lumpy, so I sift mine into the bowl through a mesh strainer to get out the lumps.
- Carefully dump and mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Just blend until most of the lumps are out. Don’t beat the heck out of it.
- Pour batter into your prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the center is set and you can poke a knife into the center and it comes out clean. Let the cake rest for a few minutes before lifting out and cooling on a rack. Cool completely before frosting.
Notes
This is a great cake to try some coconut oil. The coconut flavor is very subtle and tastes rather buttery.Other vegetable oils work fine, but you’ll need to crank up the lemon or vanilla flavors, otherwise the cake tastes like bland cornbread.
Lemon oil is amazing stuff, a little goes a long while, and it lasts forever in the fridge. It is not the same as lemon extract or lemon flavoring, those tend to have an overpowering lemon flavor that can make a cake taste like floor cleaner.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: dairy-free lemon cake, egg-free lemon cake, vegan lemon cake

Lightly Lemony Frosting
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 3 cups 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) dairy-free margarine softened
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1/8 teaspoon of salt, or a couple pinches.
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup dairy-free milk ( more if needed)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon lemon oil or 1/4 teaspoon fine lemon zest (not lemon extract)
Instructions
- Cream the margarine and shortening until fluffy.
- Add the salt and powdered sugar slowly. You can add a little of the dairy-free milk as you are trying to mix in all the powdered sugar if things get too thick.
- Once all the powdered sugar is mixed in, you can start adding dairy-free milk until you get the frosting thickness you want. Sometimes I like it dense, sometimes I like it fluffy and mousse-like.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Mixed
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: dairy-free lemon frosting, vegan lemon frosting
Their faces! 🙂 They are delighted!
Every single one of our grocery stores has a bakery in it. How odd that we would have them everywhere and you don't in the Midwest.
That is so cool! The cakes look delicious too!
So many exciting things! I'm happy for your house addition. Will it be all kitchen? 😉
Happy Birthday to the girls. How did they decide which doll they wanted?
So…. have you been King Arthuring without me? Sniff.. sniff… (that was weeping and not rhinorrhea).
E, you are my one and only King Arthur buddy! As far as dolls, they think they picked out their own dolls, when in reality, I primed them for their best options through books and movies. Kit's stories take place during the depression, Molly's stories take place during WWII. The neighbor girl has the beautiful blonde Julie doll, her story is about her parents getting divorced and moving to a new city. Yipes!
Those edible images are a great idea. I hope when next summer rolls around and it is birthday party season I can find some that are egg, dairy and nut free too!
Hey, Megan — are you gluten free over there?
It's complicated. Short answer is no. Neither kid has celiac disease, which is a lifelong inability to digest gluten (found in wheat, barley, rye and most commercial oats). Jack is allergic to wheat and barley proteins meaning he vomits,wheezes and gets hives when he's had those items. Avoiding wheat and barley for Family Meals makes these essentially gluten free (since rye isn't something most people eat), and I use GF mixes when baking for him. But he eats oats. I haven't put much energy into creating GF baked goods for him, I just buy mixes, praying God heals him soon. Brynn outgrew the wheat allergy by age 3.
Do you think I can use rice milk instead of the soy milk and get the same result? My kids are allergic to soy as well as dairy, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts. I also wanted to thank you for all your great recipes.
I'd give a try. Rice milk doesn't seem to curdle and thicken up like soymilk does when you add the vinegar, but I'd still use the vinegar for the acidity to help the whole thing rise. Maybe coconut milk? I saw some coconut milk beverage and coconut milk creamer at the health food store today made by Turtle Mountain which would be less thick than canned coconut milk (but harder to find). I already spent my $100 on a bag of groceries there today, so I didn't get the Turtle Mountain stuff this time, but I'd like to try it.