aamcnamara (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aamcnamara) wrote2009-07-29 10:14 am
aamcnamara) wrote2009-07-29 10:14 am
non-dairy gluten-free egg-free ice cream cake
So the non-main point of this post is that I'm 18 now, and can thus--um-- vote? And smoke, if I wanted to (I have asthma. I don't.), or sign forms for myself without my parents signing for me. Signing forms vicariously is not really a birthday sort of activity, though. (Okay, I have figured out a legitimately awesome thing about turning 18--I can now view LJ posts marked as possibly containing explicit content! Rock.)
The main point of this post is that I decided to make myself a cake.
What kind of cake, you ask?
An ice cream cake.
And here's where I out myself as having lots and lots of food allergies, because it was not just any ice cream cake, it had to be a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free ice cream cake. Oh, and because I don't do anything by halves, I decided that it would be homemade ice cream substitute.
Since this is a nonlinear narrative, here's a picture of the finished cake:
Because I figure that there's someone else somewhere out there who would also be interested in such a recipe, here it is. (For the rest of you--stare in wonder and awe at my baking powers? Fair warning, if you want for some reason to make this for a friend who has food allergies, consult with them. Rigorously. Trust me, it is better than the alternatives, i.e., them being very sad or dying. That would completely spoil the birthday surprise.)
Step One was, make some cookies, based on the theory of this recipe for a gluten-free ice cream cake. Except with sugar cookies that I made, because I can't really have chocolate and there aren't any cookies like that that I can eat.
So, I started with a cookie mix. Yes, out of a box. I hang my head in shame. (Some day I will make this with cookies I've made from scratch. Today was not that day. The goal was not so much Baking As Metaphor For Life as… Baking As Explorative Journey. Also, Having A Cake.)
The box mix was from Cherrybrook Farms and asked that I put in 1/2 cup of melted margarine, 1/4 cup of milk or milk substitute, and 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Instead of melted margarine, I used Spectrum brand vegetable shortening; instead of milk, I used Rice Dream rice milk. I used vanilla for the vanilla.
Next it said to use a mixer. I hate mixers. I would have made a terrible 1950s housewife. So it was a sacrifice, but a worthy one. I learned that, because the shortening was not in fact melted, I should put in a few splashes more of rice milk. Once this happened, it got all lovely and I stopped. Then I had to chase my mother out of the kitchen because she tried to eat cookie batter out of the bowl.
I learned next that I should have put in a pinch or two of salt because the shortening was not salty like margarine is. Oh well. Next time.
So, lessons learned in Step One: put in salt with the shortening when you use it as a margarine substitute. Put in a little more liquid with the shortening because margarine is salty. (Neither of these would be necessary if I had just made cookies from scratch, but hey. Expedience is worth something.)
Thus, cookies were made.
Step Two was, make some ice cream. Happily for me, it turned out that we, in fact, owned an ice cream machine. (I had been planning to do the ziplock-bags-ice-and-salt trick, which would have been more strenuous and maybe not worked. I'll try it sometime.)
I explored ice cream recipes. My favorite was this one. It said soy milk for half of it, but I figured, how different is it? I'll just use rice milk for the whole thing. (Famous last words.) Also, we didn't have any blueberries, so I decided to use frozen strawberries instead.
(Yes, in fact, all of my baking adventures are like this! "Well, I can't eat this so I'll use this"/"We're all out of this so I'll substitute some of that" are common words in my baking repertoire. One of my proudest moments was a spoonful of apple butter and some rice milk to substitute for half a cup of applesauce.)
…anyway, it looked delicious, so something must have worked.
My parents bought this ice cream maker in approximately 1965. (These are scandalous lies. My parents weren't even teenagers then, let alone buying ice cream makers. Although my mom assures me that it was used when they bought it in the late '80s.) At any rate, it is old, as you can see. I suspect that making this the way with ziplock bags would be a) more fun and b) more satisfying. Also, audience participation! But the only audience I had was my mother, and this was apparently Discovering Old Kitchen Technology Day, so.
Step Three: Assembly!
I crushed about eleven of the cookies and put that in a bowl, then crushed four of the remaining cookies into a different bowl. The eleven cookies proved enough to cover the bottom of an eight-inch round pie-pan thing.
In the original recipe, it told me to use 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Since this is everything-free ice cream cake, I used a couple of spoonfuls of vegetable shortening and a drizzle of oil, mixed together. (As this is the summer, the vegetable shortening is very soft and mushy. During the rest of the year, I suspect that this would have to be microwaved for a short time to get it mushy. One might want to let the mixture cool before putting it into the cookie crumbs.)
At any rate, I stuck that in with the cookie crumbs and mushed it all around, and then packed the cookie crumbs down into the pan. Then I retrieved the ice cream and poured it in; there was just enough. The ice cream maker had made something which sort of looked and tasted like frozen ice cream substitute does when it's melted.
(Pre-freezer state.)
(I have since been informed that I should have used a glass pan. Too late now!)
The cake now rests quietly in the freezer, awaiting later judgment--that is, whether I can cut it like a cake or not. If it sets up well, I'll sprinkle some of the other cookie crumbs over it, and potentially cut up some fresh strawberries and put those on the top, too. If it doesn't set up well, we will eat it with spoons and it will be delicious.
Conclusion: It set up all right; the edges set up better than the middle, though. I suspect longer time in the freezer may be an advantageous thing, with this sort of ice cream cake. (I had it in there for ~3 or 4 hours.) Also, if you have a newer ice cream maker and/or actually crushed ice, that might help too. At any rate, it looked very pretty and it only glooped a little when we tried to serve it. The cookie-crumb crust on the bottom worked quite well.
Also, it was tasty. Ergo, I am calling this one a win.
More photos here.
The main point of this post is that I decided to make myself a cake.
What kind of cake, you ask?
An ice cream cake.
And here's where I out myself as having lots and lots of food allergies, because it was not just any ice cream cake, it had to be a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free ice cream cake. Oh, and because I don't do anything by halves, I decided that it would be homemade ice cream substitute.
Since this is a nonlinear narrative, here's a picture of the finished cake:
Because I figure that there's someone else somewhere out there who would also be interested in such a recipe, here it is. (For the rest of you--stare in wonder and awe at my baking powers? Fair warning, if you want for some reason to make this for a friend who has food allergies, consult with them. Rigorously. Trust me, it is better than the alternatives, i.e., them being very sad or dying. That would completely spoil the birthday surprise.)
Step One was, make some cookies, based on the theory of this recipe for a gluten-free ice cream cake. Except with sugar cookies that I made, because I can't really have chocolate and there aren't any cookies like that that I can eat.
So, I started with a cookie mix. Yes, out of a box. I hang my head in shame. (Some day I will make this with cookies I've made from scratch. Today was not that day. The goal was not so much Baking As Metaphor For Life as… Baking As Explorative Journey. Also, Having A Cake.)
The box mix was from Cherrybrook Farms and asked that I put in 1/2 cup of melted margarine, 1/4 cup of milk or milk substitute, and 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Instead of melted margarine, I used Spectrum brand vegetable shortening; instead of milk, I used Rice Dream rice milk. I used vanilla for the vanilla.
Next it said to use a mixer. I hate mixers. I would have made a terrible 1950s housewife. So it was a sacrifice, but a worthy one. I learned that, because the shortening was not in fact melted, I should put in a few splashes more of rice milk. Once this happened, it got all lovely and I stopped. Then I had to chase my mother out of the kitchen because she tried to eat cookie batter out of the bowl.
I learned next that I should have put in a pinch or two of salt because the shortening was not salty like margarine is. Oh well. Next time.
So, lessons learned in Step One: put in salt with the shortening when you use it as a margarine substitute. Put in a little more liquid with the shortening because margarine is salty. (Neither of these would be necessary if I had just made cookies from scratch, but hey. Expedience is worth something.)
Thus, cookies were made.
Step Two was, make some ice cream. Happily for me, it turned out that we, in fact, owned an ice cream machine. (I had been planning to do the ziplock-bags-ice-and-salt trick, which would have been more strenuous and maybe not worked. I'll try it sometime.)
I explored ice cream recipes. My favorite was this one. It said soy milk for half of it, but I figured, how different is it? I'll just use rice milk for the whole thing. (Famous last words.) Also, we didn't have any blueberries, so I decided to use frozen strawberries instead.
(Yes, in fact, all of my baking adventures are like this! "Well, I can't eat this so I'll use this"/"We're all out of this so I'll substitute some of that" are common words in my baking repertoire. One of my proudest moments was a spoonful of apple butter and some rice milk to substitute for half a cup of applesauce.)
…anyway, it looked delicious, so something must have worked.
My parents bought this ice cream maker in approximately 1965. (These are scandalous lies. My parents weren't even teenagers then, let alone buying ice cream makers. Although my mom assures me that it was used when they bought it in the late '80s.) At any rate, it is old, as you can see. I suspect that making this the way with ziplock bags would be a) more fun and b) more satisfying. Also, audience participation! But the only audience I had was my mother, and this was apparently Discovering Old Kitchen Technology Day, so.
Step Three: Assembly!
I crushed about eleven of the cookies and put that in a bowl, then crushed four of the remaining cookies into a different bowl. The eleven cookies proved enough to cover the bottom of an eight-inch round pie-pan thing.
In the original recipe, it told me to use 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Since this is everything-free ice cream cake, I used a couple of spoonfuls of vegetable shortening and a drizzle of oil, mixed together. (As this is the summer, the vegetable shortening is very soft and mushy. During the rest of the year, I suspect that this would have to be microwaved for a short time to get it mushy. One might want to let the mixture cool before putting it into the cookie crumbs.)
At any rate, I stuck that in with the cookie crumbs and mushed it all around, and then packed the cookie crumbs down into the pan. Then I retrieved the ice cream and poured it in; there was just enough. The ice cream maker had made something which sort of looked and tasted like frozen ice cream substitute does when it's melted.
(Pre-freezer state.)
(I have since been informed that I should have used a glass pan. Too late now!)
The cake now rests quietly in the freezer, awaiting later judgment--that is, whether I can cut it like a cake or not. If it sets up well, I'll sprinkle some of the other cookie crumbs over it, and potentially cut up some fresh strawberries and put those on the top, too. If it doesn't set up well, we will eat it with spoons and it will be delicious.
Conclusion: It set up all right; the edges set up better than the middle, though. I suspect longer time in the freezer may be an advantageous thing, with this sort of ice cream cake. (I had it in there for ~3 or 4 hours.) Also, if you have a newer ice cream maker and/or actually crushed ice, that might help too. At any rate, it looked very pretty and it only glooped a little when we tried to serve it. The cookie-crumb crust on the bottom worked quite well.
Also, it was tasty. Ergo, I am calling this one a win.
More photos here.
no subject
Strawberries are better anyways.
no subject
no subject
no subject
I think I'll stick with e-cakes that I know won't cause adverse reactions!
no subject
Also, happy birthday! *throws confetti*