Marie's Birthday Cake

My daughter, Shona's girlfriend Marie celebrates her 21st Birthday today.  Happy Birthday Marie!

Sadly, she is allergic to eggs so has never really enjoyed a big fat chunk of Birthday Cake, although she does tell me that her Grandma used to buy her a cake just so she could blow the candles out :)

I have made an egg-free sponge cake before, the eggs are substituted for syrup, which actually makes a very tasty, very sweet, cake. Although it doesn't rise as well.  The texture is certainly denser.

I used THIS recipe from BBC FOOD - it is adapted from a World War II ration recipe.

I wanted to capture the essence of childhood and Marie's characture, which is bright, rainbowy and cheerful.

The cake was sliced and filled with naughty buttercream and raspberry jam.  Then iced with the naughty buttercream and decorations added.

I bought some Rainbow Sour Strips, White Chocolate Mice, Rainbow Drops and a Kinder Surprise Egg.

I edged the cake in the trimmed rainbow strips then placed white mice around the edge, all facing as if in worship, towards a kinder surprise egg  (well, it is Easter!!) which was sat atop the rainbow drops.

Childlike indeed I think  :)

Egg-free Cookies

Last time I made fruit cream cookies  (http://soozintheshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/tropical-cookies.html)  I got a little sad face staring back at me.  Marie, my DIL2B  (work that one out ;) )  is allergic to eggs and of course there was egg in my cookies.

So I promised to make her some egg free ones.  The mixture I use (with the egg) works quite well, so I thought all I needed to do was to swap the egg for something else that would bind the mix.  Checking out my cupboards I had a tin of condensed milk and a jar of syrup.

I decided on the syrup and added a couple blobs, mixing it in well.

Now, how much would they spread when cooking?  Not too much as it happens, but they did have to be a good golden brown otherwise they were a bit chewy.

I sandwiched them together with all three of these yummy icing pots, made with real fruit juice.

Want the recipe?

• 6oz golden caster sugar
• 8oz margarine
• 12oz self raising flour
• 4 tbsp golden syrup

Beat the sugar and butter together well, chuck in flour and syrup and mix well until fully blended.

Pile onto a greasproof paper lined tray in conker sized blobs, leaving room for a little spreading.

Bake at Gas 4 for around 20 mins, until golden brown.

Leave to cool on the tray, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Sandwich with fruity icing then dust with icing sugar.

As I sandwich the cookies I make this amount otherwise you only end up with about 9 portions. (No good in my sweet-toothed family)

Shona reckons they taste like flapjacks without the oats - must be the syrup.  They are rather sweet though, so not for the faint-hearted  :)