Organising a birthday party for your child? If you want to easily cater for kids with allergies, of delicious party food and recipes to make it as easy as possible. Children with allergies can feel included, and parents won’t have to explain to their kids why they can’t have the food the other children are eating. Thank you, Emily!
Nothing strikes both joy and fear into the heart of an allergy mum like a party invitation. We love seeing our allergic child included (too often they’re made to feel different) but we worry about what party food will be served, whether our child will be safe and whether there will be tears when they can’t eat the food the other kids can.
I’ve found most mums want to serve safe food at their parties, but they don’t know where to start. That’s why I put together this list of easy ‘normal’ party food and cake recipes that make it easy to keep all your guests safe. Next time you’re hosting a party, why not choose something off the safe list? The kids will all love it and all the allergy mums thank you for keeping our kids safe and included!!
Following is a list of kids party food that will be ‘safe’ to serve when you have children allergic to nuts and/or dairy at your party…
Nut and dairy-free party food
Chips: Smiths original flavour, Doritos original & Grainwaves original (flavourings contain milk) or “French Fries’ original chips.- Lollies: Natural confectionary company (Allens brand contain milk, except minties which are safe) or some Coles brand (check labels) & marshmallows
- Sandwiches or fairy bread: Simply use nuttelex (from supermarkets) instead of butter. Fillings like ham, hummus, avocado, Vegemite, jam, honey (most salami contains milk), Sweet William chocolate spread (a nut-free Nutella-like alternative available from Coles/Woolworths)
- Savoury biscuits: Arnott’s Chicken Crimpy Shapes, Vita-Weats, rice crackers (plain flavour from Coles, Sakata or Vita-Weat), rice cakes, CORN cruskits (other flavours contain milk), watercrackers.
- Sweet biscuits: Arnott’s Hundreds & thousands, Arnott’s Honey Jumbles, Arnott’s Iced Vovos, Arnott’s Raspberry shortcakes, Arnott’s Teddy Bear (NOT tiny teddies OR chocolate coated), Arnott’s Gingernuts
- Chocolate: Only Sweet William brand is dairy & nut free (from coles or Woolworths)
- Frozen Party Food: Patties Party Pack (sausage rolls & party pies), Coles Frozen Vegetable Cocktail Spring Rolls, Herbert Adams Gourmet King Island Frozen Party Beef Rolls. Or make your own sausage rolls with Coles or Pampus puff pastry (not butter varieties of puff pastry)
- Chocolate crackles
- Home-made plain popcorn (not microwave popcorn as it contains butter) or Sunbites packet popcorn
- Parker’s Pretzels
- Frankfurters or sausages
- Fruit pieces or fruit kebabs
- Fruit juice
- Ice blocks (not ice cream unless its SoGood Soy Ice cream)
- Meringues
- Jelly
- Sultanas & other dried fruit
- Honey joys (use nuttelex not butter)
- Home-made meatballs.
- Carrot/celery/capsicum strips with hummus
- Sushi if using dairy free mayo (check with maker)
Cakes
Most recipes will work if you substitute oil or nuttelex (a dairy-free margarine available at supermarkets) for butter and soy milk for cows milk. You usually can’t taste the difference. However, recipes that begin by creaming butter/sugar can’t use oil as substitute.
If you prefer Cake mixes, you can try:
- Coles Simply Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix
- Coles Simply Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix
- Coles Simply Gluten Free Vanilla Cupcake Mix
If you want to buy ready-made cakes:
- Celebration Cakes from Coles/Woolworths bakery section (made in shapes of minions, frozen etc)…but check label.
- Coles Simply Lamington Fingers
- Coles Simply Gluten Free Madeira Cake
Chocolate cake
This is the perfect all-round allergen free cake (except gluten)
Ingredients
- 3 cups plain flour
- 2 cups castor sugar
- ½ cup cocoa
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups water
- ½ cup canola oil
- 2 tbs malt vinegar
- 2 tsp vanilla
Method
- Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another.
- Mix together & put in greased tin or cupcake cases (3/4 full).
- Bake at 180 degrees for 45-50 mins for a cake or 12 minutes for cupcakes.
- Cooked when rebounds when top pressed gently or skewer comes out clean.
Pineapple Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups self-raising flour
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 450g can crushed pineapple, including juice.
Method
- Mix all ingredients & bake in greased ring tin at 180* for 40 mins.
- Great with a simple thick icing made from icing sugar & lemon juice.
Coconut Cake
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 cup desiccated coconut
- 1 cup soy milk (or coconut milk).
- Optional: add a tsp of finely grated lime zest.
Method
- Mix all ingredients & bake in greased loaf tin at 180* for 40 mins.
Cake frosting
Fondant (also called Orchard white icing) is safe and perfect for professional looking cakes.
Basic chocolate frosting
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 heaped tsp nuttelex
- 2 tbs cocoa
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbs boiling water.
Sift dry ingredients then add others and beat until smooth & shiny.
Buttercream
For ‘buttercream’ you can replace butter in your recipe with nuttelex and milk with soy milk, but try making ‘cake shop frosting’ using Solite (only available from cake supply shops like Cake Decorating Solutions) for a better/whiter result:
- 250g of solite
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavour OR several drops of any oil flavour
- 2 tablespoons of water OR Queens flavour/colour
- 500g of pure icing sugar (do not add meringue mix as it contains milk)
Whip the solite for several minutes until pale and creamy. Add remaining ingredients and whip! Perfect for piping.
Please note: Some of this items on the list may contain traces of allergens, so it is always safest to always check the pack ingredients in case they change.
