An allergy free recipe from Australia for #IBSD14

I had seen a shout out from Tots100 a wee while ago looking or people to join in with International Blog Swap Day. They were looking for UK bloggers to link up with Australian bloggers through Digital Parents . I liked the sound of this, so signed up and was lucky enough to have been chosen. So here is the post written by Emma who was paired up with me. 

Hi, I'm Emma, and like Elaine, I'm both a blogger and a mum-of-five. My kids are somewhat younger than Elaine's though (aged between 22 months and 11) and we live in Sydney, Australia. I blog at Five Degrees of Chaos  about the glorious chaos of raising a large family, while not glossing over the tough stuff. One of my seven-year old twins is chronically ill, so I write a lot about balancing the demands of her health issues with the needs of our family as a whole.

I'm stoked to have the opportunity to participate in the inaugural Digital Parents/Tots100 International Blog Swap Day, and I'd like to thank Elaine for hosting me on her blog. We talked a little about some of our common interests, and being that both her grandson and my daughter live with food allergies, a recipe swap seemed like the perfect idea! So here it is, my fabulous dairy/egg/soy/peanut free chocolate cake!

This cake is so rich and moist that when I make it, people often don't believe it is an allergy-friendly recipe. But it is! The vegetable oil takes the place of egg and butter and the water/vinegar combo pair up to eliminate the need for milk. This simple recipe has been the base for almost every birthday cake I've made over the past few years, and it also makes great cupcakes…

 Baked in a loaf tin then cut into a number 1 shape, iced with chocolate fondant

Baked in a round tin, iced with dairy-free frosting. NB. Nose and eye-patch are not dairy-free

Two quantities of this recipe, baked in a pudding tin then iced with dairy-free frosting and decorated with marshmallows

 Baked in a round tin, iced with dairy-free frosting, decorated with piped flowers made from dairy-free frosting and 'Hannah Montana' edible icing template

EGG/DAIRY/SOY/PEANUT FREE CHOCOLATE CAKE

* 1 1/2 cups of plain flour
* 3/4 cup of sugar
* 1/3 cup cocoa powder
* 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
* 1 tablespoon white or malt vinegar
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
* 1 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin or a 12-hole muffin tin
2. Sift flour and cocoa together and add sugar.
3. Sprinkle baking soda over the dry ingredients
4. In a separate bowl, mix vinegar, vanilla essence, oil and water
5. Pour oil and vinegar mixture over dry ingredients and mix with a slotted spoon until well combined. Don't over mix.
6. Pour cake mixture into prepared tin.
7. Bake for 35-40 minutes (or around 20 minutes for cupcakes), or until a skewer comes out clean when tested.
8. Allow to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
9. When cooled, ice with frosting made by beating together dairy-free margarine, icing sugar and cocoa. Decorate as desired.