With H-Bear suffering from Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy (CMPA), and also a soya allergy, finding sweet treats that he can eat can be a challenge. He’s recently realised that cake exists, and as been rather envious of us while we’ve tucked into cupcakes and such like. We’ve tried a few different alternative recipes for cake (including a rather disastrous beetroot chocolate cake!) but none of them have tasted quite right. So when the lovely folk at Flora got in touch and tasked us with using their new butter-alternative, Flora Freedom, I knew I had to try a cake for my littlest munchkin.
Flora Freedom is both dairy and soya free, and has a consistency similar to whipped butter. It’s pretty tasty, and we’ve been using it as an alternative to butter on toast and in sandwiches. It has 60% less saturated fat than butter, and is free from artificial preservatives, colours and flavours, which makes it a great butter-alternative for little people, especially.
I chose to make a Dairy Free Victoria Sandwich Cake, which I found on the Flora Recipe website. It was very easy to follow and quick to do – taking around 10 minutes of preparation, and then baking was about 30-35 minutes.
I had a few issues with the recipe on the Flora website, so after rather a lot of trial and error, I’ve written up the amended recipe below. You can double up the quantities to make a lovely large sponge too – which I’ve done for recent birthday cakes.
Updated Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 175 g Flora Dairy Free
- 175 g caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 200 g self-raising flour, sifted
- 1 level teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
Instructions
- Set oven to 160°c (fan oven). 170°c (non-fan). And grease and line 2 x 20cm round cake tins.
- Cream the butter and sugar together.
- Add the sifted flour and baking powder and mix.
- Add the vanilla essence.
- Whisk the eggs separately and gradually add them to the cake mix.
- Pour equal amounts into each tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.
The original recipe uses only jam for the centre, but I thought it might be nice to have some buttercream, so I used the Flora Freedom to whip up a vanilla buttercream. I’ve included the recipe below if you’d like to do the same:
Ingredients
- 250g icing sugar (sifted)
- 80g Flora Freedom
- 25ml coconut milk
- couple of drops of vanilla essence
Instructions
- Mix the icing sugar and Flora Freedom together with an electric whisk, or in the mixer using a paddle until fully combined.
- Mix the coconut milk and vanilla essence together in a separate cup or jug.
- Add to the icing sugar and butter on a slow speed.
- Once all of the liquid has been added, turn the mixer or whisk up to a medium-fast speed until the buttercream is fluffy and light.
I think the buttercream is a welcome addition to the sponge – as without it the cake could be a little dry.
The most important question is whether the cake was enjoyed by our chief taster…
I’ll take that as a big yes!
We’ve all loved the cake, and it’s definitely one I’ll be making again and again (I’ve already made another one as it went so quickly!).
It was so easy, H-Bear can have some, AND it’s delicious! In fact, Nick said it was the best cake he’s had in a while… and we eat quite a lot of cake!
Check out more dairy free recipes on the Flora website.
Save the recipe for later by pinning the image below:
