A new blog

My friend, Jess, and I have decided to start a new blog together so I will be winding this one down once this giveaway is done. We are looking forward to making a fantastic resource for families who have kids with a range of multiple food allergies as well as some yummy 'normal' family friendly food. Thanks for following me here and I look forward to seeing you over at the Itchin' Kitchen!

I'll be keeping this blog alive for people to access in the future.

Giveaway - Marty's Nut-Free Party

This giveaway has been drawn. Congratulations to Sue!

I used to love going to parties - yummy food everywhere. Now parties stress me out. My son is anaphylactic to peanuts and quite possibly some of the treenuts he is allergic to. My daughter is allergic to dairy and egg - they are in almost every party food, especially the cake. Going to a party means a lot of work before (I can't just rock up, I have to ensure I bring enough party food to make sure my kids don't feel like they are missing out) and during (I have to watch them - and other kids who like to 'share' - aka put food in other kids' mouths) - exhausting!

My son is 5 now and as he gets older, he will start to take on more responsibility for what he eats. We talk about it a lot but until now we haven't read any books together about it.

A couple of months ago a friend told me about the release of Marty's Nut-Free Party by Katrina Roe. I was quite excited about it because she's Australian and it looked like it would be a great story for my son. I contacted Katrina and asked if she would send one to me to give away and she kindly did. We've had a little sneak peek (who can resist that front cover?!) and found it to be an engaging and fun read for both my 3 and 5 year olds. Seeing Marty end up in hospital because he ate nuts, even just something that had the nuts taken off made for great conversation. I could see my kids realising that it isn't just them who has these food limitations put on them. My husband and I enjoyed the illustrations that reminded us of our childhood birthday cakes from the Women's Weekly Cookbook!

My children are very sad that we are giving this copy away but I plan on purchasing it so that we have it in our bookshelf. I also plan to send it to school for them to read aloud to the class so that we can start helping his friends think about looking after him at their parties too.

Would you like to win this copy of Marty's Nut-Free Party by Katrina Roe? Just leave a comment sharing what party food you might provide for a child with allergies to dairy, egg and nuts at your next party. One entry per person please, Australian residents only, one winner will be drawn at random Tuesday 9/10/12 6pm WA time.

Thanks to Katrina Roe and Wombat Books Publishing for the chance to giveaway this great children's book!

Find Katrina on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/katrinamacdonaldroe

Or her blog:

www.frommouthsofbabes.com

You can order Marty's Nut-Free Party online at Wombat Books's website:

http://www.wombatbooks.net/martysnutfreeparty.html

 

A Giveaway Is Coming!

Stay tuned this week ... and there's some exciting news to share too!

Keep up with the latest

So glad I made the call!

I had a conversation this week with a friend who's children have just undergone allergy testing which got me questioning my current breastfeeding diet. Today I also had a really helpful chat with someone involved in Childhood Allergy and Immunology Research at Princess Margaret Hospital. Both mentioned the latest research that showed that some exposure to the allergens (this is in the case where anaphylaxis doesn't occur but they are even doing this in a hospital setting more and more now) at an early age is more likely to assist with growing out of the allergy rather than complete avoidance.The other thing was that my friend's baby wasn't able to be skin-prick tested for peanuts because she had never been exposed to peanuts via breastmilk or orally and so the test could have shown a false negative. This got me thinking that it's highly likely Miss 5mths hasn't been exposed to peanuts since I definitely haven't eaten them since she was born and quite possibly not even while I was pregnant. That will mean she won't be able to be tested for it or some other nuts (I have eaten almonds and hazlenuts) unless I expose her to them. The lady from PMH gave me some really helpful advice so here's my plan:

1. I'm going to start having a very little bit of dairy and egg maybe once a week and as long as her eczema doesn't get out of control I will keep doing it.

2. I'm also going to do some stealthy night-time nut eating to ensure she has been exposed to the nuts before we do allergy testing. This will mean I will have to be really careful to get all contaminated utensils etc into the dishwasher and washed before breakfast - not too hard but must remember to be vigilent! I shower at night so should be clear of nuts before I see Mr 5 in the morning. And get the nuts up high and always remind babysitters that they aren't for Mr 5!

3. Miss 3 has also missed out on eating nuts because of Mr 5. I'm pretty sure her skin-prick test negatives to nuts were valid since she would have been exposed while I was pregnant and breastfeeding (we only found out about Mr 5's allergies after she was born) but she should keep eating them semi-regularly and so should Miss 5mths once we have determined she's ok with them. Next year Mr 5 is full time at school so that should give us some easy opportunities to eat them without him around as long as we clean up and brush teeth etc before we see him. This is a bit scary but worth doing I think.

Introducing food to your baby

With Miss 0 now at 4 months of age this is something I am about to get into! Yikes!

Click here to read a recent article by Coles Baby and Toddler Club with information from ASCIA regarding when to introduce allergenic foods. I should make clear that the reason I'm avoiding foods in my diet while breastfeeding is not to try to prevent an allergy in Miss 0 but rather because she reacts obviously to the foods via my breastmilk and when I remove them, her skin doesn't break out. I definitely wouldn't avoid a food if it didn't cause a reaction!

I should also say that if there is a history of food allergies in your other kids then you will need to exercise more caution and ensure that you introduce allergenic foods one at a time and probably not as the very first foods. Vegetables and fruits are a good starting point. Be aware that some rice cereals (eg Farex) contain traces of wheat, milk and soy (crazy! I know! Especially because they didn't use to!).

Wheat!

I finally got around to challenging wheat this week. This means I eat food made from wheat and see what it does to Miss 0 through the breastmilk. I've been putting it off because I thought she would have a strong reaction and who wants to do that to their baby? I waited until the dairy was out of her system - I'm pretty sure she is allergic to that. I started on wheat in the morning so that I could see her reaction rather than eat later in the day and risk her reacting overnight and waking with terribly itchy skin etc. But amazingly, I needn't have worried. I have been eating wheat (rather substantially since the first day...!) for 4 days now and she hasn't reacted at all. She had a bit of nappy rash but that cleared today so I don't think it was related. I'm quietly excited and hopeful that it won't be an allergy for her at all and, in the meantime, am enjoying the ability to eat it. Still keeping an eye on her skin just in case but it's looking hopeful! Very thankful to God for this little mercy.

Yummy pizza topping

I didn't even care that there wasn't any cheese it was so good!

but cheese might have made it look prettier...?

The toppings were:
- BBQ sauce
- chick peas
- pre-cooked cauliflower florets
- leftover chicken from when I used this chinese chicken recipe
- roasted beetroot (from our veggie patch! Just roast with olive oil, salt, pepper and a splash of water all in a closed pouch of aluminium foil for about an hour, peel and slice)
- diced red capsicum
- sliced English Spinach (also from our veggie patch!)

all on a GF pizza base (I used a pre-made one this time)

Enjoy. 

Avoiding Contamination #4

The toasted sandwich maker hasn't had much of a workout since Miss 3's allergies turned up and even less since my diet was restricted. I don't know about you but I tend to just give it a wipe with a damp paper towel and that's the extent of my cleaning of it. Which means I leave lots of things on it like the margarine I used on the outside of the bread to make it golden and the bread itself, and the cheese - you get the idea.

I thought I'd give toasted sandwiches a try since I was looking for an easy Sunday night dinner and I used to love them as a kid. And thankfully allergen-proofing wasn't particularly hard - I used my trusty roll of baking paper and created a lining to put the sandwich in and it cooked beautifully! Pity Miss 3 wasn't that thrilled about a toasted baked bean sandwich. Will have to think about yummier options for her - she's not that keen on baked beans or tinned spaghetti (not that I can blame her!). Any ideas for dairy and egg free toasted sandwiches?

Check out my other posts on avoiding contamination in the kitchen - #1, #2 and #3

Minton Cookies

So distracted by the yumminess I focussed on my jeans.... :)

It seems like dairy is off the cards again - her skin got worse and now I'm off it, it's perfect again. At least I can console myself with Leda's Minton Cookies - think Mint Slice but allergen free. Yum!

Challenge Updates

Spotty forehead

It has been a while since I posted but my household was in the grips of illness. We've had my 2 older children with a terrible flu which had my son admitted to hospital with suspected meningicoccal (when the hospital suggested it I freaked! Thankfully it was only a flu!) and both of them sporting temperatures soaring to 40 degrees celsius without Panadol and Nurofen tagteaming for over a week. Quite stressful. Then we had interstate guests arrive who unknowingly brought a gastro bug with them and that felled half the household in domino form. I was thankful that God granted my prayers for protection of Miss 3 who was still in the grips of the flu and wouldn't have coped with gastro as well. Little Miss 3months was protected too and what a relief that was!

In the midst of the illnesses, we had a visit to our new allergy specialist (since we've moved interstate) and it was encouraging to see Miss 3's allergies diminishing and the promise of a baked egg challenge and maybe even a baked milk or even normal milk challenge on the agenda. We await her blood test results to see when and what will be tested. Master 5's peanut/treenut allergies continue to skin test strongly and we will go for a desensitisation program eventually (to reduce the chance of death, not to be able to eat it) but not for a good few years. I was able to briefly chat to him about Miss 3months and my current diet and what I should be doing. He said that I should not be avoiding anything "just in case" but if it was creating a reaction in her then I could avoid it. When I mentioned the dairy challenge I did, he recommended doing another to confirm a reaction rather than just going off one which could have been caused by something else.

So, I have done a dairy and an egg challenge since I last posted and I am pretty pleased to say that it seems dairy is ok. Her face has coped a lot better and there is no nappy rash and nothing on her torso. So I am going to stay on dairy for a while and see how she goes! (Yay chocolate!) For the egg challenge I had one fried egg (with a runny yolk - yay for not being pregnant!) two mornings in a row and watched how she went. The first day didn't really show much but by the second she had some spots developing on her forehead. It certainly wasn't a big reaction but her skin quality was compromised. So, I've stopped egg to get her skin clear again and then we'll do another challenge. Maybe I'll eat pavlova next time (yum!). It was nice to know that I could potentially eat egg and not get a big reaction from her.

Wheat is the final frontier. Stay tuned.

Sorbet Treat

Sorbet is a winner for dairy free desserts and Weis now make dairy free Sorbet Bars. Before they only had their cream topped ones but now there are two options.

Our friends bought these for Miss 3 and I to have instead of the dairy dessert everyone else had and we thought they were delicious.

Breakfast alone!

Good morning!

Friday mornings are a bit of a luxury for me. Granted it is 8:11am and I already have one load of washing out on the line and another on the go, but I have been able to sit and eat my breakfast (and a cup of tea!) on my own and in peace. My amazing husband takes our two older kids to school on Friday mornings so I can stay at home with our sleeping baby. So we have a whirlwind of getting ready quickly but it is very worthwhile! My kids love spending the time with Daddy before school and the little miss doesn't get her sleeps mucked up. And I get a little de-stress. Lovely.

So my breakfast this morning is a little creation of mine. I have to note that it isn't nut-free - almonds are ok in our house since we have done a successful challenge on them with the allergy specialist - but you could easily just leave them out.

small handful of almonds - roughly chopped (I use my Tupperware Turbo Chopper - easy!)
1/2 cup 'Grainfull Flakes' by freelicious
1/2 cup (or more - these are the cheap ones!) 'Skippy Corn Flakes' by Sanitarium
A sprinkling of sweetened dried cranberries
Rice milk (I use one that is protein enriched with chickpeas)

The Grainful Flakes are unlike any gluten free flake I've had before - crunchy and yet not hard on the teeth - very much like 'normal' cereal flakes. The only thing I don't like about them is the price - over $7 for 300g. So I was excited to notice that Sanitarium's corn flakes don't have gluten in them (the more popular brand contains barley) and by adding them, I don't use up the other flakes as quickly. It's a great way to start my morning.

Easy lunch ideas for a hungry Mummy

Salmon and radish salad - see below for recipe :)

When you are breastfeeding you tend to be very hungry and when you are on a restricted diet as well you are even hungrier! It's very important to eat well to ensure your health as well as your baby's, so having some things in the cupboard/freezer helps you to do that. Otherwise you end up eating rice crackers or something without much goodness in it.

Here are some good things to have in your pantry or freezer for times when you need a quick but yummy and nutritious lunch:

- Tinned salmon - I loved red salmon but it's quite expensive. I buy a few of the little tins when they are on special. Salmon with the bones left in is a good source of calcium as well as omega 3 oils - both important for breastfeeding mummies.

- Tinned tuna - lots of the flavoured ones are safe to eat but always check the labels.

- Brown Rice Cakes - buy the thick ones and they make a great substitute for a sandwich. And because they are made of brown rice they have a lower GI. You can top them with hummus/dairy & egg free dip, lettuce and a tin of tuna/salmon - yum - or avocado or even just butter and a spread.

- Soup - this will be something you need to make yourself. I tend to make a batch of vegetable soup each week which serves as a meal for all of us and then I freeze the leftovers in single serves and defrost one for my lunch. That gives me at least 3 healthy lunches with minimal effort.

- Leftover meats or sliced ham etc - good to have in the fridge to put on a rice cake or eat in a salad. A dietician I saw with my older daughter recommended having protein in each main meal as it helps you fill up and gives you energy.

- Canned legumes - my favourites are lentils and cannelini beans, but chick peas, butter beans and more are also great. Add them to a bowl of salad. A simple salad is leaves of oakleaf or butter lettuce plus half a can of tinned lentils (drained and rinsed) and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar - delicious!

- And for a special treat every now and then - Hash Browns. I buy a 1kg bag of them and keep them in the freezer. I will get out 2 to cook in the oven as part of my lunch. I love them and feel like I've had a special treat even though they aren't that bad for you. My kids have cotttoned on to them now and so I have promised them some on the weekend!

I've just finished eating the salad I created for lunch today pictured above and it was great - I grabbed some butter lettuce and a radish out of our vegie patch and added a small tin of red salmon and half an avocado. Yum!

The Dairy Challenge

When I started removing allergens from my diet this time around I started with dairy rather than getting rid of everything at once. It didn't make a discernable difference so I decided to do a dairy challenge once my Little Miss's skin had cleared completely.

day 4 with me on dairy - see the lumps starting on her neck? The cheek leaves a bit to be desired too really.

 I started dairy 4 days ago and boy it was great to be back on! I enjoyed every moment - full cream milk, chocolate galore, yoghurt, ice cream - yum! And her skin went unexpectedly well but each day her skin didn't seem as flawless as the one before and today she started showing little bumps on her neck that made me remember what her skin looked like before. So I believe that she has a dairy allergy but that she doesn't react as strongly as she does to wheat and therefore I'm going to eliminate dairy from my diet again. At least I know that I can have a little dairy if necessary (eg going out for dinner on a rare occasion etc) and not have it affect her too much. But back to everything free for a little while until we try egg. Looking forward to her skin looking like this again:

Just before I ate the first bite of chocolate!

The best allergen free cake I've tasted! Carrot Cake with Lemon Icing

Yum!

It was my birthday last week and I wanted to have a cake and I wanted it to be yummy. I'd discovered a recipe on this blog and this blog a while ago that I'd passed onto a friend but not tried myself. She tried it and said it was great and so I set about making it for my birthday (my husband would have liked to make it but I had more time than him so I was happy to). Here's what I did:

Carrot Cake
2 cups gluten free plain flour (I used FG Roberts brand - NB it has soy in it for those concerned) 
1 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp of salt 
2 tsp of gluten free baking powder 
1/2 tsp of bicarb soda 
2 tsp of cinnamon 
3 cups grated carrots 
3/4 cup of canola oil 
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of raisins (I think I might leave these out next time but they are better than sultanas I reckon)
1/2 cup shredded coconut (I don't think dessicated would be as nice for texture)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a square or round pan with canola oil and line the base with baking paper cut to size (I think it would come out easily anyway but I wasn't going to risk it!).
Mix all the dry ingredients together then add the carrots, oil and orange juice. Mix with a wooden spoon until well combined. Fold in raisins and coconut. Pour mixture into cake pan and cook in oven for about 45mins or until a knife in the centre comes out clean. My oven is so slow it took a lot longer.

I also made an icing for it which I kept separate in order just to drizzle over the slices so I could freeze the rest of the cake more easily.


Lemon Icing
1 freshly squeezed lemon
3/4 -1 1/2 cups of gluten free icing sugar (depends on the juiciness of your lemon really!)

Make it up to your preferred consistency. I left it as a drizzle. The icing is quite sweet and the cake is very nice without it but the lemon flavour adds another dimension to the flavours and makes it look pretty.

I am going to make it into muffins next time. And I'm going to be looking out for more vegan recipes that I can adapt to be gluten free as well.

Skin update

My little one is 8 weeks old now. She is smiling and starting to sleep longer at night - she is such a delight. She's still learning to get to sleep on her own in the day time - much prefers Mummy's cuddles but at least she has the hang of nighttime.

I am currently not eating gluten, dairy or egg. Her skin is AMAZING. It is so smooth and perfect (well as perfect as possible really) and SO much better than a few weeks ago.Going off wheat made the biggest difference but her skin still had some eczema on her cheeks so I went off gluten completely. In a few days her skin stopped developing eczema and after about a week had healed to beautiful smooth skin. Love those cheeks!

Here are some before and after pics:

12 May

12 May

31 May

The plan now is to challenge dairy and then egg. The reason being that I went off dairy first but it didn't seem to make a difference to her skin. I need to find out if there is an allergy that was just being hidden by the strong allergy to wheat or if she isn't allergic. Same with egg. I hardly eat egg due to Miss 3's allergy and so I will have one once we are through the dairy and see what happens with it.

Missing chocolate no more

I am a lover of chocolate. When I am on a dairy/gluten/egg free diet while breastfeeding I miss my chocolate. I don't particularly love lollies/candy and they don't particularly hit the spot after dinner. Also a lot of the soft lollies (like snakes/jelly babies etc) have wheat starch in them. So, when I saw this at the supermarket I grabbed it - mint chocolate is my favourite as well! This is delicious! You can slightly taste the "soy-ness" of the chocolate but the mint helps cover it well while not being overbearing (another brand of allergen-free mint chocolate tends to be a bit crazy on the mint). I now feel I can keep up the dairy-free part of the diet quite easily with this as a treat every now and then. All I have to do is make sure I don't eat it all at once...

Snack Search

I did the grocery shopping today for the first time in a little while. My husband has been braving the Saturday supermarket rush since the little Miss was born - what a legend. My aim (as well as getting our weekly food) was to find some yummy and healthy snacks for me. Since I am breastfeeding I am super hungry and especially because a wheat and dairy free diet tends to have a higher Glycaemic Index - you get hungry quicker! I bought quite a few things but here are two that I have tried since coming home and think are great:

Freedom Foods Ancient Grains Super Bar

photo from here

You can tell it's good for you but the syrup makes you feel like it's a treat. Miss 3 also tried it and wanted one for herself (I told her she could have one when she's older and so she decided it would be when she was 4!). A box of 6 cost me $4.39 which is expensive but if you consider how much a chocolate bar costs (oh if only I could have a chocolate bar!), it's actually good value.

Woolworths Macro Free From Moroccan Pumpkin Dip
I do love hommus but to have another option is exciting! My friend from church told me about this range, so I looked out for it and chose this one. I had it on some rice cakes with lettuce (from our vegie patch!), cucumber and tomato for lunch. Delicious. I'm looking forward to trying the avocado one - it could work well with tacos or something when I can't get a good avocado.

The quest continues with Sweet Potato Fries

Well, I went off dairy a week ago and even after 5 days there wasn't much difference in her rash. It was a little better but we were also using hydrocortisone cream and serious moisturisers on her so that it didn't get too awful. So 2 days ago, I went off wheat. And already it is looking better. I was hoping to not have to go off wheat since Miss 3 is back on wheat these days (although more on that in another post) but it looks like wheat might be the main culprit for Miss 0's reaction at the moment. So I have been seeking yummy lunches and here is one easy and delicious recipe that I'm enjoying this week that I got from Bill Granger's 'Every Day'.

Sweet Potato Fries (serves 1)
1/3-1/2 sweet potato (depends on its size and your appetite), peeled and cut into batons
a generous shake of paprika
a little shake of cayenne pepper (your preference as to how much heat you want really)
salt (again, to taste)
a couple of tablespoons olive oil

ready to go in the oven

Preheat oven to 230C. Toss the batons in all the other ingredients. Place on a baking tray in a single layer and bake, stirring occasionally, for 30min or until golden brown. Bill recommends serving with lime wedges (which I am trying today and it is great!). I used to like them with mayonaise but that's out at the moment...

I'm no food stylist and I have a new baby so you are just going to have to cope with these pics - they were super yummy and filling though and that's what counts :)

PS - sweet potatoes are also known as kumara and yam depending where you live

And so it begins again

Beginnings of her rash

Well, almost to the day that my first daughter started showing her eczema, my second daughter has developed it as well. So instead of waiting for it to get completely awful, I have removed dairy from my diet. Dairy is the worst of my older daughter's allergies and also the one I consume the most (we still have some wheat free meals and rarely have egg but I always add dairy to everyone else's meals if I can). So, by doing that I hope I can reduce her eczema. If it doesn't reduce enough then I'll look to remove wheat and egg completely. Here we go!

Another one to love

So tiny and perfect.

We recently welcomed another little girl into our family and although we are exhausted, we are all in love with her and look forward to getting to know her as she grows.

Lots of people might (secretly) wonder why we'd have another since the risk of food allergy is high but we don't feel it is a reason that should stop us having kids - we are much better at managing it these days anyway. How could you not have more when they are so gorgeous! (that's just my opinion!)

I plan to keep breastfeeding and will restrict my diet appropriately should this little one show signs of food allergy and I'll blog about it as I go. Breastfeeding is a far better food especially if they have allergies. We do pray that she'll be spared of them though!

More Easter Chocolate!

image from here

After ordering my daughter's Easter Eggs online the other week, I went shopping for our eggs at Darrell Lea. I had been chatting to a friend who was planning to buy Australian made eggs this year and finding it difficult to actually find many. Most of the supermarkets etc don't have many made in Australia and if they are, the ingredients are often imported. We talked about Darrell Lea as an option, so I decided to buy our Easter chocolates there.

I had a good look around the store trying to work out what to buy and found that they have a dairy/nut/gluten free range (and egg free of course - eggs don't normally get used in regular chocolate). I decided to buy a pack of these Easter Bunnies since we are going to a park event soon that will involve an egg hunt and I want to have enough substitutes for her. At only $8.69 for 12, that's pretty great. Plus being individually wrapped really helps - I can keep one in my handbag just in case and I gave one to preschool in case someone was going to give out eggs etc. They also aren't that 'mini' but more generous. So that's pretty cool.

It's a shame there were no actual eggs (I find bunnies a bit tricky to help kids get the real meaning of Easter. We can talk about new life with eggs, but rabbits...?), but these and a larger rice crackle bunny are still great to be able to get without shopping online and to know you are buying Australian-made.

Oh and my daughter has already tried one (Mummy caved! Rare but true!) and loved it.

Product Deletions

Here is an excerpt from Allergy Train's latest newsletter about product deletions. I have previously recommended the Millet Rings and Mrs Robens Tortilla mix so it's a bit sad that they won't be produced anymore.

"Product Deletions

There are a couple of products that have disappeared in the last few months and i just wanted to let you know what has happened to them. 

Eskal Marshmellows - Unfortunately our supplier had the wrong shipment of marshmellows arrive. They received pink and white instead of plain white. We do not yet have a time frame on when these will be back.  

Ecor Rice and Millet Rings - these have been deleted by the manufacturer and we can no longer get them. This is very sad news for many of our customers who's kids loved them for breakfast. If you hear about an alternative product that may be a suitable replacement for these, please let us know and we will do our best to get hold of them.  

Angel Foods Meringue and Marshmellow Mixes - these have been deleted and are no longer available. We have a few meringue mixes left, but no marshmellow.

    
Mrs Robens - The manufacturer closed it's doors last year and last we heard the potential buyer was still talking to their bank so it looks like these may not be back any time soon if at all, which is a real shame. We loved their tortilla and pie mixes at our place."

We have ordered our Easter Chocolate this year from The Cruelty Free Shop and our daughter will enjoy a Moo Free Easter Egg and some Bonvita Rice Milk Mini Half Eggs as we remember what Jesus did for us on the cross and how he's alive again. Happy Easter!

Online and allergen-free in WA

screen shot taken from here

 We have recently moved to Western Australia which means that a lot of the online stores I was buying from now have prohibitive shipping costs. So I googled where to buy allergy free foods in Perth and came across this website - Allergy Tots. They don't have a huge range of products but they do have what I am looking for - a dairy free Easter Egg for our little Miss. So I have emailed to reserve an egg for her and can now feel less guilty about shopping for Easter Eggs for us too! Now to locate some mini Easter Eggs like what we had last year.

Absolute winner of a chocolate cake

Photo from here

I bought this cake mix in order to make little muffins for my daughter to take to her preschool for them to freeze for whenever someone has a birthday and she can't eat what is provided. I make a smaller cake with what was left over. I sprinkled pure icing sugar over the top instead of making an icing.
It was delicious! We all loved it and it was so moist and yummy that it was like eating a normal chocolate cake!

Here is their website. It is pretty easily available from certain large supermarkets.

We made the egg free option with No Egg rather than what was suggested but otherwise made it according to the instructions.

We are going to make it again for my daughter's 3rd birthday! I can't believe it is less than a month away.