Home Lactose Intolerant question

[oobiecoo]

DH''s boss''s birthday is coming up next week and he wanted to get a cake or something for her but she is lactose intolerant. Can she still have dairy products as long as they are COOKED or does she have to avoid lactose all together?

 

[jewelz617]

If she''s lactose intolerant, she has to avoid lactose altogether. You can request cakes be made with no dairy ingredients. My daughter is lactose intolerant and I made her 1st birthday cake with soy milk.

 

[cara]

Depends how sensitive she is. Subbing soy milk for regular milk normally doesn''t cause a cake to fail, if you are making it from scratch. It may subtly change the taste - less dairy flavor, more nutty from the soy. And butter is also pretty OK as it is mostly fat and contains little lactose.

 

[plantationcatt]

First off, kudos for wanting to get her a cake she can eat! You''re ahead of the game!

What she can eat: This depends on how intolerant she is.

I''m much less lactose intolerant than I used to be, but... you have to watch out for things like butter and icing, as well as milk that will contain dairy. Cream cheese icing, buttercream, ganache...all off limints. It''s amazing what''s there when you look at an ingredient list.

I don''t have the recipe on the tip of my fingers, but there''s a tasty cake I make without any dairy..sort of like pound cake but better

. Several family members request it each year for their birthdays, it''s not some weirdo flavor. That''s considering if someone wants to make it...but if you''re buying it, tell them she''s ALLERGIC to dairy and see what they can make.

 

[princesss]

If you are making it from a box, you should be able to find a mix that doesn''t include dairy. That''s usually what we do so my dad can eat it.

Otherwise you can usually sub margarine for butter without an issue (best avoid butter - the problem with being lactose intolerant is that your body can''t digest the lactose, so any lactose is a bad idea. Oddly enough yogurt is usually okay because the enzymes in yogurt do the work the stomach can''t to break down the lactose), soy milk for milk, and (please don''t kill me, Freke!) you can usually find a shortening-based buttercream recipe. I think Wilton has one...

 

[cara]

Just be careful on the margarine, if you are at the point of avoiding trace amounts of lactose. Much of it actually has dairy added under terms like whey or calcium caseinate, and margarine may change how a baked good turns out, like when you substitute oil for butter or something (though most of the harder margarines are going to perform close to butter in structure if not in taste). But there are baked good recipes that call for oil or shortening (you can use veggie-shortening), which might be safer as a starting recipe.

I guess princess is right about the butter *if* you don't know how sensitive the person is. I know some people that are almost entirely off dairy but tolerate butter fine, it is almost all fat. But best to play it safe if you don't know.

 

[princesss]

Date: 4/16/2010 2:48:07 PM
Author: cara
Just be careful on the margarine, if you are at the point of avoiding trace amounts of lactose. Much of it actually has dairy added under terms like whey or calcium caseinate, and margarine may change how a baked good turns out, like when you substitute oil for butter or something (though most of the harder margarines are going to perform close to butter in structure if not in taste). But there are baked good recipes that call for oil or shortening (you can use veggie-shortening), which might be safer as a starting recipe.

I guess princess is right about the butter *if* you don''t know how sensitive the person is. I know some people that are almost entirely off dairy but tolerate butter fine, it is almost all fat. But best to play it safe if you don''t know.

I tend to shy away from butter after having watched what it does to my dad...the next few hours were never pleasant for him.

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

You have a few options.
If you don''t want to bake the cake, whole foods, sunflower market, trader joes, etc often have deserts for specific issues like this either in their bakery or frozen, but they tend to be expensive.

If you want to actually make a cake, there are 2 ways I suggest.


First is this cake, which is really good if she likes chocolate
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 10 to 12 servings.


My mother has some tolerance problems so when I make the cake for her I do it with soy milk and it works really well. It is really thin bater, but it is supposed to be that way.

The other option, which sounds nuts, but is actually really good is to do the following. Buy a box of cake mix that has no dairy. Instead of adding milk eggs and butter, add the same amount of soda. I suggest sprite, fanta or welch''s for white cake, coke or Dr peper for chocolate. It is really rich and moist without any dairy.

 

[princesss]

I love B_I_H''s second suggestion, and wanted to add that cherry Coke tastes really good with chocolate cake. Mmmm...chocolate cherry Coke cake.

 

[elrohwen]

Do you know (or does your husband) how lactose intolerant she is? My DH is lactose intolerant, but would have no problem with most cakes, even if they contained butter and some milk. Now give him a class of milk with the cake and he might have issues

It will open up your options a lot if she''s moderately lactose intolerant vs 100%-no-lactose-anywhere-near-her intolerant.

 

[megumic]

Find a local bakery that makes pareve items. That way you can be certain there is no dairy involved and it is likely to be delicious! (For those who may not know, pareve means made w/o meat or dairy items - it''s typically for those who keep Kosher, but it can be helpful for the lactose intolerant as well!)

 

[iheartscience]

Date: 4/17/2010 11:35:15 AM
Author: elrohwen
Do you know (or does your husband) how lactose intolerant she is? My DH is lactose intolerant, but would have no problem with most cakes, even if they contained butter and some milk. Now give him a class of milk with the cake and he might have issues

It will open up your options a lot if she''s moderately lactose intolerant vs 100%-no-lactose-anywhere-near-her intolerant.

Ditto. I''m lactose intolerant but cake and even butter don''t bother me. Milk, creamier cheeses and food with heavy cream (like creamy soups) are the types of food that I have to completely avoid.

 

[4ever]

My BF is highly lactose intolerant- as in if he eats somthing where milk power or whey was near the end of a long list of ingredients, it would still make him sick. I am a big baker and it dosn''t take much effort to change recipies so BF and eat it. I use lactose free milk rather than soy milk because it keeps the same flavour and a dairy free margarine instead of butter. I recently made an amazing lactose free chocolate mud cake which involved using a dark chocolate with no dairy in it and subsituting the cream in the chocolate glaze with lactose free milk and some margirine. Don''t risk including a small amount of lactose because you don''t know how sensitive she is. Also, in my experience some bakeries will not be willing or able to make a cake lactose free but there are some bakers that specilise in baking for people with allergies.