Monday, January 14, 2008

SCD Week 5

We dove in and went SCD in December 9. Did the intro diet and got a little sluggish but things are really going well now.

I am so grateful for the scdgirl blog - her recipes have been a lifesaver. I am trying to go low on eggs because Mr. C is an IgG 1 for them, but they have been a big help.

One of my big successes with SCD sweets so far was that Swiss Meringue buttercream. I need to redo it to get the recipe perfect, but basically, I boiled honey to a soft-ball stage and added it to whipped egg whites, and then added about 4 tablespoons of Spectrum Palm shortening (in place of butter because we are dairy-free) and 2 tsp legal vanilla.

I should mention that I was never a "Crisco" frosting kind of girl...I am a recovering Sylvia Weinstock junkie and only ever used real butter, but the shortening gives the frosting some heft and makes it good for little kids. I will experiment with ghee and see if a little of that makes it seem more buttery without messing us up.

In what seems like another lifetime, people used to hire me to make cakes... I am going to figure out a good SCD way to make cakes that look similar... once the buttercream is perfected, I'll need to work on coloring. I've heard good things about beets but we are not to that stage yet.

Here are two of my faves from the old days...I think beets could give this color pink...



This one is almost color free...those daisies will have to go though - they are handmade from sugar. I don't think we have an SCD alternative for gum paste (not that you'd want to eat one of those anyway)...



I have been working on some new recipes for snacks and dinner too - all stage 1-2. I will post those shortly. I just wish I could figure out how to not burn my pancakes...

2 comments:

Jasmine said...

Ah, pink cake ... the stuff of dreams! No-burn pancakes: lots of oil and low heat (you've probably figured that out by now) :)

Unknown said...

I'd love to hear if you've refined that buttercream recipe. I'd like to make it for my son's birthday. We are not dairy free, so could use butter. Any thoughts?