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Egg-free Cake recipes?

My son has an egg allergy.  I have succeeded in making him some egg-free biscuits, but even with egg substitute, I have never succeeded in creating a decent egg-free cake.  I was wondering whether anyone had any tips/ideas/recipes or perhaps could recommend a better egg substitite than the one I bought, for the specific purpose of making cakes.  It is probably too much to hope for, but egg-free pancakes and yorkshire pudding would be wonderful too!  I would be grateful for any feedback as his egg allergy is showing no signs of calming down, so he could be stuck with it for a very long time.  Thank you in advance.

Unexplained allergic reactions in young children

My son has had an egg allergy since he was 13 months old.  We have managed this well over the last 2 years, but suddenly at just under 3 years of age he is having very frequent allergic reactions that we cannot pinpoint.  He has had 8 allergic reactions in the last 3 weeks! (Relatively mild reactions, causing hives predominantly on his hand and feet with less on his face and the rest of his body) that have been treated with just anti-histamine.  We do not believe he was exposed to egg in any of these cases and currently have no idea what is causing them.  (The pattern of the reaction is also different to symptoms he has previously experience on exposure to egg.)  
I was wondering whether this was a familiar story to anyone and whether someone could shed some light on what might be going on?  Many thanks.

Getting creative with Dammenberg chocolate

As a follow-up to my success with the raisin chocolates, I decided to experiment with more of the Dammenberg chocolate range:

The first picture shows the results of melting both milk and white chocolate buttons (white chocolate generally takes less time to melt) and mixing a little of each in my chocolate mould.

The second picture shows milk chocolate with a cranberry white chocolate - perfect for Christmas!

And the final picture, a collection of the various chocolates I have created so far, including some gorgeous pink blackcurrant and white chocolate chocolates, simply made by melting the chocolate bar and resetting into these pretty little pieces.

Making you own chocolates using Dammenberg's Nut-free chocolate range

Home-made Raisin Milk Chocolates using Dammenberg's Nut-free Chocolate:

We are frequently asked whether our Dammenberg chocolate is suitable for cooking with:  the quick answer is 'yes', but in the interest of backing up this claim, I am planning on working my way through a range of recipes to prove this for myself.  With this in mind, I recently purchased a chocolate mould and had a go at creating my own chocolates.  The results (shown here) are not quite up to a professional standard (hopefully something a little practise on my part can fix), but taste amazing.

Ingredients:

200g 34% Milk Chocolate Buttons

Organic Raisins

Method: 

Melt the chocolate in a pyrex bowl in the microwave (approx. 60 seconds in a 800W oven, try 10 seconds at a time, stirring between each time).
Pour the melted chocolate into the moulds filling up to 2/3 of the mould.
Add 4-6 raisins to each chocolate and use a spoon to bury them into the mould.
Finish with a little more chocolate (if required) to fill the mould to the top.
Tap the filled tray quite sharply to remove any air bubbles (easier with a rigid tray).
Place in the fridge for 20-30min to set.

Results:
For such a fast, simple method, my husband and I were amazed at the results:  these little chocolates, (reminiscent of Rolos, if only because of their shape and size), were incredibly addictive.  The milk chocolate and raisins worked really well together and the chocolate set quickly back to its former shiny finish.  All I need to do now is perfect the art of removing the air bubbles!

Variations:
As a follow-up to this success, I also tried soaking some raisins overnight in rum, before adding these to the chocolates.  Again this worked well, giving the chocolates a little grown-up festive twist, though I have to say, I personally preferred the 'virgin' versions of these raisin chocolates.  Maybe I should try some other alcohols...  

Nut-Free Chocolate Rice Krispie Cakes Recipe

Baking with Dammenberg's 34% Milk Chocolate:


Ingredients:
200g 34% Milk Chocolate Buttons (Dammenberg's Nut-free, Gluten-free, Egg-free, Kosher and Vegetarian chocolate).
100g Rice krispies

Method:
I simply melted 200g of chocolate buttons in a pyrex bowl in a 800W microwave for approximately 60 seconds, then stirred in the rice krispies.  The chocolate-coated rice krispies were then placed in cake cases and allowed to set in the fridge.

Results:
Although originally intended for my children, these chocolate rice krispie cakes were amazing - the best I had ever tasted.  I was literally fighting my children over them!  So overall a successful simple experiment to show that not only can you 'bake' with Dammenberg chocolate, but the results taste pretty fantastic when you do!

Nut Free Milk & White Filled Chocolates

No Nuts...just Chocolate (www.nonutsjustchocolate.com) currently offer a selection of gourmet filled chocolates for grown ups, including assortments of dark, milk and white chocolate, dark and milk chocolate and excluvely dark (dairy-free) chocolates. 

We are considering developing a further chocolate box that contains only milk and white chocolates, for those of us that don't really like dark chocolate.  We would be very grateful for any feedback from customers who would be interested in such a product to help us gauge demand.

If you have any ideas or favourite fillings for the chocolates, please let us know these too and we are aiming to create the most 'to die for' box of chocolates possible!