piece of cake

What's a birthday without cake and ice cream? That's a tricky one when you're on a dairy, soy, and egg free diet, but Neal managed to make me a chocolate cake complete with frosting and ice cream.


He used this recipe (which is oddly the only post on the blog but it's the #1 result if you search for dairy, soy, and egg free chocolate cake recipes), this frosting, and made another batch of coconut milk chocolate chip (from the folks at Enjoy Life) ice cream to go with. I have to say I'm not as keen on the coconut milk ice cream as I was initially but it might be a seasonal thing that I'd be feeling even with the regular stuff. But the cake is quite tasty and, most importantly, very satisfying, especially when you haven't had a proper baked good for a couple of months.

Needless to say, I'm still on the elimination diet. One of these days I'll get around to writing more about our San Diego adventure, but as far as the digestive issues go, I can quickly note that Elias had a recurrence of blood in his stool a couple of different times during our trip, despite my best efforts at avoiding his suspected problem foods while eating out just about all weekend (by the end of the weekend I was making turkey sandwiches in our hotel room because I was so tired of the hassle). By the time we returned home I felt pretty certain we'd make the switch to formula. But the GI doc has recommended we wait until he's had blood-free stool for at least a week before we introduce anything new. So we're in a sort of holding pattern for at least a few more days and of course I keep going back and forth, even though rationally I feel like switching is probably the right thing to do at this point. And I still think we will within the next couple of months. I just find myself putting it off over and over again. Elias has been physically dependent on me for over a year now and breastfeeding is really the last remnant of that relationship. Emotionally, it's hard to let that go. But I'm sure we'll find other ways to bond, whenever we wean.