Glossy Vegan Cakes Stockholm

I was on a hunt for a kid's birthday cake! The bakery I had originally planned to get the cake from, unfortunately, no longer carried that seasonal vegan cake :(

Having a little one with various allergies, we wanted a vegan cake but also one that was nut and soy free and I had about a week to order it. 

We were so happy to find Glossy Vegan Cakes, a bakery that started in January 2023. They specialize in creating custom cakes for peope with various allergies or dietary restrictions!

When I contacted them for questions about a cake, they replied quickly and answered all of my questions. They even sent photos of other Customers' birthday cakes as suggestions to help us decide which design we wanted.

Glossy Vegan Cakes is located in Märsta, about about hour from Stockholm, Sweden. You can pickup your order or get the cake delivered. We chose the delivery option and they even notified me when the cake was on the way!

We were very pleased with the birthday cake! It was a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and the cake moist and delicious. The design we chose was so cute and everything was edible. Party guests couldn't believe it was Vegan! It was definitely one of the highlights of our kid's birthday 🎉 

Great service, beautiful custom designs and delicious Vegan cake! If you're in Stockholm and looking for a custom cake, definitely check out Glossy Cakes to add something special to your upcoming celebration. It's always great to support small business as well. 

Glossy Cakes 

Vikingavägen 5, 195 51 Märsta

Check out their website for more info and ordering information. 

Allergy-friendly Eats in Rome

 

My little toddler has had allergies since he was about 2 months old. His face and body would break out in bad eczema and he had to always wear mittens to protect against scratching. 

He was tested for various allergens and we found he was allergic to eggs and milk. Later we also discovered allergies to Soy, fish, and nuts. So, you can imagine how tricky this can be, especially when eating out in a different city or unfamiliar country.

However, if you're thinking about planning a trip to Rome, Italy, don't worry, it IS possible to find some good allergy-friendly eats that are delicious and toddler-approved! 

If everyone wants pizza, the dairy-free toddler can have Marinara pizza - which is just a pizza without cheese, instead has sauce, some garlic and herbs like oregano. The toddler really enjoyed it!

We enjoyed dinner at Bafetto Pizzeria near Piazza Navona. Pizza dinner was delish!

If you are at a restaurant with more items than pizza, kids loved the pasta dishes. We found pasta and meat sauce or pasta and just plain tomato sauce. The noodles were al-dente, chewy and delicious. Please make sure to tell your server not to add cheese to the pasta dish.

Note: The bread provided at some restaurants was plain and did not include butter. It was perfect for the kids!

For dessert, we had to have the Gelato! All of the Gelaterias we tried had milk free options available. We found various sorbet flavors that the little one enjoyed like Mango, Melon, Lemon and even Strawberry!

We always brought antihistamines with us just in case and we did stop at the grocery store to pickup some snacks and breakfast items.

The local grocery store actually had Vegan cheese, some even had Oatly milk. There were many non-dairy milk alternatives like almond milk, soy milk and rice milk. They were the most popular dairy-free milk alternatives.

If you've been thinking about a trip to Rome and have allergies or traveling with kids with allergies, don't worry, you can still enjoy some delicious Italian eats! We definitely didn't go hungry during our trip ;)

Don't forget your snacks!

Some places we enjoyed:

Ai Marmi - For pizza (Check out my blog post)

Viale di Trastevere, 53-59, 00153 Roma RM, Italy

Cava Canem - pasta 

Piazza di S. Calisto, 11, 00153 Roma RM, Italy

Fatamorgana , Giolitti and chegelato - For gelato

Vete-Katten Stockholm

Vete-Katten is a classic Swedish cafe and bakery in Stockholm, Sweden that offers some delish Swedish buns, cakes and pastries. In addition to the traditional Swedish cinnamon buns or kanelbullar, they offer a wide array of blueberry buns, vanilla buns, cookies and even Summer buns with berries!

Everything you need for a successful fika (or coffee break) can be found at a Vete-Katten Cafe!

I recently picked up a few of the long buns to share at Work Fika - the Cinnamon one or Kanellängd and the Blueberry or blåbarlängd. They were both well received and delicious (both were quickly eaten up!).

Vete-Katten, which translates to "Wheat Cat" in English, got it's name from the Cafe founder, Ester. She was asked what the patisserie should be called, and she answered "Yes, the Wheat Cat"!

Vete-Katten even offers a few allergy friendly options that are great for those allergic to nuts or eggs like my little one!

We first tried the "Leokanel" bun which doesn't include any milk, egg, soy or nuts. It was soft and delicious. It's sooo nice to find a Vegan bun from a Cafe that is also soy and nut free for the little one to eat. It's one less worry and makes Fika with kids easier when they also get to have a bun from the same Cafe that you want to get a bun and coffee from!

The "Leokanel" was so good that we went back to try the "Leo" which is a blueberry bun that is free from soy, nuts, egg, milk and Cardamom (this spice is popular in Sweden and used in many Swedish buns).

Milk chocolate and white chocolate Cat lollipops! 

If you're visiting Stockholm, it's good to know that Vete-Katten has multiple locations around the city. For those with allergies, definitely try the Allergy friendly buns! Vete-Katten is totally worth a visit for a coffee break or Swedish "Fika"!

Don't forget your snacks!

Vete-Katten

Kungsgatan 55, 111 22 Stockholm, Sweden

Check out their website for more information. 

Kids and Allergies

 ....surprise, they're allergic... Kids and allergies can be scary especially when it's something you didn't know they were allergic to.

My little ones, unfortunately, both have allergies. 

My daughter who outgrew her egg allergy at 2.5 years old has a mild nut allergy to peanuts and cashews (pistachios too since they're related). We've known about her nut allergy since she was a toddler so we have avoided those nuts since. We found out about her cashew allergy from eating pesto! Apparently the "cheaper" pestos use cashews!

Recently, when we were out eating with friends at a cafe, my daughter tried a spinach pie. She's had spinach pie before and has had no reaction, however this pie had some sunflower and pumpkin seeds on it. After eating a few bites she started complaining her throat was bothering her, she couldn't swallow and tongue was itchy.

I didn't have any anti-histamines with me but we went down the block to buy some from the pharmacy. Thankfully, there was one just down the street. After she had it with water she was feeling better. (The pharmacy staff were also very helpful!)

Later that night, she threw up everything she had eaten. It was a delayed reaction :(

I asked for her to be tested for seed allergies and we found out she is allergic to pumpkin seeds. Now that we know, we can avoid this and inform her school as well. 

I'll definitely remember to bring some anti-histamines for emergencies on our future outings.

It's nice to have a Vegan Grocery store and cafe in the city to find some allergy friendly snacks and treats! Check out my past blog on the Goodstore.

Don't forget your snacks! (Allergy friendly for kids who have allergies!)

Volca Cafe

Hantverkargatan 8, 112 21 Stockholm

Thank you to Volca Cafe who sent me the ingredients of the Spinach pie right after I contacted them. They even said to let them know if there's anything else they can help with!

Their coffee and snacks are amazing! So check them out if you're in Stockholm :) 

Goodstore

Åsögatan 116, 116 24 Stockholm

Dairy and Egg Free First Foods for Baby

We found out that my little one had allergies at around 3 months old. They started getting red cheeks that got itchy and raw after the baby scratched it. We put little socks on their hands because their nails grew so fast and that way I didn't have to cut/file their nails daily.

When they started eating solid foods at around 6 mths, we had to make sure it was safe. Having an older child as well, often means we have two versions of the same meal. 

When baby turned toddler they were curious and tasted their siblings food a few times. So it's helpful to have them sit in different places not next to each other.

Here are some first food ideas for baby:

Porridge - Enago Dairy-free porridge is one brand we tried. There are others available as well and you can just add water, non-dairy milk or breastmilk.

We cooked it, then used a blender to blend food before letting baby try it. As they got older and more teeth came out, we made it chunkier. 

-Broccoli 

-Banana

-Chicken and rice

-Potatoes and Sweet Potato

-Carrot 

-Fish

Foods we tried only a couple of times:

Apple - steamed and mashed but it was too harsh on baby's tummy.

Salmon - we gave salmon until we noticed he was getting red hives and got him tested for fish. (Unfortunately, he was found to be allergic to fish)

For snacks

-Vegan banana bread or muffins - can make them yourself with a few ingredients.

-Cucumbers

-Blueberries 

-Snack Seaweed

-Dried mango (our toddler liked sucking on this and it helped on the flight, landing and takeoff with their ears)

-To-go Smoothie pouches - dairy free

-Vegan cheese puffs 

-Corn puffs

As a parent, you learn to pickup on the signs of how often your kids need snacks - hangry behavior, or crying.

It's also recommended to give the same snack for a week and see if you notice any negative reaction. In the case, you suspect allergies, mention this at your baby's next checkup. They can give you a referral to have your child tested for common allergies like egg and milk.

Skin prick test done that re-tested for various existing food allergies.

Good luck and enjoy the food adventures! They're curious and interested in trying everything at this age so go ahead and add flavoring to the meals if you like. Later on they may get more picky!

Don't forget your snacks!

Dairy-free Food Alternatives for Toddlers

 

It's not easy when one child has allergies and the other doesn't. The toddler has a long list of food allergies - including dairy.  We try our best to give them an substitute for things their sibling can eat but they can't. 

Here are some of the dairy-free alternatives we use:

Milk

Oatly

Note: We are in Sweden, so Oatly brand may not be available where you are.

Cream cheese

Oatly

Hard cheese

Violife - toddler prefers "Mature Cheddar Flavor" 

Butter

Flora

Porridge

Enago Milk free 

Of course, whenever his older sibling gets dessert, we need to give him something or he tries to take her food.

Swedish Cinnamon buns - Findus brand frozen cinnamon buns are vegan!

Whip cream

Ice cream

Sorbet or Choice brand dairy, soy, nut free ice cream (made with rice).

For a Vegan pancake mix we used to use Vantastic brand.

For chocolates, we have tried MooFree and Purdy's Chocolatier. We have seen Vegan Lindt and Kit Kat too, but Toddler surprisingly prefers candy over chocolate. 

These are the brands that are available to us at the regular grocery store in Sweden.

While visiting Canada, we found other brands for alternatives like Daiyo (cheese), Earth's Own Oat milk, and Earth's balance dairy free spread. 

Hopefully, you can find some Dairy-free alternatives where you are! Don't be discouraged if there's nothing at a grocery store, try a local Vegan store!

Don't forget your snacks (especially the allergy safe ones for your little ones with allergies)!

Ideas for Dairy Free Easter Treats

Easter is almost here. One of our favorite Easter activities is an Easter egg hunt! Kids (and adults) enjoy hunting for eggs and getting some treats.

Sweden has paper eggs which you can fill with bulk candy/or anything really. These paper eggs can be reused each year as well so it's a fun idea.

If you have kids with allergies or don't like chocolate, you can opt to avoid the chocolate eggs and just fill the eggs with other candy.

You can also find some Dairy free chocolate, eggs or bunnies like those at MooFree, Plamil SoFree and Purdy's Chocolatier!

Purdy's Chocolatier offers some delicious Vegan chocolate bars. They don't fit in the smaller paper eggs but can still be hidden in the Easter egg hunt ;)

The MooFree brand also has Easter eggs and chocolate animals. 

We have found a chocolate oatmilk egg from Plamil at Goodstore in Stockholm! 

Check out my blog on the vegan store, Goodstore! 

My toddler is allergic to dairy but loves to have whatever their older sibling has. So it's really nice to have some Dairy free options. 

Moo Free Hamster 

A Dairy free Hamster instead of a Chocolate bunny for kids to find during the egg hunt/scavenger hunt!!

Some other alternative dessert/candy options, are mini oreo cookies, ginger snaps (Pepparkakor in Swedish), dairy free mini cinnamon buns, gummy candies and lollipops.

Happy Easter egg hunting and remember don't forget your snacks (non-dairy ones too)!

Toddler Has a Nut Allergy

 

We discovered that my toddler had multiple allergies when he was a baby at just a few months old. He was tested for dairy and egg at the pediatrician's clinic as those are the two most common allergens for kids. They did both a blood test, and a skin prick test and it confirmed he is allergic to both.

Later, once he started daycare, he started to have skin reactions to soy and fish. We then had him tested for both and it was confirmed that he is allergic to both :(

But now, unfortunately, the list is growing as we found out at 2.5years old that he is allergic to nuts as well.

How did we find out or suspect he was allergic to nuts?

It happened during the holidays, when we were visiting family. The holidays mean many meals and only spending time with close family due to the Pandemic.

After one of the meals, we had cake for dessert. The cake that they packed up for us at the bakery was the wrong one - it turned out being a cake with a nut filling.

I gave him a few small tastes of it because he has tried very small amounts of nuts before and I thought it was almond. Within a few minutes he started to cough and I took him away from the table and gave him some antihistamines. We thought it could be milk or egg in that cake. But after maybe 10-20 minutes, his left eye started to get swollen - maybe he rubbed his eye we thought?

I checked with the bakery and the cake we had was Hazelnut cake. He had never tried hazelnuts, so we suspected it could be that.

We thought it would be better the next day, but his eye was still a little swollen. It wasn't until the following day, that his eye looked almost normal.

I made sure to contact the doctor once we were back in Sweden and after a blood test they confirmed he was allergic to nuts.

This week we spoke to the Doctor and got an update from the blood tests.

He IS allergic to nuts:
Hazelnuts, Cashews, Sesame, Peanuts and very allergic to Walnuts and because Pecans are related to Walnuts, Pecans too.

It's a sad day to find out he is allergic to so many things that we, his parents, enjoy. But as long as we are careful about what is in his food, we are just grateful his reaction wasn't any worse and now we know to avoid the nuts.

In most Swedish daycares, nuts are not allowed in any of the meals or on the premises, so we don't need to worry about any nut exposure there. Since he is also allergic to seeds like sesame, we gave the daycare a doctor's note that he needs meals without all the things he's allergic too. They have been offering him delicious alternatives and he likes having his own portions.

Eating in restaurants, or for takeaway, we need to be extra careful of cross contamination. 

The doctor has also prescribed us some antihistamine tablets that are easier to take with us, instead of the liquid form antihistamine.

If you suspect your child has an allergy, I hope you have a clinic and pediatrician that is helpful and willing to do blood tests to confirm your allergy suspicions. 

Will they outgrow these allergies?

It remains to be seen. Kids can outgrow egg and milk but for some it just takes longer. For the other allergies, his soy allergy has actually been improving! So we will see how it goes as he grows up.

Thanks for reading and remember, don't forget your snacks (that are allergy safe of course!)!

Vegan and Non-Vegan Snack Ideas for Kids

Allergies :(

My little one unfortunately has a few allergies. We found this out when he was just a few months old and his poor little cheeks got so red, dry and full of eczema. Big sister used to have an allergy to egg and she had the same reaction which is how we guessed.

Baby's poor little cheeks, red and sore. Had to keep gloves on so they wouldn't scratch!

After a referral to the specialist, they took some blood tests and determined he was indeed allergic to egg and milk. They said I should stop eating egg and dairy since I was breastfeeding him and after a few weeks, his face cleared up. Yup, it sometimes takes a couple of weeks for dairy to be completely out of your system. His skin looked so much better after that. The doctor said he looked like a different baby!

 

Since then, we found out he is also sensitive to soy and fish. Despite his soy allergy, he loved seaweed when he first tried it and snack seaweed is a great snack idea for kids!

An update* he had some Hazelnut cake during the holidays and he had the worst reaction he's had - his eye got swollen and remained like that for over 24 hours! We haven't had another test for him yet but plan to in the New Year. And in the meantime will be avoiding Nuts!

He unfortunately tested positive for nuts :/

Vegan Friendly Snack Ideas

1) Homemade banana muffins (I've been using a 5 ingredient recipe - flour, banana, oil, salt and baking soda - and I often freeze them soon afterwards.)

2) Bagel, or a favourite Vegan bread - my kids like Swedish Polarbröd or sliced bread AND Flora brand vegan butter (cut into little sandwiches to make it easy for them to hold) 

3) Ritz crackers are vegan! (just put them in a containter to take with you). The North American Ritz Crackers do contain soy though so check the ingredient list. 

4) Avocado (cut and bring a spoon for them to scoop out or cut a few pieces for them to use a fork) 

5) Cucumbers/carrots (put a few of each in a small container) 

6) Corn puffs

7) Snack seaweed

8) Plain Noodles - penne, fusili or something easy for them to grab. My daughter used to eat this a lot on trips.

9) Chips - my kids like salt & vinegar chips like Mama. But be sure to check the ingredients!

10) Fries (could bake these from frozen at home and pack)

For Sweet Treats 

* Fruit like blueberries or grapes (cut in quarters) are easy to put in a container or banana (no need for a container) or Watermelon either with the skin or chopped up and bring a fork to eat. Kids also like Clementines, especially peeling them by themselves haha 😄 

* Mini kanelbullar (Dairy free Swedish cinnamon buns) or any Dairy free Pastries

* Fig bars like the brand Nature's Bakery (used to be popular at our home)

* Dried mango 

* Smoothie pouches (the ones with no yogurt) for example, any smoothie pouches with Mango are a favorite at our house.

Non-Vegan Snack ideas

* Hard boiled eggs

* Cheese - cheese strings would be great but we don't get any here in Sweden,  so I often cut up cheese or we bring babybel cheese (the kids love to unwrap these too)

* Sandwiches with cheese or deli meat

* Dumplings

* Chicken nuggets

* Meatballs 

* Vietnamese Noodle Soup or Pho with chicken or just plain noodles. Still a favorite!

A Few Other Tips...

* Put the snack bag by the door, so you are reminded to bring it.

* For non-perishable items, keep a few in the diaper bag or snack bag.

* Replenish it right after an outing unless it's with items that need to be in the fridge, otherwise, I forget to do it.

* Invest in some good containers of various sizes.

* Pack a few extras - a non-disposable straw (we use metal at our house for drinks), tissue packs, and a couple of utensils.

Kids (AND their parents) need their snacks, when they are out on adventures during the day. It's nice to have a variety of snacks on hand and to change the snacks once in awhile to encourage the kids to eat them!

These dumplings, we got takeaway from a place nearby and the kids love them. They also enjoy the avocado sushi.

Have fun on your adventures and remember, don't forget your snacks!