Most kids look forward to eating cake on their birthdays; however, on the first birthday of Melanie Hohman’s son Bradley, he had to settle for a cantaloupe decorated like one. He was diagnosed with severe food allergies at 9 months, and his condition prevents him from eating wheat, gluten, nuts, eggs, dairy, and soy. Melanie’s trial-and-error recipes for Bradley had previously been modest successes at best, but the cantaloupe was the last straw: her son wouldn’t celebrate his second birthday without a proper birthday cake.

Melanie has achieved her goal and then some with her critically lauded gluten- and nut-free bakery, Sensitive Sweets. Here, she keeps about 14 carefully crafted cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and breads on hand, all of which are free of gluten, nuts, eggs, soy, and dairy. With Bradley in mind, she also customizes cakes with an arsenal of three frostings, four fillings, and seven flavors. Those include carrot, cinnamon sugar, and marble, which you can eat or carve into a sculpture of an empty plate.