"She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness." Proverbs 31:27

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Basic Gluten Free Cake

I offered to bake a birthday cake for a friend at church and "volunteered" my friend, Chrystal to make the other birthday cake since it was gluten free, only to learn that the one I was making also had to be gluten free.  I have had some pretty bad gluten free cakes in my life, so I was not sure I was up to the task.  I took out my Bob's Red Mill Baking Book to find a recipe.  I found one and changed it just a tad bit.  My husband, who hates "healthy" cakes and is not a fan of cake (I make too much of it) actually loved it! (Remember the Life cereal commercial "Mikey likes it"?) Here's my recipe for delicious, gluten free cake.
I made a two layer 8 inch round cake with this recipe.
Preheat your oven to 350°.
Ingredients
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2 cups sugar (I used palm sugar)
4 eggs
1 cup rice flour (rice flour can be dry)
1 cup oat flour (oat flour is very soft and falls apart easily, so I combined them)
4 tablespoons tapioca or corn starch
12 tablespoons potato starch or instant potato flakes
1 1/2 tsp guar gum or 2 tsp xanthum gum (these are the agents that keep the gluten free flours from falling apart.)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (I "soured" regular milk by adding about a tablespoon of lemon juice or you can use vinegar)
2 tsp vanilla (I used Mexican vanilla which almost has a cinnamon taste)
You can also add different spices to give it a different flavor, lice cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, etc.
Directions
Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature.
Grease your pans.
Cream the butter and sugar about four minutes.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Whisk together all of your dry ingredients.  In a small bowl, combine the buttermilk and vanilla.  On low speed, beat half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then beat in half of the milk.  Repeat with the remaining flour and milk.  Do not over beat, I usually finish it off by hand.  Over beating will make your cake tough.
Bake your cake for 25-30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.  Bake cupcakes for 20 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.
I used my fluffy icing recipe found here.
I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I did!
Remember, anybody can cook if you have an easy recipe to follow!  Feel free to ask me any questions!
Missy

7 comments:

Denise :) said...

This sounds good ... I'd probably substitute coconut sugar for the palm sugar. I'm going to go check out your fluffy frosting, now! :)

retrorevival.biz said...

Very pretty cake, Missy. Your friend is lucky:)

~Cindy

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

I don't need gluten free but I see so many recipes that look just as good as the "regular" recipes. I might try making something gluten free sometime.

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Beautiful cake and for anyone making a gluten free cake this looks good! Thanks for sharing.
Freemotion at the River Linky Party Tuesday

Snoodles said...

I have a family member that needs to go gluten free....thanks for a great recipe! I'm off to check out your frosting....

Crafts a la Mode said...

My daughter is gluten free so I've had some very bad tasting cookies and cakes. But I have had some good cakes, too. Thanks for the recipe. I'll pass it on to my daughter...Linda

Kristi Dominguez said...

This turned out great! Thanks for the yummy recipe!

"Oh taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." Psalm 34:8