Gluten Free Cake: Plain Vanilla


For years I've been mucking around and trying to create a gluten free cake that's just a plain vanilla one - perfect for birthday cakes! Now I'm the first to admit that my cake decorating skills aren't the best, I really like the kids choosing a theme, I ice the cake and then I stick on some toys - voila!! I did have a go with this plain cake and used the fab Hopper Natural food colours in pink to get this pretty colour for the icing. 


I cooked this cake at 180ºC the first time and it did cook much faster but it was dry and crumbly. It also rose up in the centre a lot and cracked. Take the time to cook it on a lower temperature so that it cooks nice and evenly and doesn't dry out at a higher heat. I covered it fully in foil after the first time I made it for subsequent trials and I got a much better result.


Now my son is okay with oats so I do tend to use oat flour quite a bit if I need something mild in flavour. I just grind up some wheat free oats in my Thermomix into a flour - you could do the same with a food processor. If you need gluten free though, be sure to replace these in the recipe with white rice flour or another medium flour that's mild in flavour. I also just used a regular organic sugar for this recipe rather than rapadura or coconut sugar because I wanted it to be light in colour like a butter cake.


I only had time to have one attempt at egg free for this cake and I used my normal 'chia egg' method.


The cake did work and it was nice, almost like a mud cake but it was definitely flatter than the version with egg and denser. Still tasted great. If you try another egg substitute that works well can you let us know in the comments below for future cake makers. Thanks x
 

Gluten Free Cake Recipe - Happy Tummies

 

Gluten Free Cake Recipe: Plain Vanilla

Gluten free, wheat free, dairy free, soy free, nut free, can be egg free

Ingredients:

1½ cups (120g) desiccated coconut
1 cup (140g) oat flour - or white rice flour for gluten free
1 cup (180g) potato starch
1½ cups (220g) castor sugar - I used Coles Organic Raw Sugar (it's very fine and light in colour)
3 tsps baking powder
1½ tsps xanthan gum or guar gum
¼ cup (55g) melted coconut oil
2 eggs OR 2 tbps white chia seeds soaked for 5 minutes in 120mls filtered water
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 cup (250mls) milk - I used oat milk which is not gluten free but any safe milk will be fine

Method:

  • Heat oven to 160°C
  • Lightly grease cake tin and line with baking paper - I used a 20cm spring form pan
  • Put all dry ingredients in a food processor or Thermomix and blitz for about 30 seconds until the coconut is fine like flour
  • Add all of the wet ingredients and mix until well combined
  • Pour mix into prepared tin and smooth the top so it's level
  • Place a sheet of foil around the base of the tin and a sheet over the top so the tin is fully covered
  • Set a timer for an hour and after an hour remove the foil from the top only - keep an eye on it just in case your oven is hotter than mine
  • Leave cake in oven a further 30 minutes or so until it's fully cooked - test with a skewer if you need to - again, keep a close eye on it so you take it out just as it's cooked so it doesn't dry out
  • Remove cake from the oven and rest for 5 minutes
  • Carefully remove cake from the pan and leave to cool before icing on a wire rack


I made a super simple icing for this cake like I would for a birthday cake. I just mixed together 1½ cups (225g) pure icing sugar with 50g Nuttelex and about 1 tbsp water. Add the water slowly so it's firm enough if you want to pipe it like I did. I also added a couple of drops of Hopper Natural Food Colour in Pink - isn't it a pretty colour?!
 

 Recipe From happytummies.com.au - Copyright 2016 Happy Tummies

 

Enjoy!! Lisa x