Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake

The latest in adventures of gluten-free baking involved experimenting with various vanilla cupcake recipes. After much tweaking and several trials (see this post), the cupcakes tasted good, but the consistency was strange. I figured this was the result of trying to make a thick cake without eggs or gluten. I tried using my chocolate cake recipe, but modified slightly to make a vanilla cake.

Several things I discovered:

• Gluten, dairy, and egg- free baking lends itself more to thinner goods… cookies and thin cakes.
• Chocolate covers up the “gluten-free” taste of the chocolate cake, which means I had several tries just to get the taste “vanilla cake” tasting.

Notes for this cake in particular (read before making):

• Do not over mix.  Unless you want a cake with the consistency of rubber. Seriously. And don’t use a mixer. Wooden spoon works the best.
• Clear vanilla extract might help make the cake less yellow… just make sure it is gluten-free.
• Lemon juice helps give the cake a crisp flavor and mask the coconut oil.
• Use pure cane sugar. The taste is remarkable. Refined sugar works, but pure cane sugar is the best.
• All dry ingredients need to be sifted to have a lighter texture. My sifter has been contaminated with wheat flour, so I used a metal mesh strainer similar to this one.

After a couple trials, this is the deliciously addictive result! (especially paired with this coconut-vanilla icing!)

Coconut Vanilla Cake

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a round cake pan with coconut oil. (Or put liners in a 12-cupcake pan.)

In a small bowl, measure out:

• 1 3/4 c. general purpose gluten free flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Baking Flour) 
• 1/4 c. brown rice flour
• 1 c. pure cane sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Sift these ingredients into the mixing bowl. Pour in:

• 1/3 c. melted coconut oil (not hot)
• 2 Tablespoons French Vanilla flavored coconut milk creamer (note: this is the only ingredient I used that is manufactured in the same factory as tree nuts, otherwise this recipe is nut-free)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp gluten-free vanilla extract
• 1 c. cold water

Stir these ingredients until just blended. Seriously, if you want to leave a few lumps, that will be OK.

Pour into pan and bake 30-38 minutes. (Note: This cake takes longer to bake than the chocolate version and is more moist. I started checking the cake at 30 minutes. I waited until the top was browning and my finger did not leave any indentation when testing it. See the picture below. It is mostly done, but 5-7 more minutes would make it even better (notice the finger indentation).

Let the cake sit in the pan at least 1 hour. Remove from pan and ice with this delicious coconut-vanilla icing. Or eat it plain. It’s really that yummy. I keep this cake in the refrigerator. It is delicious served room temperature or cold!