Recipe Collection: Gluten-Free White Cake

Written by Kate Tietje

We have six family members, so we have a lot of birthdays.  And especially around this time of year — we have a mid-July, early August, and mid-September (plus my dad in mid-August and my mom in late September, and we usually celebrate with them too).

Sometimes, I get tired and just go to a local bakery and pick up a cake.  It’s so much easier.  Of course, if I want any sort of “decent” cake, it will be expensive — to the tune of $30 – $40 for a normal 8″ round.  That price tag makes me shrivel up a little bit.  Not that they don’t deserve it, especially the independent bakeries.  They use good ingredients and put a lot of time into making it look nice.  Still…I can do it at home with less sugar and for far less money.

For some birthdays, that’s what’s on my mind, and I decide to bake for myself.  Last year, one of my boys turned 2, and we were having people over who were gluten-free. I wanted something “healthy-ish” anyway, so I created this cake. It was actually pretty darn good.  It tasted like one of those frozen Pepperidge Farms cakes I used to love before we started eating real food.  We even kept it frozen and enjoyed it that way for several days after his birthday was over.

We bought cakes for my daughter’s birthday (she has very definite ideas about what she wants, and I rarely feel like baking in January!) and my older son’s birthday (we traveled several days just before his birthday, so there was just no chance to bake), and now my other son is turning 3, so it’s time to bake again.  And I came back to this cake.

Sure, we can do gluten.  We can.  (Although some of us need to be grain-free, really, right now.)  But this cake is so good that I prefer it to some gluten-full varieties.

This time, I’m frosting and filling it with Salted Chocolate Buttercream.  It’s going to be delicious.  On top of that, I will create some sort of decoration with Thomas the Tank Engine at his request.

Gluten-Free White Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 7/8 cups white rice flour
• 2 tbsp. coconut flour
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup organic sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups milk

Directions:

Step 1: In a medium bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (rice flour through the cream of tartar). Set aside.

Step 2: In a large bowl, blend the sugar and butter until creamy and lightened in color. Add the vanilla and beat again.

Step 3: Add the flour and milk to the butter mix, alternating a little of each at once until it is all incorporated. The batter will be thick.

Step 4: In another bowl (you can reuse the flour bowl), beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.

Step 5: Fold the egg whites into the batter gently, using a scooping gesture to prevent deflating as much as possible.

Step 6: Pour the batter into two 8″ round pans, a 9×13 pan, or maybe 18 – 24 cupcakes.

Step 7: Bake at 350 for about 20 – 25 minutes (adjusting up for a 9×13). Test with a toothpick in the center to ensure it is done.

Step 8: Once the cake has cooled for 10 or 15 minutes, remove from pans. Serve as desired.

What’s your favorite kind of cake?