Gluten-free cake recipes?

I have a friend who has had to go on a gluten free diet. She is my regular cat sitter and also she and her partner have been really helpful to me in all sorts of ways and I like to do things for them that they don't do, such as have them to home cooked meals and bake for them, which they love. But now I can't make them their favourite cakes from my well tested recipes. I have tried substituting spelt flour and it is horrible. Can I use corn or rice flour? What should I change? Does anyone have some good recipes for baking scones or cakes without using wheat flour?

I have a box of gluten free cake mix which uses rice flour. Sorry I don't have any recipes, though.

Try this site? http://www.celiac.com/categories/Glu...dFree-Recipes/ and look for other gluten free recipes made for those with celiacs.

Originally Posted by jennyranson

I have a friend who has had to go on a gluten free diet. She is my regular cat sitter and also she and her partner have been really helpful to me in all sorts of ways and I like to do things for them that they don't do, such as have them to home cooked meals and bake for them, which they love. But now I can't make them their favourite cakes from my well tested recipes. I have tried substituting spelt flour and it is horrible. Can I use corn or rice flour? What should I change? Does anyone have some good recipes for baking scones or cakes without using wheat flour?

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Wow. Does she have celiac/sprue? Bummer. One of my neighbor ladies has that and it's tough! As S_W suggested, maybe an online search?

I know King Arthur Flour in Vermont has gluten free mixes...and they are pretty good.

that celiac web site has proportions and ingredients for gluten free flour mix
http://www.celiac.com/articles/1161/...ree/Page1.html

ETA: Also King Arthur Flour has a good baking cookbook for gluten free..
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/detail.jsp?id=2724

http://www.glutenfree.com/Gluten-Fre...lb/Item126012M

The Culinary Institue of America put out a GREAT Gluten free cookbook called Gluten free cooking. My brother and sister-in-law gave it to me for Christmas along with a gluten free comfort food cookbook.

I also have a gluten free gourmet cookbook.

The challenge with gluten free cooking is getting the mix of flours correct.

Whole Foods Market, or any good health-food store, should have gluten-free mixes. I don't remember the brand, but my nephew used one to make a cake a couple of years ago, and it was excellent!

There are also "flourless cake" recipes -- like this one:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,186,...254193,00.html

Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

Whole Foods Market, or any good health-food store, should have gluten-free mixes. I don't remember the brand, but my nephew used one to make a cake a couple of years ago, and it was excellent!

There are also "flourless cake" recipes -- like this one:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,186,...254193,00.html

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ohhh yeah WHole Foods is great for people who need to go gluten free but you
can get the mixes in any health food store and some supermarkets (like the stop and shop here carries gluten free stuff). There is a brownie mix that is really good and if you dont' want to cook whole foods carries gluten free granola bars the company I like the most is Bakery on Main. Glutino is a little hit or miss. I love their gluten free cheerios but I can't stand their gluten free breakfast bars.

Thanks. I don't want to use ready cake mixes if I can help it, and I doubt I would find them here. I have found a recipe online that uses a combination of corn flour, rice flour and potato flour for a chocolate cake. I am not sure what potato flour is - I assume it is not just instant dried mash? I have never been into health food shops here - I think there are some in Caen, but that is 40 miles away! My daughter is coming out here next week, I will ask her to make a trip to one in London and see what she can find, maybe a recipe book too.

The bread bakery that I work at makes gluten free bread, muffins and chocolate chunk cookies as well as pizza dough. These however come in a mix which eggs, buttermilk, orange juice are added. I've read the labels and they do contain rice and potato flour.
The breads do not have yeast in them and are quite dense. Oh we made "hamburger" buns as well and they do not look like the buns/rolls one would buy in a typical bake shop.

I sample a new one we made -a cranberry orange muffin and the taste was very similar to our regular cranberry orange muffins-just a bit more moist. One of my co-workers prefers the GF blueberry muffins and chocolate chunk cookies to the ones we make with wheat flour! (I really should sample them).

We have quite a customer base for these products and people will come from over 60 miles away to buy them in bulk and freeze.

Mmmm Gail, makes me hungry! My daughter is going to pay a visit to her local health shop in the UK and see what she can bring me. It is difficult - I have been baking a cake a week for my friends for over a year, and now I can't and they miss their treat!

Originally Posted by jennyranson

Mmmm Gail, makes me hungry! My daughter is going to pay a visit to her local health shop in the UK and see what she can bring me. It is difficult - I have been baking a cake a week for my friends for over a year, and now I can't and they miss their treat!

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I always have potato flour in my cupboard. I sometimes use it to thicken gravy rather than regular flour or cornstarch. I usually use cornstarch for chicken gravy so it doesn't lighten the golden brown colour like flour does.

I would think you should be able to find potato flour easily in the same area as the rice flour and such.

I hope you find some nice recipes for your friends.

A bit O/T, but for those in the US Outback Steak house apparently has a gluten free menu. They have very very strict policies to avoid cross contamination.

Originally Posted by GailC

The bread bakery that I work at makes gluten free bread, muffins and chocolate chunk cookies as well as pizza dough.

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How careful are they at making sure absolutely nothing contaminates the gluten free breads? Surfaces and knives/utensils can't be shared at all, the breads should never be allowed to touch each other, and you can't go from a normal bread to touching a gluten free one or something that will touch the gluten free bread. Otherwise it can't really be advertised as gluten free.
Sounds crazy, but for some even the tiniest amount can make them very sick.

But that's for those with celiacs/gluten intolerance and not just a person choosing to eat gluten free without the intolerance to it.

The two ladies that made the gluten free products don't start them until mid morning.(about 10 am). The regular breads have been done baking by 6:30 am.
No wheat products are made that day. The owners do counsel the new buyers of the GF products that there might be wheat flour in the air as this is primarily a wheat based bakery. The ladies who make the products are very fussy about any type of contamination by any wheat products. These products -the bread and buns are placed in plastic bags once cooled that afternoon and the cookies and muffins placed in specific containers to exclude any contamination as well.
When people come in to pick up any items we use they papery type of things to pick up the products which are discarded after one use. We don't provide sample of these products either.

A good friend of mine made this cake and brought it one of the times we had her family over for dinner. It was FANTASTIC! I don't eat cake very often at all but this one was so delicious... She mentioned she used organic oranges (always a good idea if you are using the zest). She didn't put the chips in the cake. I asked for the recipe, I don't know where it's from.


Orange Cake with Chocolate Ganache
\t
3 cups\torganic light spelt flour
1 cup\t\traw, unrefined sugar
1 tsp\t\tsea salt
1 ½ tsp\tbaking soda
½ tsp\tbaking powder (preferably non-aluminum)
1 cup\t \torange zest (from approximately 2 large oranges)
2\t\tlarge oranges, juiced (same 2 oranges from zest!)
1 cup\t\tvanilla soymilk
1/3 cup\tsunflower oil
1 Tbsp\tpure vanilla extract
1/3 cup\tsemi-sweet dairy-free chocolate chips (optional)

Ganache:
1 cup\t\tsemi-sweet dairy-free chocolate chips
1/3 cup\tvanilla soymilk


Oil a 10-inch Bundt pan.
Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and orange zest in a medium sized bowl; set aside.
Combine orange juice, soymilk, oil and vanilla in a separate bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix thouroughly. Add chocolate chips (if using). Pour batter into Bundt pan. Bake at 350 F for approximately 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (For muffins, sprinkle a little raw, unrefined sugar over the batter in each cup before baking and bake for only 30 minutes or until the tops are slightly browned.) Set aside to cool.

Ganache: Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler. Stir in soymilk as soon as chocolate chips have melted. Remove from heat immediately when mixture is fully combined and smooth.

Remove cake from pan and place on serving platter. Drizzle ganache over cake. Cool for 5 minutes and serve.

While that sounds like a great recipe (and it does sound yummy!!!), I do not believe that spelt flour is GF. http://www.celiaccentral.org/Resourc..._1/vobId__177/

Originally Posted by emrldsky

While that sounds like a great recipe (and it does sound yummy!!!), I do not believe that spelt flour is GF. http://www.celiaccentral.org/Resourc..._1/vobId__177/

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Oops, my mistake!

Originally Posted by GailC

The ladies who make the products are very fussy about any type of contamination by any wheat products.

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That's great! They must be a fairly popular bakery since they put that much work into their baking (you can always taste it).

Hopefully others reading will realize how strict they must be too to avoid cross contamination.

I will try that cake, thanks Swampwitch. My friend uses Spelt flour, so I do not think it is an issue with her, though I think she thinks it is GF. I will talk to her about it. But I did not know there were different types - I tried one that just said Spelt flour and it made everything very heavy.