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Gluten-free Lemon Cake

I posted a picture of my daughter's birthday cake back in June and got a request for the recipe, so here it is finally!

My 1st attempt at the recipe

I adapted a Bundt cake recipe that I found online. It was a video of an English lady in a country style kitchen, and I hand wrote all the ingredients on a piece of paper to convert measurements, so I could not tell you who the original source is. This first picture is my first attempt at making the cake. It turned out great, but my glazing skills left something to be desired. I was too impatient and didn't want to wait for the cake to fully cool, so all the glaze just ran off the warm cake! Ooops. It was still yummy though!

If you are unfamiliar, Bundt cake is just cake that is baked in the signature Bundt cake shaped pan. It is usually a little denser than traditional cake--more like a pound cake or coffee cake. It is usually not frosted, but glazed. So it is an easy cake to make for any gathering that doesn't warrant a fully decorated frosted cake. They can still be pretty as long as you are a little more patient than I was with the glaze, and maybe fill the hole with fruit and edible flowers (I wasn't really prepared since I was just giving a recipe a try).

So why did I choose this cake for a birthday? First, lemon cake was requested; I think I have the only 8 year-old that doesn't want chocolate cake! Second, I wanted a sturdy, denser cake so that I could easily handle the layers. I have tried other recipes that have yielded a fluffier, or softer cake but they break too easily upon handling or they don't bear the weight of layers very well.

For the birthday cake I made a double recipe and baked it in three 8 inch round cake pans. As you can see, the layers turned out perfectly even and the cake sliced beautifully. Since I was a bit rushed for time on this one, I grabbed some store-bought frosting and added a little lemon zest and a few drops of lemon essence. I also skipped making my own berry glaze and just put about a quarter of a cup of berry jam in the microwave for about 30 seconds and stirred it up to make it soft enough to easily spread between layers. (Tip: Pipe a bit of the frosting around the edge of the layers and then add the glaze. The frosting will keep the glaze from leaking out of the layers and spoiling the look of the frosting on the outside of your cake.) Once I had my layers in place, I frosted the outside of the cake with the lemon-zested vanilla frosting and topped it with the printed sugar sheet, because there was no way that I was going to get that logo right free-handed! I think it turned out pretty good if I say so myself, and she loved it. Bonus: those who were familiar with vegan and GF baking were super impressed.

"I would not have know this was vegan or gluten-free if you hadn't told me!"

The finished cake.

So while this recipe as originally intended to be a Bundt cake, cake is cake! Let your imagination go wild! I have done cupcakes with this recipe, so it works great for the obvious stuff. I think I will try putting it in a doughnut pan next! YUM!

Gluten-Free Lemon Cake

 

PREP TIME 15 | COOK TIME 35 | TOTAL TIME 50

 

Servings: 12

Category: Dessert

Cuisine: Dessert

Ingredients

Cake

Milk 1 1/4 cup

Vinegar 2 tsp

GF Flour 3 2/3 cups

Baking Powder 2 tsp

Baking Soda 1 tsp

Salt 1/2 tsp

Sugar 1 2/3 cup

Oil 1 cup

Lemon 2 zest and juice

Vanilla 1 tsp Aquafaba* 6 Tbsp

Glaze

Powdered Sugar 1 3/4 cup Lemon juice 1/4 cup Butter (melted) 1 tsp Lemon zest or 3 drops of essential oil

Instructions

Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the milk and vinegar together and allow to curdle for 5 minutes.

Sift together all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Mix all the wet ingredients together in a small bowl. Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Grease and flour a Bundt cake pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then allow to completely cool on a rack before glazing.

Glaze

Cream all ingredients together until smooth.

If the glaze is too runny add a tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time until desired consistency. If it is too thick add a teaspoon of lemon juice at a time until desired consistency. (The glaze should be the consistency of corn syrup. Test the consistency by taking a spoonful from the bowl and drizzle back into the glaze; the drizzled glaze should leave a trail.)

Notes

See the blog portion for birthday cake decorating tips!

Also have fun with the flavors! I subbed the lemon and a half of the cup of milk for pureed berries and made a delicious berry cake. I stuck with the lemon glaze, but you can get creative!

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