I don’t do “bleh” gluten free cakes for birthdays.
Well, actually I don’t do “bleh” cakes at all. If I’m going to bake a cake, then it’s got to be the kind of cake that makes someone say, “Wow, this is the best ______ cake I’ve ever had!” (That blank is not for what you’re thinking. Insert your choice of chocolate, pound, carrot, etc!)
Bleh cakes start with a box. Good cakes start with flour and sugar and eggs and fat. But even then, that’s actually no guarantee of a good cake.
What does it take then?
Careful recipe crafting. Each ingredient of a good cake recipe is chosen for a specific reason and it’s particularly important with gluten free cake recipes, where one simple ingredient change can take a cake from moist and delicious to some thing that cannot even charitably be called a cake.
If you think that you don’t like gluten free cakes, I challenge you to try this one! Make it exactly as I’ve written it – no substitutions to make it “healthier” – and see if it doesn’t change everything about what you thought a gluten free cake could be.
Ingredients
Yield: Two 8″ layers
Instructions
- Place rack in lower third of oven with a baking stone on it. Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease and flour two 8 x 2-inch round cake pans. - In a large mixing bowl combine the flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and orange zest and mix well with a fork for at least 60 seconds.
- In another bowl, whisk the eggs and brown sugar. Stir in the oil, orange juice and vanilla extract.
- Gradually add the liquid mixture into the flour, stirring constantly by hand.
Stir in the carrots. - Pour the batter into the prepared pans and use the scale to make sure the batter is divided equally. Drop each pan onto the counter from a height of 4 inches (10 cm).
- Place both cakes on the baking stone and bake until the interior temperature is 209F/98C. This should take approximately 30 – 35 minutes. If you don’t have a thermometer, the center should spring back when touched and the cakes should not have pulled away from the sides until after you remove them from the oven
- Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing the cakes from the pan. Continue cooling until they reach room temperature.
- Ice the cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.
also, do you consider the corn starch as a flour? the reason I ask is because it is not in the instructions when to put that into the mix…
Yes, the corn starch is a flour =)
Butter?? Pecans?? Not in ingredient list. Then what do you do with them after you cook them–do you add them to the batter with the carrots??
Step one is about butter and pecans… No mention of quantities or what to do with them later? Thanks!
I would like to see a pic of the inside of this cake.
I can’t believe you still use Canola oil. That nut is poisonous. How about walnut oil.
Mary, thanks so much for this recipe. I love carrot cake but have not yet tried to make a GF one yet – I really look forward to trying this one out!
GlutenExodus.com
Sounds wonderful! Except for the canola oil which I won’t use, as I know how it’s produced. So, the dilemma is what do I substitute. Going to try organic grapeseed oil instead. Coconut oil would absorb the flours too much & any other oil would impart a different taste. Thanks for the recipe & keep ’em coming!
Please let me know how it turns out!