Gluten-Free Recipes

Posh Ginger Cake
Good for birthdays. Best baked the day before and iced as soon as possible before eating Equipment:
Food processor
Whisk (electric helps!)
Springform cake tin
zester (optional)

Cake:
100g milk chocolate
200g shelled pecans or walnuts
100g soft light brown sugar, or caster sugar, plus two tablespoons.
120g butter
2 level tablespoons powdered ginger
3 large eggs

Topping:
250ml double cream
1 jar stem ginger balls
Miscellaneous decorative items, eg chocolate or nuts
1 lemon (optional)

Preheat the oven to 190 C / 375 F / Gas 5 and butter the cake tin. Melt the chocolate and allow to cool a little. While you're waiting, whizz the nuts with the two tablespoons of sugar in the food processor very thoroughly, till they're as powdery as they're going to get. Empty them into a bowl.

Place butter and sugar in the empty food processor and process until light and fluffy. Pour in the melted chocolate and process till blended. Add the ginger and then add the eggs one at a time, mixing and scraping down the sides after each addition. Add the nuts, mixing until just incorporated.

Turn into the prepared cake tin and bake for 35 minutes. Remove (it should be just coming away from the sides of the tin) and leave to cool for 20 minutes. Turn it out onto a rack. If the underside looks too soggy, put the whole rack with the upside down cake back into a low oven for 10 minutes, then switch the oven off and leave it overnight.

The next day, not longer than 3 hours before you want to serve the cake, drain the stem ginger, reserving the syrup (turning the jar upside down over a bowl usually works, since the ginger usually bottlenecks and doesn't fall out. Whip the cream. When almost stiff, pour in three-quarters of the ginger syrup and whisk to a soft sweet fluffy yumminess.

Slather the cream over your cooled cake. Arrange the ginger round the edge, the dark things like chocolate curls or nuts (or caramel nests work very well) in the middle, and lemon zest scattered over the top for a bit of colour.

This is much less depressing than your average gluten-free cake. About one zillion calories per slice.

Miranda (Unverified), 25/02/10

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Wheat-free short-crust pastry After despairing of finding a really tasty gluten-free pastry, I have found in Jane Grigson's English Food a marvellous Hannah Glasse (1708 – 1770) recipe for flourless pastry which tastes just like normal almondy shortcrust.

6 oz ground almonds
2 oz caster sugar
1 egg white

Mix together till it holds together and leave in the fridge for half an hour (not longer). Knead it lightly together and roll it out and put it in your pie dish (does an 8 or 9 inch one). It will need pressing in pieces, more like cookie dough than pastry, but on the plus side there's practically no shrinkage.

It takes about 1 hour at gas 4 / 180 C / 350 F. It should be lightly gilded, not scorched. Jane Grigson warns that if it's not eaten the day it's made it gets tough, but we've never so far had any left over for long enough to verify this.

Minnie the Muncher (Unverified), 25/09/09

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Rice flour (Dove's Farm produce a pure rice flour, and you can now buy it at any major supermarket) is a perfectly good substitute in some things. Successes (without making any significant changes to a normal wheat-flour recipe) include choux pastry and ginger nut biscuits; failures creme patissiere and scones. The stronger the flavours you're using, the better - and of course it won't hold substances together as glutenous flour does.

LovePuppet (DI User), 25/09/09

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