Yes, it’s hard to believe, but today is The Happy Coeliac’s 2nd birthday! Two whole years ago I started up this blog with my first post titled “New Beginnings“, with the intention of using it to help me through the early days post-diagnosis. I have to say, it worked! Writing this blog has connected me with so many great people on Twitter, Facebook, and in real life, and I am extremely thankful for all the support I’ve received. Not to mention the leaps and bounds I have made in gluten-free cooking and baking since then.
You can’t have a birthday without a cake, so I thought I would review one of the recipes from the Honeybuns book that I received AGES ago and promised to review. Sorry Honeybuns! I love your cakes so I’ve been quite excited about making them myself. I had some lemons that needed eating so this recipe was perfect.
Honeybuns Gluten-free Baking by Emma Goss-Custard (an ideal name for a baker, I think!) is full of delicious and wholesome cake, scone, muffin and traybake recipes. The reason I have such a soft spot for this book (and their cakes in general) is that they have moved away from the gluten-free trap of using rice or potato flour in everything. This means they use things like ground almonds (and other ground nuts), polenta, sorghum flour, quinoa flour, and a lot of fresh and dried fruit in their recipes. White rice flour and potato flour are responsible for a lot of the awful supermarket FreeFrom cakes that are around. They are the reason that people say things like “Oh, I don’t like gluten-free cake, I had it once from Marks and Spencer and it was a bit dry”. Sorghum and quinoa flour may be hard to source, and more expensive, but the results are dramatically better. Not to mention the addition of ground nuts, which always guarantees a great texture.
I live by the principle that I would rather pay more for ingredients and eat better cake, less frequently, than eat still-rather-expensive-but-bland cake more often. This way I can really celebrate special occasions, like my blog (or cat’s) birthday.
The lemon drizzle cake
The only ingredient in this recipe you may find hard to source is sorghum flour. Bob’s Red Mill does it and I would advise against brands that aren’t explicitly “gluten-free” since they can be cross contaminated with gluten. Other than that, all other ingredients should be found in most major supermarkets.
The cake came out wonderfully – a great texture and bursting with flavour and moisture. Oh the drizzle! Next time I might make slightly more drizzle, or leave it to soak a bit longer, but I got overexcited about the cake and wanted to take photos.
The top was dusted with granulated and caster sugar, which also soaked into the top, giving a nice crust.
I was really pleased with this recipe (especially being the sort that has all the random obscure flours in my cupboards) so I will definitely try out some more recipes soon! Bring on the Ginger Hippo Cake…
Honeybuns Gluten-free Baking by Emma Goss-Custard is available on Amazon for £9.59.
Click here to read more about the Honeybuns story on the Guardian website (and for a lemon & ginger slice recipe)
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