Gluten Free Lemon Drizzle Cake

Lemon Drizzle Cake has been one of my family’s favourite cakes for years now. It is loved so much that my daughters have even asked me a few times to make it for their birthday instead of any other creamy or chocolate birthday cakes.

The recipe for the very much loved cake comes from a magazine from many years ago and it has been perfect until I thought of making it healthier and gluten free. I was a bit anxious about the result of replacing the regular flour with a mixture of gluten free flours. Simply, when you have a recipe with ingredients that work perfectly you worry that changing anything may destroy the final outcome. In case of Lemon Drizzle Cake I was afraid that using gluten free flour mixture could make this cake dry. I thought about it so much that I actually dreamt the solution: ground almonds! They give moisture to the cake so it is equally delicious as the regular version but can also be enjoyed by people who can’t tolerate gluten.

INGREDIENTS (for 16 portions):

Cake:

120ml sunflower oil,

60g corn flour,

40g rice flour,

60g ground almonds,

2.5tsp baking powder,

170g sugar,

2 eggs,

6 tbsp milk,

grated rind of 1 lemon.

Icing:

100g sugar,

4 tbsp lemon juice.

METHOD:

1. Preheat an oven to 180 Celsius degrees (160 for fan oven).
2. Line with baking paper a 20cm x 26cm cake tin.
3. Put all the cake ingredients to a food processor and process for 2-3 minutes. You could also use an electric mixer to beat the batter.
4. Transfer the batter to the prepared tin, put to the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
5. Prepare the icing by mixing the sugar and lemon juice together.
6. Spread the icing evenly on the baked but still hot cake, let it cool down.