Birthday without a cake?

We celebrated my Mom's birthday at the end of August and anyone who is friends with me on Facebook probably got a little tired of seeing my Instagram pictures about the cake I made for her.

The whole idea of the cake started at the beginning of August when we took a trip to Saint John and ended up in the Liquid Gold Store; never mind the fact that we have yet to frequent the one in Halifax. While perusing the titles of oil in the store, my mother happened upon a recipe for a cake which was pinned next to a vat of Meyer Lemon Olive Oil. Needless to say she was intrigued, bought a bottle of the oil, got a copy of the recipe both of which ended up in my possession, because you cannot be expected to make your own cake.

It was not a complicated recipe and I personally gave up using butter in cakes and cookies long before I had to go dairy free. It was an eggless cake though which worried me. I had never attempted a gluten free, eggless cake. I really did not want a disaster on my hands and a birthday without a cake. I looked through my cupboards to see what gluten free flours I had on hand. I thought about using all rice flour with a little bit of coconut flour to absorb any excess liquid, but that would have made for a high carb, low fiber content cake and resembling more of a sponge cake. I had Teff flour in my cupboard and while it is a really good flour for bread and I have used it with other flours to make muffins, it can be a little dense. I had Sorghum flour as well and that is what I normally mix with my Teff flour for my muffins. I like a dense muffin but I didn't want an overly dense cake. Lastly, I had Garbanzo and Fava Bean flour which is also good; but again, I was unsure of how it would react in a cake. I decided to mix Teff flour, Rice flour and Coconut flour together and crossed my fingers that they would work. I also decided that white sugar was not an option. I know my Mom watches her intake and I try to use it sparingly now that I am gluten free, just because it is such an additive in a lot of pre-packaged gluten free options. I opted for coconut palm sugar instead and then pretty much stuck to the rest of the remaining ingredients with the addition of xanthan gum.

 The end result was better than I could have hoped for. The batter did what it was supposed to do when the baking soda reacted with the vinegar as leavening. It wasn't too heavy, nor too light and it wasn't overly starchy. It looked and felt like a cake when I removed them from the pans. I frosted it with a classic vanilla buttercream and you can see the end result below.

 

It ended up being one of the best cakes that I have ever made and I would definitely make it again, with or without the lemon infused olive oil. It had a nice hint of lemon with a touch of vanilla in the frosting and it was very light and moist. My Dad went back for a second piece. I always know I have made something good whenever my Dad goes back for more.

 

Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake (Gluten Free Version)

2 1/2 cups Flour ( 1 cup Teff flour*, 1 cup Rice flour, 1/2 cup Coconut flour)

1 3/4 cups Coconut Palm Sugar

2 tsp Salt

2 tsp Gluten Free Baking Soda

2 1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum

1 cup Liquid Gold Meyer Lemon Olive Oil

2 3/4 cups Whole Milk (I used Ran-cher Acres Goat Milk Kefir)

1 tsp Vanilla extract
2 Tbsp Vinegar (I used Cider Vinegar)

* Make sure you use Teff flour, because Teff looks like a small seed in the bag whereas the flour looks ground.

Heat oven to 300F.

Mix dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl mix liquid ingredients and whisk. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to incorporate. Pour into two 9" round pans that you have greased with olive oil or lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 45 minutes or until baked through, rotating pans part way through baking.