I had a request for a Gluten free cake... I know nothing about gluten free..
Does anyone have a recipe that is tasty and decoratable??
Also.. since im dumb and dont know what gluten is.. I think its something in the flour .. but its that right?? Can I still use buttercream??? If not what could I decorate the cake with??

Thanks for any help!

Yes, gluten free= wheat free. You need to be very careful what you put in your cake, you need to make sure your vanilla and other extracts are not made with grain alcohol. As far as a recipe goes there are some on recipezaar, but I personally either prefer using Tom Sawyer gluten free flour in a regular recipe (www.glutenfreeflour.com) or Pamela's Gluten free chocolate cake mix. Buttercream is fine, as well as Satin Ice fondant (not sure about the other ones) I frequently bake gluten free, so if you have any questions feel free to PM me!
Good luck!

My son has celiac disease and I've been baking gluten-free for about 8 years. For gluten-free cakes, I like the Cause You're Special Moist Yellow Cake mix. It is really good if you mix in Nestle Tollhouse Semi-sweet chocolate morsels or you can also take the Cause You're Special Rich Chocolate cake mix batter and swirl it into the Yellow batter. I use McCormick's vanilla extract, which is gluten-free. So are Wilton's extracts.

just make sure that everything you use has "gluten free" printed on the side of the box, including vanilla. Also don't use flour on your pans or use Baker's Joy. I would just use parchment paper on the bottom to keep the cake from sticking. I use www.gingerlemongirl.com for a lot of gluten free recipes and she has a ton of links to other sites if you can't find a recipe there that you like. land o'lakes butter also has a website with some great gluten free recipes, including pound cake.

When baking it helps to put some water in your over to add more moister in.

Here's a question for the gluten-free bakers who know way more about this than I do...I bake from scratch, so I can do some special-diet recipes, but I tell people that I shouldn't do gluten free because I bake with wheat flour so much there's probably plenty of gluten in the air in my kitchen. Am I right in assuming that? I don't want to cause anyone trouble if they eat a "gluten-free" cake that I make that has gluten in it just from being prepared in my kitchen.

You can definately cook gluten free if you usually prepare wheat items. It doesn't linger in the air. Just make sure your pans, utensils, and work surfaces are really clean. The biggest thing for gluten free cooking is making sure all the ingredients are really gluten free. There is gluten in a lot of items that you think would be gluten free just because they're not made of wheat.

For example, we took my dad to eat at the Cheesecake Factory this week and they told him that he could not eat their cheese or french fries because they contained gluten.

So just watch the ingredients and you'll be fine.

Most of my baking is done gluten-free (and egg-free) due to family allergies. I use any standard scratch recipe and replace with Bob's Red Mill flour. I add a tiny bit of Xanthan gum to add as a binder / volumizer. And, of course, all other ingredients (e.g. vanilla, etc...) are GF. I even use this method for the NFSC and makes no noticable difference in taste.

This stuff is a bit expensive (the gum you only need a little and it can be kept in the freezer).

If your not baking a lot of GF IMO you're better off going with Pamela's mixes (as a previous poster said these are quite good).

Would love to know why the Cheesecake Factory french fries have gluten - hmmm...have to look into that!

Good information here. Celiac is in my extended family, not in our home (yet), but this is great info to have for future reference when I bake for a couple of my aunts.

I know you really do have to be careful because so many ingredients contain gluten.

I just posted a response to a recent similar request, and now I find myself trolling the boards in search of other gluten-free posts to answer! Haha, anyone online right now is going to wonder why the sudden rush of GF cake questions, since I'm bumping up all of your threads...

Anyway, so yes, I just posted a link to a great thread with some GF yellow and chocolate cake recipes that have been taste tested and baker-approved!! I served the Hershey's chocolate one at a baby shower last year, nobody had any clue it was GF. Please read the whole thread, there is lots of great info; however my taste test appears on page 2. http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=522883&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=glutenfree&&start=0

I have one customer that request GF items all the time. I found a book by Annalise G. Roberts called Gluten-Free Baking Classics, and I use her recipe for the baking flour mix (brown rice flour, potato starch, & tapioca flour) with her recipes the Xanthan Gum (you can use Guar Gum as well) gets added in separately. I have gotten so many rave reviews for the Coconut Cake that I used from this book for my customer! I have tested a couple other recipes out on my DH and his family with 'it's gluten-free? Really?!? It's so good!'...so I am totally sticking with Annalise's recipes!

Here's a link to her book http://www.amazon.com/dp/1572840994/?tag=cakecentral-20
Also, you can get her flour blend already made (I've gone ahead and done this...cheaper route in the long run) at Authentic Foods http://www.glutenfree-supermarket.com/flourblend.aspx. It's the Classical Blend at the bottom. They have pretty much all the ingredients you would need for GF items! Fast shipping, too!

Also, just in case anyone wants it...I found a WONDERFUL recipe for GF Chocolate Chip Cookies that I swear taste so close to the Nestle Tollhouse ones that no one that I had try them could tell! The recipe is from Alton Brown , so ya know it's good! Here's the linky: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/the-chewy-gluten-free-recipe/index.html

HTH!

Wow! You guys, thanks so much! I have a cousin just recently diagnosed with celiac and I picked up a couple of gluten-free frosting mixes that were half off the other day. Is SMBC gluten-free or do I need a gluten-free sugar? I really don't know anything about gluten-free stuff except gluten seems to be in everything!

I also wanted a cake mix (so thanks for the recommendation!). Since it's only an occasional baking for her, I don't want to spend a lot on ingredients I'd rarely use and worry about doing something wrong.

Also, I would never have thought about not using flour for lining my pans! Thanks so much for the info!

Also, I'm assuming Wilton and Americolor gels are safe also?

Thanks for the great information. It seems more and more people are showing up with this situation.

I don't remember if anyone mentioned it or not, but you need to also make sure that you use PURE Vanilla (nielsen-massey is perfect for this, btw) and GF baking powder. Nestle's cc are GF as well. The powdered sugar shouldn't be a problem at all!

Some powdered sugar does have wheat products in it now. I think GFS is one brand that started using it.