I've been asked by a family member to make a glutin-free baby shower cake. My plans are to do a two tiered cake, covered with fondant and probably some molded characters. Typically, I would use a durable-doctored cake mix recipe that I know will stand up to heavy decorations.

There are a number of GF recipes available, but I'm wondering if they're durable enough to stack and decorate with fondant. Any comments regarding this question and/or your tips for doing so will be much appreciated!

Anyone?

Can't be of much help, but I have done a GF cake made with a KAF mix and covered it with bc and fondant without a problem. The cake seemed to be pretty sturdy. I used SPS as my support system and put a chocolate nest on top. Can't remember, but I may have put the nest on a small cardboard circle and supported that with a single bubble tea straw for safety. Hope that helps somewhat!

My biggest advice to you is definitely do a test run with the cake. I am gluten free, and I have gone through a lot of cake recipes. I don't like the gluten free cakes mixes at all. They taste horrible to me and they're expensive.

The best tasting gfree cake I have made is the Cook's Illustrated white layer cake recipe. I just subbed in gluten free flour.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/COOKS-ILLUSTRATED-WHITE-LAYER-CAKE-50017374

I seem to get the best results from using a mixture. I do 1/2 Gluten Free Pantry all purpose flour and 1/2 Bob's Red Mill Brown Rice flour. **Be careful when buying gfree flours. If you get one with bean flour, it will ruin the taste of whatever you are baking**. Also, you must add 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum for each cup of flour that does not include it in the mix, or your cake won't rise. In my case, the gf AP flour has something similar, so I add what is needed for the brown rice flour which is plain flour.

I hope this wasn't too confusing. With trial and error gluten free cakes can be good! The cupcakes I made tasted as good or better than the ones made with cake flour! ( I made my family test it!)

Hi;

I strictly bake and decorate Gluten-Free. I have had no trouble with my cakes, but I also bake from scratch. I guess the easiest and cheapest thing to do is buy GF cake mixes and try them out. They can be expensive and often only make a single layer. It is hard to give you tips because it is an whole different way of baking and unless you are going to do it all the time it is not worth the money to buy all these extra and expensive ingredients. Try different mixes out and follow the directions. Don`t doctor them because GF in not forgiving with added liquids or sugars. It is not the same as regular flour that has better absorbing ability.

Try Pamela`s Products, I`ve heard good things about the brand, but have not tried it myself.

Try these sites. http://www.livingwithout.com/

http://delightglutenfree.com/

http://strawberriesareglutenfree.com/2009/05/gluten-free-cake-round-up/

There are also recipes on this site in the recipe section.

Be very careful of cross-contamination. That is a huge problem for those of us living with Celiac & Gluten Intolerance.

Good Luck