Have any of you delved into GF baking for customers? I have a family that I make bread 4 times a month for that is inquiring about a birthday cake. I have never attempted to make a GF cake. Does anyone out there have a good sturdy recipe that can be used to make a cake that can handle the addition of flavors? This does not need to be stacked cakes, sheet cakes are fine. Maybe even GF Cupcakes and icing?
TIA!

I have a lady at my church whose kids can't have wheat.... I hadn't even thought about cake. I'll need to figure this out too then!

Here's some info: http://www.glutenfreeflour.com/

I have made gluten free brownies from a mix at a health food store. They tasted good, but the texture was quite different. It was pretty crumbly and my family did not care for them. They also seemed to get hard after 24 hours.

I will have to experiment with the flour in the link. It says that it's not crumbly. I just found out that my daughter is allergic to wheat gluten.

I made a cake for a friend of mine using a mix I got from Earthfare Grocery Store. The name of the company was The Gluten Free Pantry.

I made a cake for the party for everyone else, and her husband said that she didn't need a cake (and he didn't want me to go to any more trouble...). I said that the Birthday Girl was getting a Birthday cake!!!

The mix was a Spice Cake/Gingerbread mix. I had to use Egg Replacer (b/c she can't eat eggs) and applesauce (no diary). It turned out really light and tasty. I didn't end up decorating that cake, because her favorite "icing" is whipped topping. So, I got her a soy-based topping that she could load ON her cake.

At the party, she said that she hadn't had a BD cake for 3 years!!! Ever since they targeted her medical issues to her diet... AND - the only thing she REALLY wanted for her BD was a cake!!!

I am just starting to look at Gluten-Free baking, and am SO excited to begin to offer this option to my friends! We are just starting as vegetarians, so I am not sure how this is going to affect my cake decorating - other than the marshmallows - what am I going to do for MMF?!?!?!?!?!?!?



Good luck in your journey!

Oh I am sooo happy this didn't get lost in the crash. I may paste this into a Word doc to keep for future reference... I did a gluten-free cake taste test last year, my results are on page two of this post: http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-522883-glutenfree.html

I think I mentioned in that post that you can also simply just do a "flourless chocolate cake" aka truffle cake. OMG those are SOOOOO good, but they are dense and rich and also only about 2" tall. But if you want to cake to be fluffier and more "cake like" there are several recipes that would work. The diaper caddy cake I made last fall was GF and nobody at the baby shower had a clue!

You should be sure to check the level of gluten intolerance in your customer w/regard to the potential for cross-contamination from your kitchen. Can you guarantee not a speck of gluten will end up in that cake? Make sure that's true, or make sure that a minute amount won't cause a reaction. Or else have them sign a waiver!

Here are a couple of other threads with suggestions too, although I don't think any of them have a "sturdy recipe" that you're seeking
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-448473.html
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-462953.html
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-392173.html

Thank you, ellantehalima. I am not sure how fast the recipes post to the site so if you could PM or amil them to me also, I'd appreciate it.

I did find a recipe that sounds wonderful, but I do not want to buy the whole cookbook that it is listed in (they dont post the recipe online). Its from a book called Gluten-Free & Wheat-Free Gourmet Desserts . If anyone out there has this book, could you share with me the Chocolate Ganache or the Bosotn Cream Pie recipes?

The post I included, the one w/my gf cake taste test, has ellantehalima's original post with that gf cake recipe on it by the way

If you want to keep it simple there is a brand of cake mixes called Cherrybrook Kitchen which do gluten free cake mixes.

http://www.cherrybrookkitchen.com/

I recently came across this website, which has several cake recipes, plus directions on how to mix up your own gluten-free flour for baking (so you can substitute into regular recipes):

http://www.landolakes.com/mealideas/gluten-free-recipes.cfm

Thanks for sharing the other sites, too.

This is great !
Does anyone have any egg free recipes from scratch that they are willing to share?

Danielle

Here a couple...

Eggless Crepes

You will need to prepare the batter and refrigerate for 2 hours before cooking.

1/2 cup skim milk
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 cup al-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, mix together melted butter, water, milk, and vanilla extract. In a small bowl, thoroughly mix flour, sugar, and salt. Slowly mix flour mixture into milk mixture until batter is smooth. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.

Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with a small amount of vegetable oil and pour in about 2 tablespoons of the crepe batter. Then swirl the pan to allow the batter to spread out thinly. Cook until edges are crispy and golden, then flip to cook other side until lightly browned. Repeat with the remaining batter
*************************************************************
Eggless White Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup orange juice
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup melted butter

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Make a well in the center and add the condensed milk, orange juice, vanilla extract, and melted butter. Mix together. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350F.

Creamy Frosting

1/2 cup softened butter
6 tbsp. shortening
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup warm milk

Mix together the butter, shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Add the cornstarch to the warm milk, and then add this to the first mixture. Whip together for about 6 minutes until all combined and fluffy.

I found the flour substitute below on the internet. It was developed by Bette Hagman, a well-known gluten-free cookbook author. It makes 3 cups and can be substituted cup for cup for regular flour. (It is the same as the recipe on the link posted by Petit-four except for the addition of 1 more tsp of xanthan gum)

I think a cake that is lower in flour like carrot cake is better to use for gluten-free recipes than a cake which relies on flour for the main part of the structure.

The observatory cake in my photos was a groom's cake made with carrot cake using this substitution. I thought the texture wasn't as good as regular cake, but the people at the wedding weren't told it was gluten-free and despite there being tons of really good "real" cake, every crumb of this one went, so it couldn't have been too bad.


2 cups white rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca flour
2 tsp xanthan gum


Mix together well. Note that for people with severe gluten allergies, non-gluten pans, measuring cups, etc. should be kept separate from any wheat products.

I am so excited to find this thread! I just found out my chocolate cake loving 4 year old son is allergic to wheat and eggs (there were no indications just a regular allergy test that showed the results). I am looking for ideas, recipes, websites,etc. So thank you all so much!!!!

thedessertdiva-what kind of bread do you make? How does it turn out (I have been told it is hard to make a good bread without some kind of wheat and the stuff in the store is rubbery and heavy feeling). Would you consider sharing your recipe?

Thank you to all of you!
Heidi

My mom has celiac disease and I really wanted to present her with a cake for her birthday! Years ago I saw Gourmet Magazine on Oprah featuring what they named, World's Best Chocolate Cake and lo and behold, it was gluten free!

This recipe substituted cocoa for normal flour and it turned into the richest, densest cake you've ever had. DECADENT! Just make sure all ingredients state their gluten status and you should be fine playing around with flour substitution. At the time the recipe was on the Oprah website as well as Gourmet.com but I can't seem to find it today. There is a recipe for Flourless Chocolate Cake on Oprah at the moment that looks just as wonderful using baking chocolate. No flour substitution (rice, spelt etc) ever really tastes good enough for her (if you want cake, you want it to taste good!), but the cocoa did it. Good luck!

Ok DivaLori, do you think a regular scratch, say white cake, but instead of flour add cocoa? I think that is what you are saying but I could be wrong.
Thank you for your help!

Yup, that's what I'm saying. It doesn't turn out like normal fluffy cake, it's very dense and moist like a brownie and doesn't rise so if you're looking for as-cake-like-as-possible, this probably wouldn't work. This was baked in a spring form pan, just as the Flourless Chocolate Cake is on Oprah's site.

Thank you so much! I will have to try it! He loves brownies too, so it should work!