Hi,

I am following a Good Housekeeping recipe to create a gluten free lemon cake. Click here to see the recipe. 

I have made it twice now but on both occasions, the bottom of the cake has a thick rubbery layer.

I am following the recipe exactly.

Can anyone suggest a reason why the cake is turning out this way ?

Thanks,

Jon

What brand of gluten free self rising flour are you using?  Is the rising agent in it expired?

I use Bob's Red Mill one to one gluten free flour. But sounds like your based the UK?  We don't have many brands of any type of self raising flour in Canada. Regular or gluten free. Hopefully, someone can help you here.

Hi try some xanthan gum in the flour and don't leave the sponge in tin to cool use a wire rack hope that helps.richard

g7jjf/Jon

I should have mentioned in my post was that the flour I use, Bob's Red Mill includes the xanthan gum in the flour mix. That's what helps give gluten free cakes there rise.

I was thinking that maybe the flour was used wasn't self rising... and that with no rising agent, it would be gummy/rubbery and not well risen like the photo...

Thanks for all the replies.

I am using Free From Fairy self raising flour which I also use for other baking including sponge cakes, cup cakes and brownies. These all turn out perfect so I am at a loss as to why this particular recipe turns out rubbery.

My wife has several food intollerances so we can't use xanthan gum. The recipe doesn't call for any raising agents so I am following the recipe as is.

I was hoping someone else has had this problem and found a way to overcome it. Google suggests various things like too much liquid, ie too many eggs, can cause the flour to absorb the liquid and become dense so I could try reducing the number of eggs.

I don't know what else to try. 

Jon

Jon

Can you not add baking powder as a leaving agent to the cake? Ir is your wife intolerant to that as well? And perhaps sharing the recipe would help us figure things out.

I could try adding some baking powder but the lady who makes the flour says this isn't necessary. There was a link to the recipe in my original post 

Jon

How much juice from the lemons are you using?  It looks like there is just too much liquid in it.

Well Jon, I just went back an re-read the recipe. With such a small amount of self rising flour added, you shouldn't have to add any more baking powder. I'm assuming your carefully folding the flour into the beaten mixture carefully. If not, that will definitely stop the cake from rising properly. I'd be tempted to beat the eggs first until thick, voluminous, then add the butter/sugar/lemon & zest. Then fold in the flour. Well beaten eggs help cakes rise. Other than that, I'm stumped too. Other than changing the brqnd of flour?? Gluten free flour just has different structure..and not all gluten free flours are equal. I've read on some of my cakey fb pages that Aldi's and Tesco gluten free has been successful for my UK decorators.

I followed the recipe exact and l didn't have a problem and l used shop brand 

Yours also look like it has poppy seeds in it.  Are those the ground almond bits?  

Could maybe (I don't bake gluten free, so I don't know) the almonds not be ground correctly?

I just made the recipe as my Grandma has recently had to go G/F and I am on the look out for recipes. I halved the recipe but added the same amount of lemon juice as the original recipe, I used three silkie bantam eggs, I used only the G/F flour as I didn't have any almond meal.

What I did find is that when I mixed the recipe up it looked so wet that I threw in quite a bit of extra flour (non measured - whoops). It was originally super curdles, it still looked slightly curdled but not so bad after I added the extra flour (probably around 1/8 - 1/4 metric cup extra).

I baked it in a 5 inch square tin @ 150c and it was baked when the top edge was browned slightly but the top was still yellow (not sure if it was the eggs from my free range chickens but the cake is super yellow) - we were having tea and I didn't time it sorry.

As far as G/F cakes go this was one of the best I have found, the texture is very light and bouncy - pretty perfect actually, I would suggest that you try using the altered recipe that uses only flour not almond meal and that you add some extra flour.

Thanks for the further replies.

We emailed the lady (free from fairy) who makes the flour and her 7 year old son made the same recipe and it came out perfect so we are really at a loss as to where we are going wrong.

We altered the recipe to a more sponge like recipe and it came out better but will a bit rubbery.

We will persevere as it must be something we are doing wrong if everyone else can make perfect cakes.

It's just very disheartening when we follow a recipe and it comes out rubbish