Gluten Free Yellow Cake

I’ve been on a cake making kick, evidently. A couple of weeks ago I decided to revamp the yellow cake recipe I’ve been using for a while. I’ve actually been a little disenchanted with it, even though I invented it myself. Recently it’s just seemed too…heavy. And the texture hasn’t been quite right. So I compared that recipe with the Vanilla Texas sheet cake that I’ve been making, and ended up with this recipe. Well, actually I ended up with a recipe that didn’t work quite as well as I wanted. So THIS time I decreased the buttermilk and it turned out beautifully. It’s not quite as tall as I’d like it to be, but that could probably be fixed by making a 1.5 times recipe and then baking it a little longer. I’ll let you know how it turns out after I try it :)

Gluten Free Yellow Cake

3/4 c. butter, softened
1.5 c. sugar
3 eggs
2 c. EGF all-purpose flour
1 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. buttermilk (I use just under 1 c. whole milk plus about 2-3 tsp. lemon juice; don’t go crazy, though, or you’ll end up with a lemon cake)
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375°. Prepare a 9 x 13 pan (either by spraying it with nonstick cooking spray or by lining it with parchment paper).

Combine butter and sugar in a stand mixer. Beat on medium to high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix well. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Combine buttermilk and vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to the creamed butter mixture, starting and ending with flour and mixing on low to medium speed after each addition until well incorporated. (Don’t go too overboard on the mixing, though. Because we are working with gluten free flours, the cake won’t get tough, but if you incorporated too much air into the cake batter the lack of gluten means the flour has a harder time keeping its structure around the air bubbles and then you’re more likely to get a collapsed cake. And NOBODY wants one of those.)

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 35 minutes (maybe a little less, maybe a little more). The cake will be pulling away from the edges of the pan and the top will spring back when gently touched. (Also a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean. You know the drill.) Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

Before frosting - can you tell how the edges have pulled inward a bit? 

I frosted mine with a recipe of Lemon Buttercream Frosting that I found on Sally’s Baking Addiction. I did add  an extra couple of tablespoons of fresh lemon juice because the lemon flavor wasn’t quite strong enough for my taste. Altogether the cake was just delightful - the taste and texture were just like a homemade cake made with regular flour - and super easy to make. I’m excited to try it as the cake part of my Peach Right Side Up Cake, too!

The color is not quite right on this picture as it was taken inside, but you can see how cleanly it cut and how beautiful the texture was.