Five of my favourite gluten-free cake recipes

One of my first thoughts when I found out I had coeliac disease was, “But… caaaake?!” Thoughts of lost afternoon teas and cakeless birthday parties filled my mind.

But after some experimentation in the kitchen I discovered a beautiful thing: gluten-free cakes can be absolutely delicious! What I’ve found is that substituting wheaty flour with a GF blend usually works OK, but the tastiest recipes are the ones that don’t go near flour in the first place.

I’ve spent a lot of time prowling Pinterest for good cake recipes and I thought I’d share my top five with you, as a cheerful contribution to coeliac awareness week!

1. These carrot, parsnip and coconut flapjacks by Veggie Desserts are really moist and are great with a mid-morning coffee. As it’s got some veg in you can pretend you’re having your five-a-day. At the risk of sounding like a 1950’s housewife, I try and have some in a tin most weeks for when people pop in. I use golden syrup because agave syrup is harder to come by. Make sure you buy gluten-free oats (they will have been processed to prevent cross-contamination). If you can’t eat oats at all this one isn’t for you.
2. Flourless chocolate brownies with hot chocolate sauce by Nigella Lawson. These are seriously indulgent and oh so good. Great for a dinner party (and nibbling the leftovers throughout the following week!) I recommend investing in decent quality ingredients for this recipe as it does make a difference to the finished product.
3. If like me you buy too many bananas pretty much every week, this delicious chocolate banana bread by two peas & their pod is a great way to use them up. It uses ordinary flour so I just substitute with Doves Farm gluten-free plain flour and add a bit more butter and an extra egg to make sure it’s nice and moist.
4. This blood orange and rosemary cake by Georgina at From the Larder is really unusual – if you like a marmalade sarnie you’ll love it. It involves boiling up whole oranges, which is kind of fun. I make it with ordinary oranges when it’s not blood orange season. From the Larder has loads of other great gluten-free recipes to check out.
5. Not strictly a cake, but the kids and I love whipping up these super-easy peanut butter cookies by Crunchy Creamy Sweet together.

I hope you get a chance to try out some of these delicious recipes. Please share your faves with me!

Now, if someone can please come up with a decent gluten-free pain au chocolat, my joy will be complete…