Wednesday, June 13, 2012

boats and birthdays and of course, cake.

My roommate in college was allergic to all raw fruits and vegetables.  If that were me I would probably die. But then I was reminded the other day at a birthday brunch on a boat drinking watermelon mimosas that if I were allergic to raw fruit, I could still eat cake. Specifically, cake with fruit, that is baked, juicy and delicious.



So I would have that going for me.

This cake is also gluten free. And mostly vegan. Mostly. I am mildly opposed to gluten free, but this cake is good. I mean really good. Not just good in an ok way especially for being gluten free. Good. Just good  in a melty, crumbly, strusseley, crunchy, you would never know except I just told you sort of way.

It can be our secret. I won't tell.

Anyways, I did some research on gluten free baking and am still working on a few tricks, but it seems to come down to the viscosity and the fluff factor. Very technical terms, but basically you don't want to overwork your dough and you want to make sure you have enough of a binder. Also, I am morally opposed to xantham gum- mostly because it is really expensive and comes in too big of a package, so I've just been adding extra baking soda and egg whites. I am not sure if it's a fluke yet, but it worked well with this particular coffee cake.

My conclusion on the whole gluten free baking thing is that it can be delicious if you don't try to hard.

Meaning, you can't just make your favorite dessert and take out the gluten and expect it to be just as good. Especially, if you like chocolate chip cookies.  They will never not taste like cardboard. It's a fact. Or at least it's what I am going with for now, but I don't have all that much invested in disproving my thesis. If I never eat a gluten free cookie again I would be extremely content.  That being said, desserts that don't revolve around the unbeatable match of gluten and butter- so no pies and no cookies sorry- can rather easily be just as, and sometimes more, tasty than their gluten full brethren.



To be fair I don't really remember the recipe I used exactly. But the good thing is I have a lot of brown rice flour, almond meal, and coconut oil so I'll try to get it down to a science.

Until then, cheers to birthdays, boats, and coffee cake that makes you gush.







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