Lemon-ricotta cake – gluten-free

This is a delicious and simple cake that translates perfectly into a gluten-free recipe.  The original recipe, which is so great, is here: Louisa’s Cake – however,  if you are looking for a moist and delicious gluten-free cake,  give this a try.  It is surprisingly moist and lemony – hard to believe it is gluten-free.

Note: the gluten-free flour mixture that I used was a mixture I put together myself and it worked really well. It was loosely based on glutenfreegirl.com‘s all-purpose mixture, which I will post here at the bottom of the post.   I would say avoid corn flour for this – it’s too heavy for this recipe.

Lemon Ricotta Cake- Gluten-Free

adapted from Food 52’s Louisa’s Cake

serves 8

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs

zest of one lemon

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 tbsp baking powder

1 apple, peeled and grated

confectioners’ sugar, for decoration

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 F.  Grease a 9 inch round baking pan and place on a baking sheet. Set aside.

In small bowl, mix together dry ingredients: flour, xanthan gum, and baking powder.  Set aside.

In stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy – 3 or 4 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time until well incorporated.  Add ricotta cheese and lemon zest, mix until well combined.

Gradually add flour mixture until well incorporated into wet ingredients.  Fold grated apple into mixture with a spatula.

Scrape batter into pan and smooth top.  Bake for 30-45 minutes – until golden brown and tester comes out clean.  Center of cake should be set.  Cool for 10 minutes then remove from pan to cake platter.  When cooled completely, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Slice and serve.

Keeps well, covered, for 2-3 days, but probably won’t last that long. Enjoy.

GF All-Purpose Flour Mixture

200 grams superfine brown rice flour
150 grams sorghum flour
50 grams potato flour
250 grams sweet rice flour
150 grams potato starch
100 grams arrowroot powder
100 grams cornstarch

Mix butter, sugar, eggs, ricotta and lemon zest

fold in grated apple after mixing in flour mixture.

scrape mixture into cake pan and smooth top

bake 30-40 minutes, until golden and tester comes out clean

cool 10 minutes and then turn out onto platter. (how perfect is that!)

dust with icing sugar and serve. Delicious. Simple. Yum.