Traditional Birthday Cake

When deciding upon recipes for Cooking Gluten Free! I wanted to include a few traditional birthday cakes.  My mom would make us a lemon cake or an apple cake or a chocolate cake for our birthdays as those were our usual requests.

Later on when I met my husband I was introduced to a Sandtorte which was his families’ favorite birthday cake–it is essentially a pound cake. Later on,  his sister began making a cashew cake that was requested a lot (when we were stay at home moms with kids and had the time to make that decadent cake) with three layers (two chocolate, one cashew) and a lovely buttercream frosting.  The cake stands about five or six inches tall and is the true definition of the word decadent.  Now I am getting a craving for that cake!

 All of those cake recipes are in the book except the apple cake, I was never able to convert that incredibly dense cake to a suitable GF version.

But the Sandtorte is easy and everyone’s favorite.

The Crumb: exactly what pound cake should look like

Ever since Kate Chan, our Gluten Free Ratio Rally organizer this month, suggested a white cake recipe, she started a craving in me.  I have been looking forward to baking my yellow cake with chocolate frosting so that I can photograph it, figure the ratios, and best of all ……eat it. Unfortunately, life got in the way this month so it is the Sandtorte that is featured after all.  It is especially timely since it is perfect for a sweet version of strawberry shortcake.

The Ratios

Ruhlmans’ sponge cake ratio is where we started which is 1:1:1:1 of flour:sugar:eggs:butter for our white cake Gluten Free Ratio Rally. A sponge cake is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum to my pound cake which ended up being something like a 2 : 2.5  : 1 : 1 ratio.  I am sure that Kate’s vision was a regular white cake which should fall somewhere in between.

I have to say that for this rally I did not test other options as we have made this recipe for years and the only real discovery is in doubling the baking powder from the original wheat based recipe.  It makes a huge difference in a dense cake to double the baking powder when converting to gluten free. We also don’t mess around with the healthier flours with light colored cakes.   Using my standard Multi Blend mix makes the best cake .  And reallly with this much sugar who are we kidding anyway, cake isn’t supposed to be healthy!

recipe found in Cooking Gluten-Free! 

Kate Chan is our fearless leader this month and here are all the links:

• GF Banana Rum Cupcakes with Rum Glaze (alcohol-free!) by Claire @ Gluten Freedom
  GF Boston Cream Pie by Britt @ GF in the City
  GF Busy Day Cake by Shauna @ Gluten Free Girl and the Chef
  GF Chocolate Hostess Cupcake Dupes by Erin @ The Sensitive Epicure
  GF Chocolate-coated, Marshmallow-topped Vanilla Cupcakes by Silvana @ Silvana’s Kitchen
  GF Chocolate Pistachio Pound Cake by Amie @ The Healthy Apple
  GF Coconut Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes by Gretchen @ Kumquat-Blog
  GF Confetti Cake by MaryFran @ FrannyCakes
  GF Czech Cherry Bublanina by Rachel @ The Crispy Cook
  GF Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes by Caroline @ The G-Spot
  GF Frangelico Cupcakes with Nutella by Lisa @ Gluten Free Canteen
  GF Fresh-Squeezed Lemon Cake by Caneel @ Mama Me Gluten Free
  GF Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins by Marla @ Family Fresh Cooking
  GF Lemon Tea Cake by Kate @ KateAlice Cookbook
  GF Mocha Buttercream Yellow Birthday Cake by Dr. Jean Layton @ GF Doctor Recipes
  GF Nina’s Hot Milk Cake by Charissa @ Zest Bakery
  GF Tiramisu Cake by TR Crumbley @ No One Likes Crumbley Cookies
  GF Traditional Birthday Cake by Karen @ Cooking – Gluten Free!
  GF Vanilla Cupcakes by Winnie @ Healthy Green Kitchen
  GF White Cake with Apricots & Blueberries by Brooke @ B and the Boy
  GF White Chocolate Cupcakes by Caleigh @ Gluten Freek(k)
  GF Williamsburg Orange Cake by Mrs. R. @ Honey from Flinty Rocks