Gluten Free Layered Lemon Cake with Lemon Whipped Cream Frosting



First off, thank you so much to each & everyone of you guys that offered up cake recipes. The variety of recipes that I received was wonderful, and I do intend to try every one of them. But first up...Jenny suggested a layered lemon cake. Well, I had just bought a bag of lemons (with no real purpose, impulse buy). And although my birthday isn't until next week, I decided to make this cake for supper yesterday. We had some friends/family (when they're both, what do you call them...friends or family??) and since 3 of us have March birthday's, I figured we'd have a birthday cake for all of us to celebrate.


Alright, as soon as you're done reading this post, please, go buy yourself some lemons. TRUST ME, it was a fantastic impulse buy. This cake is amazing! Fantastic flavour, great texture, and super moist. I made it yesterday, and for research purposes (the things I force myself to do for you guys), I had a piece today to see how it was. Still just as moist, if not moister than it was yesterday. Perfect! I'm sure that this cake would hold up for days, although the whipped cream frosting may start breaking down by day 4 or so.

All of us loved this cake, the lemon flavour, combined with the berries was a great springtime treat. The flavours are light, the frosting is not super sweet, which makes it easy to eat. You can top it with any kind of fruit that you like, if you so choose. I served it with strawberries, but raspberries or blueberries would have been great also.

Thank you so much, Jenny, for suggesting this recipe! It is a definite winner!

Source: Based on a recipe from Epicurious
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Cake Layer

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups Featherlight Flour mix (see note)
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp Xanthan gum
1 cup milk
1 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs

Directions:

Put oven rack in middle of oven, and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper, and grease sides of pan & paper. Set aside.
Whisk together flour mixture, salt, baking powder & Xanthan gum until combined. Stir together milk, canola oil, vanilla and zest in another bowl.
Beat together sugar and eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed just until combined, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and milk mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing until just combined.
Divide batter evenly between cake pans, smoothing tops, and bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of each cake layer comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes.
Cool cakes in pans on racks for 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge of 1 cake layer and invert rack over cake pan, then invert cake onto rack. Repeat with second layer. Peel off paper and cool layers completely.

NOTES:

Featherlight Flour Mix: 3 cups Rice flour (white or brown), 3 cups Tapioca starch, 3 cups Cornstarch, 3 Tbsp Potato flour (note: flour, not starch)
Cakes can be baked a day in advance, and wrapped tightly with plastic wrap once cooled completely.








Lemon Curd

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tsp finely grated fresh lemon zest
1 cup white sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, cut into bits

Directions:

Whisk together juice, zest, sugar, and eggs in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Stir in butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubbles appears on surface, about 6 minutes.
Transfer lemon curd to a bowl and chill, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least one hour.

NOTES:

Curd can be chilled up to 1 week.
The Lemon Curd recipe makes approximately 4 cups of curd. You can use 1 cup to sandwich each cake layer (if necessary), and 2 cups to stir into the frosting.

Lemon Whipped Cream Frosting

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups Lemon Curd (see recipe above)
2 Tbsp instant vanilla (or lemon) pudding mix (dry)

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whip whipping cream until soft peaks form.
Beat in confectioners sugar. Whip until stiff peaks form.
In a large bowl, place 2 cups of lemon curd. Take a scoop of the whipped cream, and stir it into the lemon curd (this lightens it). Next, fold the remaining whipped cream into the lemon curd.
Sprinkle 2 Tbsp of pudding powder over the top of the mixture. Using a whisk, stir it into the frosting. It will thicken up instantly, giving you a stable, light frosting.

Assembling Cake

Using a long serrated knife, halve each cake layer horizontally. Spread bottom half of each cake layer with 1 cup of lemon curd, then top with remaining cake layers to form two sandwiched cakes. Put on sandwiched cake on a cake stand or platter and spread a heaping 1/2 cup of frosting over top, then cover with remaining sandwiched cake. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining frosting. Cover and store cake in refrigerator. Remove from fridge 1/2 hour before serving.

NOTE: To cover the cake with plastic wrap, insert toothpicks into the cake to keep the plastic wrap from touching the cake.