This is truly my favourite time of year for gluten free baking. Not only does the weather get you into the kitchen to experiment but it also coincides with my birthday and with one of my favourite holidays Halloween; which just puts the icing on top. My husband and i love having people over for dinner and we’ve been thinking of a few recipes that we could make for the next firework night and just for cosy gatherings on the lead up to Christmas.
After much American inspiration online i’ve been tempted to explore the Harvest Cake, something which looks so pretty and hearty, full of carrots, apples, courgette, pumpkin- anything you can imagine around this time of year, grated and put into a cake. A good way to get rid of a glut or- indeed the apples left from our neighbours Apple tree that has always spilled over into our garden for the few years we’ve lived here, which was unfortunately to our surprise, chainsawed down one morning. RIP Mr Apple Tree, and our cats favourite climbing frame.
Despite the partial Fruit and Vegetables in this gluten free cake, it is still made with a load of sugar and butter, but per slice i dare say it isn’t too bad. However if you were to serve this warm with a huge pool of homemade vanilla custard as i am going to suggest, then i believe you should forget about the diet and have a bloody nice pudding.
- 150g Soft Brown Sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
- 200g Unsalted Butter
- 3 Medium eggs
- 3 Small Apples, 2 Grated and 1 for decoration to slice.
- 1 Medium Carrot or Courgette
- 190g Gluten Free Plain Flour
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of Gluten Free Baking Powder
- Pinch of Salt
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Mixed Spice or a pinch of the following – Ground Ginger, Nutmeg, Ground Cloves (plus extra for sprinkling)
- Start by preheating your oven to 180 degrees C and Line and grease a 9″ cake tin. My advice would be to line the edges as well, as lifting on my second attempt of this cake- it caught the side and cracked slightly unexpectedly; if you line the sides you will not get this issue!
- Cut your unsalted butter into cubes and pop into a mixer with the soft brown sugar. Mix this until creamed together on a slow speed.
- Take your bowl off the mixer and add in one egg at a time mixing with a spatula- you do not want to over beat this but ensure its well combined.
- Add in 2 grated/ well chopped apples and 1 grated carrot to the mix and stir in delicately.
- Add the baking powder to the flour in a separate bowl and make sure it is evenly distributed, Now add in a pinch of salt and the spices.
- Spoon and fold in a quarter of the flour spice mixture at a time, to the sugar and egg mixture until all combined evenly. Do not over mix.
- Transfer the cake mixture into your greased and lined cake tin.
- Cut up the remaining apple into thin-medium slices and lay these on top of the cake. Scatter over a generous amount of sugar and a teaspoon of extra spices.
- Pop in the oven for 40-50 mins until the top has gone golden and you can pull out a toothpick clean.
- Leave to cool completely or it will crumble on transfer, then slice and serve with piping hot custard.
- Makes 6 Generous slices in a 9″ cake tin.
