Dairy/Soya/Gluten/Egg-free Vanilla Sponge Cake With Caramel Buttercream Icing

Dairy-free, Soya-free, Wheat/gluten-free, Egg-free

Serves: 8 people

Calories per serving: 620

 

Okay so it's not the prettiest cake in the world, but I promise it tastes good!

When one of the readers of my blog set me the challenge to come up with a dairy/soya/gluten/egg-free cake that she could make for an upcoming birthday party I couldn't resist the challenge. I'd never made a gluten or egg-free cake and had no idea where to even start! And so began a week-long escapade of research, discussion and experimentation. 

I started out making small batches of cupcakes and experimenting with different egg-replacements (I couldn't get hold of any egg-replacer from my local health food store - they'd sold out). First I tried baking just a batch of gluten-free cupcakes to get a baseline. I used rice flour, gram flour and cornflour as the starch. They were nice. 

So then I tried my first egg-replacement... baking powder, oil and water. Yuck! They were HORRIBLE! Just tasted like baking powder. For my third batch I tried mashed potatoes. They rose ok but still tasted far too much like baking powder and they were very heavy and dense.

So I reached out to my readers for ideas, and someone suggested fizzy pop. So next I tried that. Fizzy pop and mashed potatoes. Bizarre! I also tried putting some ground almonds into the mix in replacement of some flour to try to give a better texture. They were ok, but a bit too crumbly. And there was a cornflour aftertaste that was just nasty. 

Fortunately the next day the cornflour aftertaste had gone, strangely, so I attempted a cake. But it was a disaster! It tasted horrible and just fell apart... it went in the bin.

By then I'd run out of ingredients and was waiting on some xanthum gum from eBay (which I was assured would help with the texture and cornflour flavour). I'd also been advised to try using ground linseeds instead of mashed potato. So a few days later I tried a slightly different mix of flours and almonds, added a bit more butter and sugar, more flavouring, xanthum gum, substituted the mashed potato with ground linseeds mixed with water, and tried one more batch of cupcakes. And they worked!!! Six attempts later I had a working recipe.

The following evening I doubled the mix and made a small cake. And it's delicious! It's still very delicate and a bit on the squishy side. I had a nightmare icing it! But it does hold together if you're very gentle with it. I wouldn't want to attempt to make it into a bigger cake, but it does hold together for a small cake.

So without further ado, here is my painfully (and expensively) constructed dairy/soya/gluten and egg-free recipe for sponge cake. 

Ingredients:

 

Cake:

• 150g non-dairy, non-soya spread
• 165g golden caster sugar
• 60g brown rice flour
• 20g gram flour
• 20g cornflour
• 1 1/2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
• 1/2 tsp xanthum gum 
• 50g ground almonds
• 1 1/2 tbsp ground linseeds mixed with 4 1/2 tbsp water until eggy
• 80ml lemonade
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream:

• 110g non-dairy, non-soya spread
•  350g  icing sugar
•  1-2 tbsp almond milk
•  1 tsp caramel flavouring 

Decoration:

• About 300g of fondant icing
• Dairy/soya/gluten and egg-free decorations 

Method:

 

Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 180C, 160C fan, Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two small cake tins with greaseproof paper (I used 16cm tins). Make sure the greaseproof paper has been greased too so the cake doesn't stick to the paper.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the spread and sugar until light and fluffy. It's important you get as much air as possible into this cake, so cream them until they are almost white!
• Add all the dry ingredients to the bowl and beat together. Then add the wet ingredients, leaving the lemonade until the last minute. Quickly beat together and then get them into the tins straight away! Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes, but check them after 40 by inserting a skewer into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, they're cooked.
• Leave the cakes to cool in the tins.

Buttercream:

• The crucial thing with this cake is not to mess about with the sponges too much! They're so delicate. So don't turn them out until they are completely cool and the  buttercream is made.
• In a mixing bowl, beat the spread until it is light and pale. Then add the icing sugar and beat. Add enough almond milk to make a loose spreading consistency (it needs to be quite loose so it doesn't destroy the delicate cake when it's being spread!). Then add the flavouring and mix. 
• Turn one sponge out and very carefully spread the buttercream on it. Then add the second layer and carefully spread the remaining buttercream all over the cake. Chill for at least 15 minutes before adding the fondant.

  
Decoration:

• Roll the fondant out as thinly as possible, dusting with icing sugar so it doesn't stick to the work surface or rolling pin, and lay over the cake. (Mess with it as little as possible!). Smooth using a fondant smoother, then return to the fridge. Decorate when the icing has set.