Day 36: Pound Cake

A part of every Easter dinner is dessert. Banana decided that the best gluten-free, yet tasty to everyone else option was trifle! Her aunt (who also has celiac and is a chef and gave her most of the ideas) suggested pound cake, because it holds up well. We went on a hunt for a very elusive GF pound cake mix, because she was told one existed, but we never found it. So, I decided last night that I would make a pound cake from scratch. I've made one before; they're not hard to make. Granted, I haven't made a GF cake at all yet, but I have to cross that bridge eventually. I mean, my mother is the queen of cakes after all.

I looked at a few recipes, and picked the least complicated, but I still needed to buy two of the flours. Since Good Friday is a stat holiday in Canada, I didn't make it to Bulk Barn in time, and hunted for them at Superstore. I found rice flour, and tapioca flour (which I had some of, but not much), but I needed potato starch. We decided to substitute corn starch in, and in case it was awful, I picked up a Celimix white cake mix too.

I used Land O Lake's recipe, and let me just say, it was amazing! I know pound cake isn't the most desirable cake in all circumstances, but it was moist and flavorful  and not gritty or oddly textured at all. Really, really good. We did make a few changes, but that was because I am not the best at planning ahead.


2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, melted
4 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour blend
(2 cups rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup tapioca flour, 1 teaspoon xanthum gum)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk

[I apologize. I didn't specify that you need gluten free flour, or other ingredient. I'm sorry, I'm going to assume that if you want a gluten free cake, you will use gluten free flour, gluten free vanilla, etc etc etc!

Now, we didn't have potato starch, so we used corn starch, and we also discovered too late we didn't have normal sugar, only berry sugar. It's finer, and it made the batter kind of odd, but it all turned out in the end. If you make this and it doesn't, blame it on one of those two things, not your own baking skills. Don't worry.]

Heat oven to 350F. Grease 12-cup bundt pan or angel food cake pan [I'm assuming they wanted it to have the tube thing in the middle. I don't know why. Pound cake is usually loaf-like. Mine turned out just fine in an angel food cake pan, though...]. Sprinkle pan with flour blend. Set aside.

Combine sugar and melted butter in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, beat until well mixed.

Stir together flour blend and baking powder in small bowl. Gradually add flour blend mixture alternately with milk to butter mixture, beating at low speed until well mixed.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes, remove from pan.



My cake took just under 60 minutes, and it was perfect. Pound cake is classically a simple recipe, and removing the gluten didn't make this one that much more complicated. I also made it in my friend's Kitchenaid, which might have made this much simpler too. Man! I need me one of them things.

I, of course, didn't take a single picture of either the process, or the cake. I kind of figured it was pretty explanatory, and the cake wasn't much to write home about. It tasted fantastic. I fed it to several gluten eaters before making it into a trifle, and they all enjoyed it, so I think it passes the test!