A gluten free sponge cake would seem challenging but trust me it’s not. You don’t want the ‘gluten’ to develop in a sponge cake as it ruins the texture – so gluten free flours work perfectly. It’s light, fluffy and so impressive to guests! You don’t need any fancy ingredients to make this either and you can make it with a variety of fillings and flavours. I’ve done the classic raspberry jam swirled through the cream or a passionfruit curd (my Mum’s favourite).
My top tips:
- Make sure the mixing bowl and mixer is very clean when beating the egg whites and sugar. Any fat in the bowl can slow down or prevent them from becoming light and fluffy. It should beat to soft peaks in around 7 minutes.
- Check your custard powder is gluten free – I used Woolworths brand.
- Double sift the dry ingredients – any lumps are hard to mix out.
- Fold in the dry ingredients until just done. You don’t want to overmix as that will mix out the air – which gives it the light and fluffy texture.
I hope you enjoy!
Kath x
Ingredients
- 120g corn flour (gluten free)
- 1 tablespoon custard powder (gluten free)
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- 160g caster sugar
- For filling:
- 500ml thickened cream
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
- Approximately 1/2 cup raspberry jam
- 1/2 cup of fresh raspberries
- 1 cup of icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat over to 170 degrees fan forced. Prepare a round cake tin (mine was 22cm wide) by greasing and lining with baking paper. Have the baking paper come up over the edges of the tin (in case your cake rises higher than the tin).
- Sift together the corn flour, custard powder, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar. Ensure there are no lumps. If you see any sift again.
- Separate eggs. Place egg whites and sugar in mixing bowl and beat until thick, soft peaks form.
- Beat in egg yolks, one at a time until fully combined.
- Gently fold in the dry ingredients to the egg mixture in two batches. Try not to over mix.
- Place mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40 minutes in the middle of the oven. It’s ready when a skewer placed into the middle comes out clean, or the cake springs back when touched lightly in the middle.
- Remove from oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before removing and placing on a wire rack to cool completely before assembling.
For assembly:
- Cut the cake in half.
- Beat the cream and vanilla essence until stiff peaks form. Spoon in the raspberry jam in little dobs over the cream. Mix together slightly before spreading over the top layer of the sponge.
- Blend the fresh raspberries until smooth. Sieve to remove the seeds, saving the juice. Sift the icing sugar into a medium bowl. Mix 1/4 cup of the raspberry juice into the icing sugar. Add more, gradually until the icing is a thick but slightly runny texture. Add more icing sugar if it’s too runny. Spread over the top of the cake and top with fresh raspberries.
- Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving. This stops the cream from collapsing out – like you can see in my passionfruit one above.
Notes
If you want to make a passionfruit one – it’s exactly the same – just sub the raspberry jam for passionfruit curd and use passionfruit juice instead of raspberry juice in the icing.
