My sister and I are "a lot" free right now so for her birthday I made cupcakes that we could both enjoy. I combined a gluten-free
strawberry cake recipe from the glutenfreemommy blog and regular hummingbird cake. Here's what I came up with (and it was very yummy!):
1/2c. almond meal
1 c. brown (or white) rice flour
1/2 c. tapioca starch
1/4. c. potato starch (could sub tapioca)
1/4 c. sweet rice flour
1 1/2 - 2 c. sugar (I use sucanat)
1 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum (or guar gum?)
2 1/2 t. baking powder
3 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. coconut oil melted (or your preferred oil)
2 c. chopped/mashed bananas
6 pineapple rings
about 2 c. strawberries, fresh or frozen
1 tsp. gluten-free vanilla, optional (I think I forgot this
)
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Puree pineapple rings and strawberries with a little pineapple juice. Mix oil, bananas, 2 c. of the puree, gluten-free vanilla in a separate bowl. Make a well in dry ingredients and mix together. I just learned that rice flour becomes less grainy if it's allowed to soak in liquid for a while so either let it sit for about 5-10 minutes or maybe hold out the rice flours and add to the liquid before adding to the rest of the dry ingredients. Here's the tricky part. Because the fruit adds a variable amount of liquid, I just add extra liquid (pineapple juice) to the batter until it's the right consistency, just like you'd want for muffins. I haven't tried an actual cake but I don't see why it wouldn't work. I made approx. 24 cupcakes, baked at 350 deg for about 25 min. (until toothpick came out clean). For cake, bake 30-40 min.
I made a strawberry/pineapple "buttercream" frosting using coconut oil in a semi-solid state, powdered sugar and the left over puree. The frosting "broke," just like a regular buttercream when you add too much liquid too quickly, but it was still delish! The pineapple's acidity makes the strawberry flavor stand out and gives it some depth. My sister loved it and she's just gone "free" in the past few months she remembers the real stuff. I would think that Kathy's "cream cheese" icing would be amazing as well.
If I were better about blogging I'd add my gf/other f's recipes but I struggle, to say the least
Good luck and let us know what you try and how it turns out.