Gluten-free Recipe: Pine+Apple Cake with Maple Icing

I can’t think of anything meaningful to say this week, so instead here are three random and unrelated facts about me:

1. My 5 year-old son and I are making a pompom. That is, I’m making the pom pom while he gets the wool nicely tangled and strewn up everywhere. It’s for a kindy project – all the kindy kids’ pompoms are going to be hung from a tree. It should look amazing. They’re so easy to make, thank God, as my craft skills would barely cope with anything else. Previous parents were asked to knit squares for a blanket. Jeez, that would have been my worst nightmare. My poor Mum tried to teach me to knit but I was just so hopeless at it. She blamed it on my severe left-handedness. I blamed it on lack of talent. To this day, I think she considers it a parental failing that I can’t knit. Time to let that one go, Mum!
2. Thanks to the recommendation of a good friend, my Husband and I are currently watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, created and written by Aaron Sorkin. Damn, it’s good. I love Sorkin’s work. I really loved The Newsroom and earlier this year I did manage to work my way through one season of The West Wing – still fab after all this time. I don’t think I’ll rest until I’ve watched everything Sorkin has ever done. He’s a genius.
3. We are in the middle of spring here in Australia and that means that everyone’s having garage sales and all the schools are having fundraising fairs or fetes. That means loads of second-hand goods. That means plenty of opportunities to buy props for food photos, as well as kids’ clothes and toys. I love a bargain, so this makes me happy. I love a bargain so much that I’m thinking about blogging my food prop purchases. What do you think? If you love a bargain as much as me, check out the lovely blog The Second Hand City, especially if you live in Melbourne. It’s wonderful for glimpses of how its author, Leanne, finds and uses her recycled treasures.

That’s all. But I should just say that this recipe is awesome. And I think its name is awesome, too (pineapple plus apple equals pine+apple. Geddit?). So you can either choose to bask in its awesomeness by cooking it, or not.

Oh, and yes, occasionally I allow my kids to have iced cakes at school. Gotta be healthy most of the time, but gotta live as well. And honestly, you are really going to want to try the maple icing.

Enjoy!

Method

Cake

2 eggs

150 g brown sugar

50 g tapioca flour

70 g sorghum flour

60 g brown rice flour

30 g baking powder

5 g psyllium husks

200 g (approximately 2)  peeled, cored and grated apple

120 g (approximately 3 rings) drained tinned pineapple

125 ml oil

Icing

45 g butter, melted

1 ½ tbs pure maple syrup

100 g gluten-free icing mixture

Method

Preheat oven to 180° Celsius (conventional oven) or 160° Celsius (fan-forced oven). Grease a 24 cm fluted ring cake tin.

Beat eggs in the large bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes. Add sugar and beat for a further 2 minutes.

Sift in tapioca flour, sorghum flour, brown rice flour, baking powder and psyllium husks. Add apple.

Chop the pineapple into 1 cm chunks and add to the mixture. Add oil.

Mix until well combined.

Pour into tin and make sure mixture is evenly disbursed. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer, when inserted, comes out clean.

Allow to cool in tin.

When cake is completely cooled, turn out onto a plate.

To make the icing, put the butter in a small bowl and cover with a plate or plastic film. Microwave on high for 30 seconds or until butter is melted.

Sift icing mixture into a medium sized bowl and add maple syrup. Add butter and stir to combine. Spread evenly over cake and stand for a few minutes to set.

Makes 8 to 10 slices.