My friend Julie Goldberg gave me a coffee cake recipe from the King Arthur Flour website at Thanksgiving. It looked amazing, but needed some tweaking to make it work for my family. I made a Gluten Free version of it and it WAS amazing. So much so, I decided to make it again with my children for Christmas. However, the Young Writer has asked to add orange to it this time, because she likes orange and cranberry together.
Below is our version of the recipe with food allergy / intolerance /sensitivity / diet changes added in bold.
KAF describes the original version of the recipe in this way: ‘This moist, golden cake hides a double layer of cranberry sauce and a sprinkling of almonds. It’s a lovely cake for Thanksgiving breakfast; and makes a satisfying autumn dessert, as well. This recipe comes from our James Beard award-winning best-seller, “The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion.”‘
I have to say I think my gluten free version measures up to that description beautifully. It made a lovely Christmas morning breakfast this year.
Gluten Free Cranberry -Orange-Almond Coffee Cake
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) butter
1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large chicken eggs or 1 Duck egg
1 cup (8 ounces) goat yogurt, buttermilk, yogurt,–or allowed milk with 1 T vinegar added to the milk to sour it.
1 teaspoon almond extract (or 1/2 t almond extract and 1/2 t orange extract)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2+ cups gluten free all-purpose flour mix (I usually use a homemade mix. This time I was in a hurry and used Pamela’s brand.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 (10 3/4 – 15 ounces) whole berry cranberry sauce
1/2 cup blanched slivered or sliced almonds, toasted*
Glaze (optional) (I served mine without, since some of us can’t have the corn in confectioner’s sugar. It was still wonderful!)
3/4 cup (3 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) allowed milk or Orange Juice
1/2 teaspoon almond extract or 1/4 t almond and 1/4 t vanilla
*Spread almonds in an ungreased 9″ round cake pan, and bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 10-cup (9″ to 9 ½”) tube pan or bundt-style pan, or individual mini bundt style pans — they’re super fancy big cupcakes.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar till smooth. Beat in the eggs, then the buttermilk or yogurt and almond extract. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and beat briefly again, to make sure everything is well combined. Add the baking powder, baking soda, flour mix, and salt, stirring just to blend. Grease and flour a tube pan or individual bundt pans. Spoon half of batter into pan(s). Spread half of cranberry sauce evenly atop batter, then spread remaining batter over that. Top with remaining cranberry sauce, and sprinkle toasted almonds evenly over sauce.
Bake the cake for 55 minutes, (check after 20-30 minutes if using mini bundt pans) tenting it with foil for the final 15 minutes (or few minutes for minis). When it’s done, a cake tester inserted into the thickest part will come out clean, and the top will spring back when you press it gently. Remove the cake from the oven, and cool it in pan for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn it out of the pan onto a rack set over a piece of parchment, and stir together the glaze ingredients.
Drizzle the thin glaze over the warm cake. Let the cake cool completely before serving (or serve it warm, if you don’t mind it crumbling a bit!)
Yield: 1 cake, 14 to 16 servings.
Try it. Gluten free and wonderful.
Blessings.
Maximum Grace 