Wishing the Aherns many more birthdays filled with (gf) lemon-raspberry cakes
Lemon cake filled with Pierre Hermé’s lemon cream, frosted with raspberry cream cheese frosting
My husband and I went to Vashon island yesterday, bearing this pretty pink confection for the Aherns. It was a joint birthday party for the whole family: Shauna, Danny, and baby Lucy, all born within about 2.5 weeks of one another. (It was just meant to be, wasn’t it?) A few weeks ago, I asked Shauna what her favorite cake was, and she told me anything with lemon and raspberry. I wanted to make a gluten-free cake for the party, and asked her for a few tips about gluten-free baking. Here are a few basic rules that are good to know:
Shauna’s Rules for Gluten-Free Baking 1. Use more liquid (oil, egg, etc.) than you think would be necessary 2. A gluten-free baked good generally contains proportionately more fat 3. Use a blend of sorghum, sweet rice, tapioca, and potato starch (and sometimes, a bit of guar gum) to get the right textureWith these rules in mind, I wrote a gluten-free cake recipe. If you are a seasoned traditional baker like I am, the proportions to this recipe definitely seem “off”–you might think you would end up with an awfully greasy and leaden cake with so much butter and egg, not to mention the sour cream. But gluten-free batters react differently than traditional white flour batters in the oven–what looks like a runny mess in the pan will bake up beautifully moist, with a soft texture. In fact, many of the guests at the party last night commented that they couldn’t even tell that the cake was gluten-free, and the legendary Cakespy, Jessie Oleson proclaimed it: “the best gluten-free cake she’s ever had.” (High praise, indeed!)
So with that, I am pleased to offer you the recipe. I wrote it with love, because anyone (gluten-intolerant or not), deserves the very best-tasting lemon-raspberry cake on their birthday. Especially a family as sweet and dear as the Aherns.
Shauna’s Lemon-Raspberry Birthday cake serves a happy, cake-loving crowd
Ingredients: 1/2 cup each of sorghum flour, white rice flour, tapioca starch, and potato starch (all available at Whole Foods!) 3/4 tsp guar gum 1/2 tsp kosher salt 2 tsp baking powder 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened 2 cups granulated sugar 5 eggs 1/3 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice 3 tsp lemon zest 1 vanilla bean, scraped (or 1 tsp vanilla extract) 2 tsp Cointreau 1/2 cup sour cream
Method: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, guar gum, salt, and baking powder.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes on medium-high speed. Lower the speed to medium, and add the eggs one by one, mixing until combined after each addition. Add the lemon juice, zest, vanilla, and Cointreau. Beat in the dry ingredients, and then beat in the sour cream until the batter is combined. (Don’t worry if the lemon juice has caused everything to look a little curdled–this will happen.) The texture of the batter at this point is runnier than a traditional cake batter, and that’s exactly right!
Grease and line two 9″ cake pans and divide the batter between them evenly. Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned. Let cool, then unmold. The cakes need to be completely cooled before filling and frosting.
For the lemon cream, I use Pierre Hermé’s lovely lemon cream recipe. A half-recipe is all you need to fill the cake, and then the rest is leftovers for you to spoon into your mouth. Don’t be put off by the lengthy directions in this recipe–I never strain the zest out (though I use a microplane so the zest is extremely fine), and I don’t use the blender to whip extra air into the cream. Instead, I keep it in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, whisking ever 1-2 minutes as I clean up the kitchen. Incorporate the butter into the hot lemon mixture bit by bit, whisking after each addition. (This is the more traditional way of making lemon curd, and it works for this recipe.) It’ll thicken after about 15-18 minutes. But if you’re up for the task of doing it PH’s way, it will turn out perfectly as well!
For the raspberry cream cheese frosting: makes enough frosting for one 9″ cake Ingredients: 4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened 12 oz. cream cheese 1 1/2 cups icing sugar 1/4 cup raspberry jam 1/4 cup fresh raspberries 1 tsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice 1 tsp Cointreau
Beat everything together until smooth, and apply liberally over the entire cake.
Posted: July 27th, 2009 under Uncategorized.
Comments
Comment from Jeanne
Time July 27, 2009 at 4:15 PM
This was such a yummy cake! Thanks again, Lorna. From the bottom of my gluten-free heart 
.
Comment from shauna
Time July 27, 2009 at 4:18 PM
I’m too moved to say much, other than thank you.
Thank you.
And Lucy sends her hugs and kisses. And the face!
Comment from Clare Barboza
Time July 27, 2009 at 4:43 PM
This was my favorite cake…maybe of all time.
Comment from Alice
Time July 27, 2009 at 7:44 PM
I love how you called this Shauna’s Lemon-Raspberry Birthday cake. Cakes baked with love are always the best! I enjoyed eating it very much and it was an amazing cake.
Comment from lorna
Time July 27, 2009 at 7:49 PM
Matt: I’m sure I will find another occasion to make it. =)
Jeanne: You’re welcome! I hope the recipe serves you well!
Shauna: I would do anything for ‘the face’. 
Clare: Really? Wow! That is a compliment all bakers live for! You made my day.
Comment from Kamran Siddiqi
Time July 28, 2009 at 7:53 PM
Shauna has good taste! Love anything raspberry and lemon. Heck, who am I kidding? I love everything!
I couldn’t wait for this recipe when you first made the cake a while back. So, thanks for the recipe! Can’t wait to make it. When I move, it will probably be our dessert for our first meal in the new place…
Great post and lovely photo!
Comment from lorna
Time July 30, 2009 at 7:27 AM
Kam: Wow, the first dessert! That’s quite an honor. I hope the move isn’t too stressful and all goes smoothly.
Comment from Sarah
Time August 7, 2009 at 9:28 PM
Looks delightful! Any suggestions for those allergic to , or choosing not to eat, eggs?
Thanks!
Comment from lorna
Time August 7, 2009 at 10:50 PM
Hi Sarah, I’m certainly no expert, but this page lists good egg substitutions for those who avoid them.
http://www.vegcooking.com/vegcooking-eggreplace.asp
Hope that helps!
Comment from CakeSpy
Time August 11, 2009 at 10:11 AM
YES! Finally, the recipe! I can attest that it tasted just as good as it looks! And, what a lovely day it was to celebrate with such a delicious cake.
Comment from Wendy Robertson
Time August 16, 2009 at 3:20 PM
My daughter has just begun this whole gluten free thing, so I am VERY new to this. On top of that I have another daughter who last year became lactose intollerant. I’ve been wondering about birthdays and cakes. This one sounds lovely, but… what about the cream cheese for the icing? is there anything you can use as a replacement?
Comment from lorna
Time August 16, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Wendy, I’ve had success with dairy free (vegan) cream cheese–I have a friend who is lactose intolerant, and I’ve frosted his cakes with that. The frosting is a little looser than regular cream cheese frosting, but tastes very similar. =)
Comment from CS
Time September 6, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Lorna — Since going gluten free I have not had ANYTHING that comes close to being as tasty/awesome/perfect as this. thanks for sharing.
Comment from Ashley Edwards
Time September 8, 2009 at 7:01 AM
Lorna, I just wanted to tell you that I made this cake last night for my own birthday party, and it is quite possibly one of the best cakes I have ever had. My boyfriend and I are on an 8-week gluten-free diet, and I was so excited by the challenge to make a delicious gluten-free birthday cake. I found this recipe on Shauna’s website (which I love!). I was so nervous because I’ve only made a gluten-free cake once, and it tasted like stale banana bread! And baking in my small Brooklyn apartment oven can always be unpredictable. But all five of my guests (including me!) were floored by this cake, couldn’t believe it was gluten-free, and asked for seconds (I served it with vanilla goat’s milk ice cream!). Thank you again. This recipe is going into my pile of favorites. I will definitely make it again!
Comment from lorna
Time September 8, 2009 at 2:20 PM
CS and Ashley: oh wow, what lovely praise! Thanks so much. I am so glad you enjoyed the cake. I have a great gluten-free recipe coming out in the Dec. issue of Seattle Magazine as well–I think you’d enjoy it! I will link to it on my blog when it’s published. =)
Comment from Laura
Time October 6, 2009 at 12:54 PM
I made this cake last weekend for my new roommate who is GF, and it was a big hit! Even my boyfriend loved it, and we all ate it for breakfast the next morning too. Well done. I’ll be hanging onto this recipe!
Comment from Jennifer
Time December 17, 2009 at 6:46 PM
My daughter is gluten, corn, nut, dairy, and soy free. They just took the corn and soy out today and I can’t find a butter to replace butter with. Can you offer an idea as a substitute because I would really love to make this for my birthday. Thanks.
Comment from Susan
Time May 26, 2010 at 11:48 AM
I made this cake for a friend’s baby shower. It was awesome! Even the non-GF people at the shower loved it!
THANK YOU!
Comment from lorna
Time June 5, 2010 at 3:21 PM
Jennifer: You can use Earth Balance instead of butter.
So glad you all love this recipe!
Comment from Ashly
Time June 29, 2011 at 7:39 AM
I live in a small town and finding sorghum flour would be impossible. Any suggestions for a replacement? Omit sorghum flour and use the other three ingredients?
Comment from brenda
Time April 19, 2012 at 5:16 AM
how many tablespoons is in (2) sticks unsalted butter? the short ones or the long ones?
thanks in advance,
brenda
Comment from matt
Time July 27, 2009 at 3:57 PM
oh god. this looks and sounds amazing. I wish we had got to try some!