Gluten and Dairy Free Birthday Custard Sponge

Another recipe adapted from www.nigella.com.

I made this cake for a friend's birthday who came to dinner a few weeks ago. She's also got IBS and doesn't eat gluten or dairy. She gets bad tummy troubles when she eats gluten but she can tolerate a little dairy now and again, for me it's the other way round...

This is quite a rich cake, the way a birthday cake should be I think! It was a big hit and I was asked for the recipe. Success!


Ingredients:

For the sponge

• 200g gluten free plain flour
• 3 tblsps gluten and dairy free custard powder
• 2 tsp gluten free baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 4 large eggs
• 225g dairy free margarine
• 200g caster sugar
• 2-3 tblsps rice or almond milk

For the buttercream filling

• 125g icing sugar
• 4 tsp gluten and dairy free custard powder
• 75g dairy free margarine
• 1 and 1/2 tsp boiling water (from recently boiled kettle)

For the chocolate icing

• 60ml water
• 2 tblsps golden syrup
• 125g caster sugar
• 175g dairy free dark chocolate
• 1 packet hundreds and thousands

Method:

For the cake:
Make sure everything you need is at room temperature before you start. Preheat the oven to 180C and butter and line two 20cm sandwich tins. Put all of the above ingredients except the milk, into a food processor. Process to a smooth batter, and then add the milk a tablespoon at a time to make a soft dropping consistency. Divide between the two cake tins and bake for 20 minutes. Let the tins sit on a cooling rack for 5 minutes and then turn them out on to the rack, peeling away the paper.

For the buttercream icing:
Process the icing sugar and custard powder to get rid of any lumps, and then add the margarine, processing again to make the buttercream come together. Feed the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running to make the filling easier to spread. Then sandwich the cooled sponges together with the buttercream.

For the chocolate icing:
Combine the water, syrup and sugar in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve over a low heat. Let it come to the boil and then take it off the heat. Break up the chocolate into small pieces and then add to the pan, swirling it around to cover in the hot liquid. Leave to melt for a few minutes, and then whisk the icing to make it smooth and shiny. Pour over the buttercream filled cake, letting it drip down the sides, and then sprinkle with the hundreds and thousands before the icing sets.


Note: for the custard powder I used Bird's Custard Powder. The ingredients listed are: cornflour, salt, colour (annatto), flavouring.

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