At the risk of sounding unsympathetic, I'll admit that when I found out my wife was going to have to live a gluten-free diet I took it pretty hard. I moped around the house for days fearing that my culinary creativity had just been sent packing. I had heard of celiac, I had seen the gluten-free section at the supermarket and its prices, and I had tasted some really awful gluten-free products. My wife was more optimistic than I was, thankfully, and with persistent coaxing she convinced me that life was not all that bad and that with my outrageously good cooking skills and my enormous ego I should be able to come up with something palatable (I'm paraphrasing, of course). That led me to the idea that I should start with my ward cookbook and try to make the best out of those recipes that I had been using all my life. After a few successes and much bragging, my wife convinced me that I should start a blog and post my best recipes. So of course, my first post is nothing of the sort. I'll get to the ward cookbook recipes, but I'll start with a cake of my own. Hope you enjoy it, but if not--well there's a reason I disabled the comments feature.
Buttermilk Banana CakeCombine dry ingredients in a separate bowl:
1 c. rice flour
1/2 c. tapioca flour
1/c c. potato starch
1 c. sorghum flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 c. sugar
In a mixer, combine wet ingredients and mix on high setting until you get a good creamy consistency:
2 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 bananas
Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet mixture (about a cup at a time) and mix on high for about 2 minutes (I like to give the rice flour a chance to mix well and soak up as much flavor as possible). Pour batter into a greased and floured (rice flour works well) cake pan and bake at 375 for 30-33 minutes.
I think this cake works well with a cream cheese frosting, but it's also good with a simple white frosting.
