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Allergies
: Can gluten & wheat intolerant people have baking powder in their cakes???????
(28 messages)
For anyone still reading this thread ... I ended up making a Victoria Sponge cake - recipe from the back of the gluten/wheat free flour bag and apart from upping the vanilla essence and baking powder levels, I stuck to the recipe and it was really, really good! I then spread a layer of butter icing (with a tspn of vanilla in) and some nice strawberry jam in the middle of the cake and that was that. My friend said it was one of the nicest gluten/wheat free cakes that they'd eaten (mind you ... she isn't my best friend for nothing!!!).
Point of all that was that it's worth trying the recipe's on the back as they turn out well (oh ... and apart from the fact that I had to use double the quantity in order to get two cake tins worth of cake to stick together to make it 'normal' cake size.
actually, wordsmith, alot of the gf stuff is made from de-glutanised wheat starch so not ok for wheat intolerant people (made that mistake with dd )
baking powder should be fine though, it usually says wheat free and gluten free but either way i think they just use corn starch to replace the wheat, check the ingredients label
Do Sainsbury's (or Tescos) sell a gluten free cake that's tasty ... I'm thinking about maybe ditching the making it myself bit, to make my life easier .
Supercook Baking Powder (the only one I can find in Tescos, Sainsburys or Morrisons) is gluten free. If you get Doves Farm GF flour, there is a recipe on there for a victoria sponge which is very nice. All my family now prefer GF cakes to the other kind!
Had never heard of adding xanthan gum to GF cakes - will give that a try for our next one.
India Knight's cookery book has some awesome recipes in it - gluten free by default. The chilli bake with a sponge type topping was so good my Dh asked for it 5 days in an row.
JS have a good GF section and you should get four there. There is usually a recipe on the back of the flour packet as well....or google GF cakes and you'll get lots of links.
Second the tip about Xanthum gum. My mum made a fab birthday cake for DS2 - I had several txts from kids' parents saying it was the best cake they'd had in ages. It was this one - absolutely fantastic! She made it with butter icing instead of fresh cream so it lasted for days and didn't get dry.
nip down the free from aisle and buy some gluten free shortbread with jammy bits .. delicious .. they may also have a cake .. I'm sure as long as she has something sweet to eat she'll be fine
If you can't get all the stuff you need, M&S do a lovely Gluten free chocolate and black cherry cake which is just deeeeeeelish. you wouldn't know it was GF unless someone told you, and it is really lush <wipes away crumbs from chin>
I bought baking powder on saturday from Sainsburys - I had to get gluten free as it was the only one they had. The cake I made - also a Nigella one was fine - but of course the flour did have gluten in it
Oh ... have only got time to nip to Sainsbury's ... and was hoping to be able to just make a normal cake with the replacement ingredients ... I'm not very good in the kitchen at the best of times but if the GF stuff is going to be tricky ... Oh dear.
if not, and you're baking with gluten free flours then the addition of a teaspoon of xanthan gum (can get it in asda) really makes a huge huge difference to the texture .... gluten free cakes can be very dry / crumbly otherwise
Not the normal stuff but you can buy gluten free baking powder from health food shops. GF flour and baking powder cooks differently though so get a good recipe.
I made a surprise birthday cake for one of my closest friends who I don't get to see too often because she lives abroad but who's in the UK and is visiting me on Thursday .... BUT, just when I was feeling all organised and smug, I suddenly realised that her 9 year older daughter is gluten and wheat intolerant .... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Back to the drawing board. Am going to remake the cake but with proper allergy friendly flour and she's okay with eggs and butter BUT ... and please excuse my ignorance, I don't know whether that means that I can't use baking powder in the allergy friendly cake or not .... can I?
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... have only got time to nip to Sainsbury's ... and was hoping to be able to just make a normal cake with the replacement ingredients ... I'm not very good in the kitchen at the best of times but if the GF stuff is going to be tricky ... Oh dear. 
