Cake! Now With Less Gluten!!

Cheese, Gromit! CHEEEESE!!
Steve and I(Jess) decided to try our hand at the ricotta cheese cake last night. Neither of us had ever used ricotta cheese for anything, so there was some tasting to be done before actually putting it in the cake. It was kind of like eating whole milk; had that same kind of taste, just a different texture. Maybe that accounts for the not-quite-sweet-enough taste?

First order of business: Buy a springform pan. We ran down to the China Fair and found a very large collection. We ended up buying an 8x3 inch pan, not for any particular reason except that it was between the 7 inch the recipe called for and the 9 inch that seems to be the standard size. It worked fine anyways, and I think it's a good size.

Recipe Alterations
Lots of people had posted about the need for added sweetness. We made two main alterations to remedy that: White Rice and Tapioca Flour and Blueberry Sauce.

I think some of you know that I'm allergic to gluten, so I have to alter most baking recipes since they contain flour. After baking with gluten-free flours for a few months, Steve and I have found that a mixture of about 3 parts white rice flour to 1 part tapioca flour makes for a good fluffy baking flour that doesn't rise a lot, but has a sweeter taste than regular all-purpose flour.


For a glaze, we thought of using a blueberry sauce that Steve usually makes to put on pannukakku, which is a Finnish pancake. The recipe is pretty simple:
1. Mix 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 tblspn corn starch in a small saucepan on the stove until boiling.
2. Turn down the heat and add about 1 cup of frozen blueberries.
We've had the sauce warm and cold before, and it's good and sweet either way. It worked extremely well, as it sank into the cake itself and helped to flavor all of it. Plus, something about the taste of blueberries and cheese is really good :)


We want cake! Where's our cake?!

Our food processor:


HULK SMASH CHEESE!



More batter shots:


In the pan (floured with white rice flour)


Just chillin'.


Our cake didn't rise at all, but I think that has to do with the flours.


Mmmmm midnight cake. It took forever to bake and and cool and chill (and we ate it still warm because it was way too late) but I wasn't leaving without eating some cake!!


Steve and I liked this recipe. We did notice though that despite the nice light-fluffy-ness, it sat kinda heavy after you ate it. Like your body suddenly realized how much cheese you just consumed. But it might be the flours too; gluten-free cooking can turn out heavy. But I was really pleased with the way it turned out!