Gluten Free Angel Layer Cake!
The world almost forgot that Gluten Free Angel Layer Cake needs to be created and I'm on a mission to create such a simple cake at home... Or is it REALLY that simple?
Gluten Free cheesecake has never been soooo easy to make at home and I share my go to recipe that I use again and again and again at home...
You can be baking this cheesecake in your lovely Gluten Free kitchen right away as I explain what I do on this weeks podcast!
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Transcript
Can you really make a gluten-free angel cake?
Speaker:I'll be telling you all in today's podcast from gluten-free Angela, and
Speaker:I'm gonna talk about a few things that are quite retro, I suppose today.
Speaker:, yesterday I was in the kitchen and I decided to make an angel
Speaker:cake, and I don't know if.
Speaker:. You remember this from your childhood days, that beautiful white, pink and
Speaker:yellow layers with this lovely little white billowy filling, and it was an angel
Speaker:layer cake and they were pretty cheap.
Speaker:You know, they're in on every buffet.
Speaker:, you bought them in a block wrapped in plastic, you cut them into
Speaker:slices and everybody loved them.
Speaker:So this was my, uh, and it's actually one my husband's favorite cake.
Speaker:So I came across a recipe, I thought, right, I'm gonna have a go at this.
Speaker:And I did make it yesterday.
Speaker:And interestingly, I actually found the cake too light.
Speaker:The, the recipe that I had, I found it was so, so light, beautiful.,
Speaker:but it just didn't have that, , that feeling, that feel of the angel there.
Speaker:Cake.
Speaker:, and I thought, I'm gonna have to bake this again.
Speaker:Make it again.
Speaker:But what I'm gonna do is not just gonna use the gluten-free flour.
Speaker:I'm gonna blend that with some almond flour.
Speaker:Now, just to explain there is, , a bit of a difference between, it
Speaker:is really interesting, isn't it?
Speaker:When we have conversations with our non gluten-free friends say, oh yeah, you
Speaker:can make, , flour, almond flour, but just grinding almonds and well, that
Speaker:makes ground almonds , which we use.
Speaker:in certain things which need to really hold moisture, but sometimes you don't
Speaker:want something really holding moisture, which is why the almond flour, , goes
Speaker:through several processes and, um, there's even defatted almond flour out there.
Speaker:Uh, it's normally about 15 pounds a bag.
Speaker:I get it from my local health food shop.
Speaker:It's really good if you're doing anything like, uh, a pastry
Speaker:where you want a crispness.
Speaker:, it's really good in cakes as well.
Speaker:Uh, I find that when you want it to react like a flower, , it's
Speaker:really good and gives that cake feel rather than a ground almond feel.
Speaker:So, that's a little.
Speaker:Extra bit of information when it comes to, um, almonds and it's
Speaker:not quite as simple as it as just grinding some almonds that you've got.
Speaker:, Especially when you get a bag of them that are reduced.
Speaker:If you are walking in the, um, health food shop and they say All these
Speaker:are reduced, I always buy them.
Speaker:I always do, and I just buy all of them off the shelf and I make lots
Speaker:and lots and lots of amazing things, however, We're talking about, , making
Speaker:a cake and this Angel Layer cake.
Speaker:I just found it a little bit light.
Speaker:, I like a cake to have a little bit of, not too, sort of dissolve in my mouth.
Speaker:I'll like it to so that I can act chew and I can feel the crumbs, et cetera.
Speaker:However, I made this Angel Layer cake.
Speaker:My mom absolutely loves it.
Speaker:She had one big piece.
Speaker:In the afternoon, about half past three, four o'clock with a nice cup of tea.
Speaker:And then after we'd had dinner, I said, do you want some
Speaker:cheesecake, homemade cheesecake?
Speaker:And she said, no, I'm all right.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:And then she says, can I have something to eat some something sweet?
Speaker:I said, course you can.
Speaker:Do you want a piece of cake or, yeah, she polished it off again.
Speaker:So this recipe my mom absolutely loves, so I'll probably have to make two in future.
Speaker:One for me, one for her.
Speaker:And the thing that we don't often realise, is when it comes to an angel
Speaker:layer cake, that filling in the middle is not just standard buttercream.
Speaker:It will be an Italian meringue buttercream or something interesting
Speaker:to give it that lovely flavor.
Speaker:And, and I suddenly realized when I was making this yesterday,
Speaker:oh my word there is so much work goes into an angel, their cake.
Speaker:And it was, it was lovely.
Speaker:, the one thing that I would say, is when it comes to that pink layer.
Speaker:I just don't like flavorings.
Speaker:I really don't.
Speaker:Uh, cuz they always think I can taste that.
Speaker:It's a, a flavor.
Speaker:So I thought, next time what I'm gonna have to do is go, have you seen those?
Speaker:Dehydrated, , raspberry crumbs, and I thought that's what I
Speaker:need to do in that pink layer.
Speaker:And just put some dehydrated raspberries in it.
Speaker:And I know people will look and they, oh, there's little specks in there.
Speaker:However, it will just give that sour sharpness of raspberries
Speaker:rather than that flavouring.
Speaker:, um, because you've got to be careful when, when you're starting to put
Speaker:things like rass in, it's just too wet and you really have to start
Speaker:combining, uh, changing recipes.
Speaker:But the, the lovely thing about this recipe that I did yesterday was
Speaker:that the bottom layer was vanilla.
Speaker:And you know me, I can't do vanilla, can I?
Speaker:So it had to be changed to Tonka, the middle one.
Speaker:Raspberry and I actually had strawberry flavoring in there and I used that and
Speaker:I thought, why do I ever have this?
Speaker:I have it for when I make cakes for my niece who loves that flavoring . And
Speaker:then the top layer was a lemon and, and I thought, do you know what?
Speaker:We don't realize that it's just a hint of lemon in that.
Speaker:And altogether it was lovely and the thing that I absolutely loved doing.
Speaker:Put it on the top.
Speaker:Just put in a thick white icing on there, which is just icing,
Speaker:sugar and some, and some water.
Speaker:And then you do another little bit.
Speaker:That's that you put pink in and then you draw lines.
Speaker:I, I, um, I did four lines on the top of this angel layer cake and then
Speaker:just, um, used a little, a cake tester where you just drag it so you get
Speaker:that V-shape on the top, and it was lovely and, and I realized afterwards.
Speaker:We've really lost that art to put in that beautiful icing on top, haven't we?
Speaker:And I think in the seventies, eighties, we always had that on top of cakes.
Speaker:And I remember doing just the most simple, simple, simple orange cake.
Speaker:And you just make a, a standard, Victoria sponge, you don't even have to layer.
Speaker:It's so good.
Speaker:Put put.
Speaker:Rin the zest of one or two oranges in, I always say put in more because
Speaker:then it isn't a sweet taste of orange.
Speaker:It's a powerful taste of orange.
Speaker:, and then on the top, the only thing that you put on the top is ice and sugar that
Speaker:you've mixed with the juice of the orange.
Speaker:So it's still thickish and it just goes so beautiful and glossy.
Speaker:And then just put a little bit of the, you know, the, the
Speaker:orange zest on the top as well.
Speaker:, I always tend to put the orange zest on after, so I make sure that I put
Speaker:the icing on there because then you can really see the beautiful orange
Speaker:and just have that with a cup of tea.
Speaker:It's one of the most simplest things I realized that that icing sugar that we
Speaker:have on top, we've got so into having different buttercreams, different
Speaker:ganaches, uh, the list is endless.
Speaker:And there was something magnificent, absolutely magnificent
Speaker:about putting that on top.
Speaker:So I invite you to make something and just put a simple
Speaker:icing sugar topping on there.
Speaker:It's really not overly sweet.
Speaker:I was surprised at how little sweetness there was there because it's only
Speaker:the thinnest layer that you put on, and it gives this beautiful, glossy
Speaker:finish to your beautiful cake.
Speaker:and I really, really enjoyed it.
Speaker:And this angel layer cake, I looked at it and I thought, wow,
Speaker:that's really quite impressive.
Speaker:I have to say I didn't it.
Speaker:I would normally even it up . It looked a little bit as if it was
Speaker:leaning one way, but who cares?
Speaker:This is a homemade cake.
Speaker:And the other thing I didn't realize was it was so light it
Speaker:because it was a simple recipe.
Speaker:um, Genoese sponge, and then what you did was you put it into three bowls,
Speaker:applied a little bit of lemon coloring to one and a bit of lemon zest, then my
Speaker:tonka to the other one, and then the, the pink and, , flavor into the other one.
Speaker:Then you put them in three low tins and put 'em on top of each other, which I did.
Speaker:However, this is the thing that you have to do.
Speaker:you as soon as you take them out of the oven, you have to
Speaker:get them out of those pans.
Speaker:If not, what will happen is your sponge will just, constrict , and
Speaker:you'll end up with wobbly edges.
Speaker:Which is what I did.
Speaker:I hadn't left them there for about five minutes.
Speaker:I thought, right, I'll take them out now and put them on a cooling
Speaker:rack, but that was too late.
Speaker:So as soon as you take them out of the oven, that's what you need
Speaker:to do and you will end up with perfectly straight sides that haven't
Speaker:started to go in on themselves.
Speaker:Um, but this cake was just lovely.
Speaker:However, when I suddenly realized I had to make an Italian meringue
Speaker:buttercream, I thought, oh no.
Speaker:Like, where's my, , my thermometer?
Speaker:Because it, it's really interesting when you make this Italian
Speaker:meringue buttercream, you have to get the temperature of your
Speaker:boiling sugar and water, right?
Speaker:And whenever you think it's hot enough, I, I looked at it and I thought,
Speaker:right, that must be hot enough now.
Speaker:And it needed to get to 120 degrees, it was only about a hundred and five.
Speaker:Now, I would normally, without that have thought, right, must
Speaker:be hot enough now take it off.
Speaker:But you really have to keep it going, putting the temperature
Speaker:up and up and up and up and up until you get to 120 degrees.
Speaker:So anyway, that's a little bit of a thing, but just get yourself a
Speaker:little temperature, gage, uh, they really do come in useful when you
Speaker:have to do something like this.
Speaker:And I made this buttercream and I thought, um, well, it's nice.
Speaker:However, I think a buttercream just with a butter or you know, a, a block.
Speaker:Marge is actually just as nice.
Speaker:Um, Because you can put vanilla in it, et cetera.
Speaker:, so it's entirely up to you if you're making a buttercream,
Speaker:make it pretty thick.
Speaker:I tend to use to make buttercream with butter, with double cream
Speaker:and with the icing sugar, which is why they're never that sweet.
Speaker:A lot of people do put in, butter and icing sugar, and that's where
Speaker:it gets pretty, pretty, um, sweet.
Speaker:But as soon as you put in that double cream with it, it's fine.
Speaker:, just a little point, if you are using there, uh, there are, uh, vegan.
Speaker:or dairy free products on the market that are double cream.
Speaker:Just be careful because a lot of the time they don't whip like others.
Speaker:They, you know, you can't whip them into something that will hold structure.
Speaker:Uh, they will fall, but they taste lovely.
Speaker:So just be careful because if you put that into the mix with making, , a buttercream,
Speaker:you may think this is just still wet and it, that will be the reason why.
Speaker:As I said, they taste great.
Speaker:I use them, but they're quite hard to, , whip up.
Speaker:So anyway, uh, I made this cake and we've only got two pieces left now.
Speaker:, my mom will have both of them today, so I'm gonna be making
Speaker:something else for her for tomorrow.
Speaker:So who knows what I'm gonna be creating, but I made this, , this cheese cake.
Speaker:and this cheesecake was, , I used some the base pre gluten-free.
Speaker:We never made our own bases, did we?
Speaker:So I, I don't do that now.
Speaker:And I had a mixture of some shortbread rounds, some ginger cookies.
Speaker:And some ginger biscuits that were in a little four pack and
Speaker:I just mixed them together.
Speaker:Um, so I, and I put in about 75 - 100 grams of, , butter and probably 150
Speaker:grams or 200 grams, something like that if the, the Crush biscuits, um, just
Speaker:melted the butter, put 'em together, and then put them in lined a little,
Speaker:probably like a seven inch square, cake tin.
Speaker:Just lined it.
Speaker:Put those in, put it in the in the fridge.
Speaker:And then my cheesecake is just the simplest cheesecake ever.
Speaker:I had two tubs of good quality.
Speaker:cream cheese.
Speaker:Now, I've spoken about this before.
Speaker:Sometimes I will have, , longly farm from Yorkshire because
Speaker:their cream cheese is fantastic.
Speaker:,, I really wanted to indulge in this, so I actually went to, um, a little
Speaker:deli that I know in Radlett and I went in there and bought their cream
Speaker:cheese, which is really quite thick.
Speaker:. I tend to stay away from the supermarket style ones because they, they are
Speaker:made to be really lovely and creamy.
Speaker:I like the sharpness that you get.
Speaker:In what item?
Speaker:Traditional old-fashioned, old school cream cheese.
Speaker:And when I was young.
Speaker:when I was little, cream cheese came in a little.
Speaker:It was like a tiny pack butter size with silver paper on the outside and
Speaker:you would peel it off and it would crumble, and that was the Philadelphia.
Speaker:It would crumble and it was sharp and sour, and that's how it always was.
Speaker:Whereas now it is very smooth and very light in taste.
Speaker:So that's why I like to get the traditional homemade style stuff.
Speaker:Um, and it just is so much sharp.
Speaker:So I use a couple of packs of that.
Speaker:If you can't get that, then do use a supermarket brand, but make sure it's
Speaker:a full fat one and not a low fat one.
Speaker:Low fat one.
Speaker:And cheesecake.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:No, and what you want to do is less mixing is.
Speaker:. So two tubs of, of that, I think they're about 300 grams each.
Speaker:And I put in about a hundred mil of double cream and one large
Speaker:tablespoon , of icing sugar.
Speaker:And I just mixed it slowly , in the mixer.
Speaker:But you could do this by hand.
Speaker:and what you don't want to do is whip it in any way.
Speaker:You don't want air getting in there, you just want to mix it.
Speaker:And then I put about a third of a Tonka bean in there, shave Tonka bean.
Speaker:That was it.
Speaker:Um, so then I take the base out of the fridge, put that topping
Speaker:on top, and then just level it and put it back in the fridge.
Speaker:And that will last for a good few days in the fridge, honestly.
Speaker:But that's not where we finish.
Speaker:Now, with that cheesecake, you could do an array of anything.
Speaker:So some people love, and my dad always loved Mandarin cheesecakes, so if you've
Speaker:got a little tin of Mandarin segments,
Speaker:just put a few segments on that cheesecake or on a piece of cheesecake my dad would
Speaker:always look for that type of cheesecake.
Speaker:And it's amazing how few supermarkets you can get it in if you eat gluten.
Speaker:Um, like he, he's fine.
Speaker:He can have gluten.
Speaker:, but for me, I could never have that.
Speaker:So just being able to put in those on, or if you like berries, like
Speaker:raspberries or, or, um, some cherries.
Speaker:Anything that you'd like on top and frozen stuff is great as well.
Speaker:. Every single freezer out there in every single supermarket and even
Speaker:in our farm shops have berries.
Speaker:And all you have to do is take them out half an hour before and they will
Speaker:be, they'll still be chilled, but they should have really defrosted quite a lot.
Speaker:You can put those on the top.
Speaker:What about those pie fillings?
Speaker:Princes , pie filling.
Speaker:And I know the last time I, I looked, I do look on the ingredients.
Speaker:So the cherry one has been gluten-free for years and years and years.
Speaker:It's great.
Speaker:Can, you remember going out when you were looking, you used to have the cherry
Speaker:cheesecake and it had cherries on top.
Speaker:Oh my word.
Speaker:Like, that's all it is.
Speaker:And it's got a beautiful taste to it.
Speaker:Or you could go to your health, food shop, shop, or, uh, one of these amazing.
Speaker:European style, , supermarkets where there's all these amazing
Speaker:ingredients that, sour cherries.
Speaker:That is the world of sour cherries.
Speaker:When you look across Europe, oh my word, uh, they are delicious on a cheesecake.
Speaker:Oh, I'm gonna talk about something unusual now.
Speaker:you see in gluten-free world, we know, don't they, that there is
Speaker:a sort of biscuit that comes with most coffees that we can't have.
Speaker:It's called a biscoff.
Speaker:Um, and for anyone who used to eat gluten, they were pretty
Speaker:nice biscuits, weren't they?
Speaker:But hey, ho, we can't have the damn things.
Speaker:And well, life would be good with a little bit of cinnamon and, and pazazz so.
Speaker:When I went up to a cafe up in Leeds, that is a 100% gluten-free bakery and cafe.
Speaker:They had something near the till and it was called not Biscoff, Biscoff and this,
Speaker:not Biscoff Biscoff is a gluten-free equivalent of Biscoff, so bless her.
Speaker:Mina, the founder of Wildcraft Bakery makes her own biscuits, gluten-free
Speaker:biscuits of course, because their entire factory is a hundred percent gluten-free.
Speaker:So she did that and she made these biscuits and then she created this
Speaker:not biscoff biscoff, and she had to get other people to taste it.
Speaker:Santa, it tastes like biscoff yet.
Speaker:So what I did was I just put about four spoonfuls.
Speaker:Not biscoff biscoff on the top of my, cheesecake and with a fork
Speaker:started to swirl through those blobs.
Speaker:So it made this beautiful pattern on top of the cheesecake.
Speaker:And then I got my gold glitter out and sprinkled the gold glitter on top.
Speaker:And that was.
Speaker:The most amazing cheesecake.
Speaker:So simple.
Speaker:So simple, so simple.
Speaker:But the result was amazing.
Speaker:Now, for anybody who can have gluten, all of our friends, they just won't
Speaker:realize the importance of this.
Speaker:But being able to have a beautiful cheesecake with a lovely, crispy
Speaker:base, , delicious, thick, incredible cheesecake, not overly sweet.
Speaker:And this not biscoff biscoff on top.
Speaker:It was just, I have felt as if I've been in heaven every time I've sat
Speaker:down for a piece of this cheesecake.
Speaker:So anyway, I, I love, love, love cheesecake.
Speaker:I will always love cheese cheesecake, and I love Mina.
Speaker:For creating this little pot of goodness.
Speaker:So I do think at the moment if you want the not biscoff biscoff,
Speaker:you have to go to Leeds to get it.
Speaker:Um, and I was due to go up there this week and I haven't been able to.
Speaker:, so I need to go up at the weekend and get a couple of jars
Speaker:because this stuff is incredible.
Speaker:Now, you could do all sorts with this, but hey, there is not Biscoff
Speaker:Biscoff out there, and I am so, so, so, so, so happy that Mina's done this.
Speaker:So I've made my cheesecake, I've made this angel layer cake, and I
Speaker:also had lots of egg whites left because I, I made something else with
Speaker:lots of egg, egg yolks, so I had.
Speaker:Egg white's left.
Speaker:So what else do I make?
Speaker:I make Tonka meringues and Tonka meringues are quite, quite amazing.
Speaker:You just need egg white.
Speaker:You mix it with a certain amount, I think per egg, is it about 70 grams of sugar?
Speaker:Caster sugar that I normally put in.
Speaker:I did make it with less, but I didn't like the results.
Speaker:So if you're gonna have meringue, just do do it normally.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:, either some cream of tartar that you add in there or some corn flour or something
Speaker:to stabilize it because it's so easy for them to, , go a little bit sloppy.
Speaker:If not, or not have that crunch and firmness.
Speaker:But when I, whenever I have egg whites left, I just bake meringues
Speaker:and I have lots of big tins.
Speaker:You know, you know when you were little.
Speaker:. He used to go to, you know, if you came home from school, your
Speaker:mom had been baking and they would be in the tin, the baking tin.
Speaker:There were always scones in there.
Speaker:There were always like certain things in there.
Speaker:If, if I went to my grandma and grandad's, there were always like
Speaker:tins with the lemon tarts and Jam Tarts in tins with the chocolate cake
Speaker:tins with the, um, sausage rolls and tins with the, , coconut tarts in.
Speaker:. So that's what would happen.
Speaker:And I just have these tins, the normal cake tins and I, I put
Speaker:quite big meringues in there.
Speaker:And whenever we want a dessert and we're not quite sure what to
Speaker:have, or if people just arrived, I could get these huge meringues out.
Speaker:They're look incredible open with that.
Speaker:I will open a tin of the cherry pie filling, stick that on the side, and
Speaker:a little bit of cream or a little bit of ice cream and people will go, wow.
Speaker:Uh, because these things are huge, and just put a little bit of glitter over
Speaker:the top of the tonka bean meringue.
Speaker:So that's what I do so, so often.
Speaker:, so that's what I've made over the last few days.
Speaker:, I need to bake something else again today or tomorrow because
Speaker:there's hardly anything left.
Speaker:And, and I was thinking, do you know what the one biscuit that I used to
Speaker:love, that I absolutely used to love and I haven't actually seen anywhere
Speaker:to buy, certainly not commercially.
Speaker:In, in, in the shops are the Viennese whirls.
Speaker:You know those viennese whirls which just melt in the mouth and you've
Speaker:got a little bit of buttercream and a little bit of beautiful jams.
Speaker:So that's my little challenge for myself today.
Speaker:Now, when you are making something like Vietnamese worlds, you want
Speaker:them to be like a shortbread and in gluten-free world, cornflower, that mix
Speaker:of cornflower to give it that shortness, , I think will be key in the blend.
Speaker:So I've got one recipe that I've found.
Speaker:, I'm gonna make that and I'm also gonna make my own.
Speaker:Cuz what I tend to do is I'll look at a recipe and think, mm,
Speaker:probably need to tweak that.
Speaker:Um, cuz I think I need to get more, um, lightness into it.
Speaker:so it doesn't disintegrate, but there is a lightness there.
Speaker:Um, and who knows, I may have to put some, some, another type of flour in,
Speaker:but I try and make it the only thing that I, I always use ready mixed flour.
Speaker:, and if I need to compliment it, I might put in an almond flour,
Speaker:I might, um, you know, put in corn flour, but that's really it.
Speaker:, so we're gonna have a look and see, but that's, That's it for today.
Speaker:And I know that they're al always the, the viennese whirls that have
Speaker:the jam in it, and then you have the Viennese fingers, don't you?
Speaker:And those tend to have the chocolate on the end.
Speaker:And I'm, I'm not so much of the chocolate fan, however, I did find
Speaker:some quite incredible chocolate the other day, so who knows?
Speaker:I may have a go at them, but I'm gonna make some of them
Speaker:today, so I will let you know.
Speaker:How my creation goes.
Speaker:Sorry, I've had this blinking flu for about three weeks.
Speaker:I've still got this bit of a cough, but one thing that I would say with
Speaker:Viennese Whirls is restraint is key.
Speaker:, what you don't want is too much sweetness out of , that filling in the
Speaker:middle and getting that filling right.
Speaker:So I have no idea which filling I'm going to make for them, but there's
Speaker:just something lovely when you bite into them and these things sort of crumble
Speaker:and you always end up with a shower.
Speaker:of, icing sugar, don't you?
Speaker:Going over you and a shower of little crumbs as you bite into this beautiful,
Speaker:beautiful, beautiful Viennese Whirl.
Speaker:So let's see how that goes today.
Speaker:So what are you inspired to bake?
Speaker:What are you gonna be baking this week?
Speaker:Um, and in gluten free world, we can do most things.
Speaker:. And I will be back with you next week.
Speaker:So happy baking.
Speaker:You take care of yourself.
Speaker:This is gluten-free, Angela, and see you next week.
