Gluten Free Apple-Coconut Family Cake Recipe

I know you're waiting for something festive. Well, I've been festively scrambling the last few weeks, without getting any real traction. The boy's birthday, his finals week, yearend projects at work, the list goes on. Instead, I find this cake is fresh and necessary whenever you have apples on hand.

I've been using a lot of apples in my baking lately, probably because Costco is carrying some really good, extra large Granny Smiths. The dull lime green color and the tart insides are perfect for so many fall and winter recipes. Like the apple pie for Thanksgiving. Cinnamon apple muffins on a chilly morning. Apple crisp after dinner.

I adapted the recipe for this apple-coconut cake, made with little flakes of unsweetened coconut whisked into the flour, from a recipe by Dorie Greenspan. She's also the source for the peach upsidedowner we had this summer with fresh peaches. I appreciate that her recipe are accurate enogh that they can be adapted to be gluten free and still turn out delicious every time. She even bakes with cups (instead of ounces or grams)!

We ate this cake, for breakfast and snacks, quickly enough that it was hard to get pictures of it. The apples in the sunburst pattern on top became positively chewy and sweet, while the apples inside remained a little tart and melded into the tender cake. This would be perfect for a brunch with friends, for a gift to your neighbor, or any other time you have some big and beautiful apples you want to bake into something.

Last Year: The only gluten free brownie you'll ever need

Two Years Ago: Orange Almond Bars

Apple-Coconut Family Cake
adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
[Printer Friendly]

1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup potato starch

2 tablespoons buckwheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

pinch of salt

2 extra large Granny Smith apples (or 3 smaller apples), peeled and cored

2 large eggs

1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

6 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon apple cider

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, cinnamon and salt.

Cut one of the extra large apples into a small dice (or 2, if smaller apples are used), and set aside. Cut the other apple from blossom to stem into slices about 1/4 inch thick and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and 1/2 cup sugar together for a minute. Whisk in the sour cream, oil, apple cider, and vanilla and whisk for about a minute, until smooth. Still using the whisk, or switching to a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture, followed by the coconut and the diced apple.

Scrape the batter into the pan and jiggle the pan from side to side a few times to even the batter. Arrange the sliced apple in an attractive pattern  over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the apples and cake are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the springform pan to a rack, and cool the cake for 20 minutes or so.

The glaze.
Warm together 1/3 cup of jelly (I used apricot) with a few teaspoons of water and stir.
Once the cake has cooled for 20 minutes, run a knife around the edges of the cake and release the sides of the pan. Using a pastry brush, give the top of the cake a gloss of glaze.