Gluten Free Caramel Macchiato Cake

Looking for a divine, gluten free treat for your family? Please welcome my friend, Alea Milham, and her gorgeous Caramel Macchiato Cake to our 10 Days of Gluten Free Recipes.

I have discovered that by creating really flavorful desserts, nobody notices that the gluten is missing. The flavorful ingredients also cover the taste of the gluten-free flours. This means that at parties, I can serve my gluten-free desserts to all of our friends and family without having to apologize or make something different for the people who are accustomed to eating gluten. And it means my kids never feel like they are missing out on something by not being able to eat gluten. They can cheerfully pass on gluten-filled treats when they are over at their friend’s homes because they know I will have an awesome dessert waiting for them when they get home.

I often ask my kids to throw out crazy flavor combinations to inspire me. The last time I was getting ready to make a cake I asked for suggestions shortly after my daughter had been out for coffee for friends, so she suggested I make a caramel maccchiato cake. I had to admit that caramel, coffee, and whipped cream sounded like a very flavorful base from which to create a gluten-free cake.

I wanted the caramel flavor to penetrate the cake without it being in large globs, so I used a toothpick to make small holes over the top of both layers and let the caramel slowly soak into the cake.

This cake is moist enough that it doesn’t need frosting between the two layers. The only thing between the two layers is a very thin coat of caramel.

I used whipping cream instead of milk when making the frosting to give the icing the slight taste of whipped cream. If you need to make this cake dairy-free, you can reduce the whipping cream to 1/4 cup of dairy-free milk (vanilla almond milk is my favorite to use in desserts) and increase the butter to 1/4 cup of dairy-free margarine. You can also make dairy-free caramel sauce to use in this recipe.

Gluten-Free Caramel Macchiato Cake Recipe

Adapted from Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white rice flour
• 1 cup tapioca flour
• ½ cup potato starch
• 1 teaspoon guar gum
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• â…” cup butter, melted (or DF margarine)
• 1½ cups milk (or rice milk or vanilla almond milk)
• 4 teaspoons instant espresso crystals
• 2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla
• 2 eggs

Filling:

• 3/4 cup caramel (Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce Recipe)

Frosting ingredients:

• ½ cup whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 3 — 4 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 — 9 inch pans.
2. In a large bowl combine white rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, guar gum, and sugar.
3. Place butter, milk, espresso crystals, and brown sugar in a sauce pan. Cook over a medium flame until butter is melted and espresso is dissolved.
4. Add the liquids to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
5. Beat the eggs with a fork.
6. Add eggs to the batter and beat for 2 —3 minutes on high.
7. Pour batter into 2 greased 9 inch cake pan. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
8. Place on a cooling rack to cool.
9. One the cake is cool, use a tooth pick to make tiny holes all over the top of each cake layer.
10. Place one of the cake layers on the cake plate and drizzle 1/3 cup of caramel over the top. Allow a minute or two for the caramel to absorb into the cake. Then place the other cake layer on top of the first one and drizzle 1/3 cup of caramel over it.
11. Combine the whipping cream, butter, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Use a blender to beat the ingredients until soft peaks begin to form. Slowly add powdered sugar while blending until you achieve the desire thickness.
12. Spoon frosting on top of the cake and allow some of the frosting to flow over the sides of the cake.
13. Drizzle the remaining caramel sauce over the top of the frosting.

Alea and her family are cheerfully gluten-free. She saves money by serving naturally gluten-free recipes when possible and creating gluten-free desserts from scratch.