It’s been a long time between posts, my apologies. Turns out it takes more than cardigans, spectacles and a killer “shhhh” to become a librarian. You have to study, and ironically, there were very few books involved. I’ve finally emerged from the assignment and online study scrap heap with some of my sanity intact and a few recipes up my sleeve.

I seem to encounter many people in my life with allergies and intolerances. Perhaps it’s their increased prevalence today, something that often comes with an increased understanding of diet and nutrition. It means that having a broad base of recipes, including ones that are allergen friendly is becoming more and more important. That’s why this cake is perfect. If you remember to keep a box of gluten free flour in your cupboard, then this cake really is composed of standard pantry ingredients. I always have  gluten free flour in the pantry, and a bag of almond meal tucked in my freezer.

This recipe, in it’s glutinous and full of dairy form was bought to work by a colleague. As she described the recipe to me, I immediately started some mental calculations and thought it would make the perfect candidate for a gluten free and dairy free makeover. Thankfully, I was right. You might be surprised to know that it’s not always the case. I’ve since tried this out on numerous unsuspecting parties, including my friends, their kids and my very patient Monday night bookclub who don’t mind when I forget to grease my cake tins properly and serve them cake crumbs.

I’ve never tried this with 100% gluten free flour, I use almond meal for the texture and crumb so I imagine that would suffer without it’s addition. This cake, sans icing, freezes really well too.  I baked mine in little loaf tins and froze the spares for later.

Based on the Easy Lime and coconut cake 

 Ingredients

• 3/4 cup gluten free plain flour
• 3/4 cup almond meal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• 2 teaspoons lime rind, finely grated
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 125ml flavourless oil ( I use rice bran)
•  2  Eggs
•  1 cup (250ml) coconut milk

Lime drizzle icing

• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture
•  2 tablespoons lime juice

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line the base of a 8inch square tin, a 9inch loaf tin will also work.
• Combine flour, almond meal, salt, baking powder, coconut, lime rind and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk oil, eggs and coconut milk in a small bowl. Add to the flour mixture. Stir to combine. Pour into prepared pan. Smooth the surface.
• Bake for 45 mins or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Set aside in the pan for 5 mins. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• To make the lime drizzle icing, place the icing sugar in a bowl. Add enough lime juice to form a runny paste. Pour over the top of the cooled cake.