Baking Best Bits: Gluten Free Lemon & Rosemary Cake

I have been trying to cut out gluten as much as I can, which has been manageable with bread & pasta, however I am really missing eating cakes (shhh...I'm meant to be on a diet).

I have tried various gluten free cakes before, with the best one I've tasted being Costa's Gluten Free Chocolate Brownie, which is lovely and moist.

So I decided to give making my own cake a bash and saw Nigel Slater doing a Lemon & Thyme cake on TV - his version wasn't gluten free however it did use ground almonds, meaning the cake would stay a bit moister.  I didn't have thyme, so I thought I would substitute with rosemary...it works well with chicken, right?

One of my handy helpers (Lauren), helped to mix the cake ingredients together and we popped it in the oven and crossed our fingers.  It was cooked on a low heat and first impressions were that it was rising well, which is always a good sign!  It smelled absolutely amazing.

After waiting a while for it to cool (we probably managed to hold off for 10 mins - our mouths were watering!), we cut into it and had a slice when it was still warm.  Served with a dollop of extra thick double cream, it was literally to die for!

I have included the recipe below for anyone who wants to try it themselves. I think I may have found my new signature cake :)

Lemon & Rosemary Cake

Ingredients:

200g butter (unsalted if possible and at room temperature)
200g golden caster sugar
100g Doves Farm Plain Gluten Free flour (can also subsitute for regular plain flour)
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
100g ground almonds
4 decent sized eggs
1 lemon (zest only)
1 teaspoon rosemary (finely chopped)

For the syrup:

4 tablespoon of sugar
2 large lemons (juice only)
½ teaspoon rosemary (finely chopped)

How to:

Pre-heat the oven to 160C. Line a tin with greaseproof paper.

1. Cream the butter with the sugar until pale and fluffy (it recommends doing in a food mixer, however I did this by hand). 

2. In a separate bowl sift together the flour and baking powder then mix with the almonds.

3. Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, beating them in thoroughly each time.

4. Grate the zest from the lemon, mix it with the rosemary and stir into the cake mixture.

5. Gradually mix in the flour, baking powder and almonds.

6. Spoon the cake mixture into the lined tin and bake for 35-45 minutes (I used my fan assist setting which took less time)

7. For the syrup, dissolve the sugar in the juice of the lemons over a medium heat and stir in the rosemary. Boil for 10 minutes until it becomes thicker.

8. As the cake comes from the oven, spike the surface with a skewer and spoon over the syrup.

I would highly recommend serving this with a dollop of cream, however it also tastes amazing on it's own.

Would love to hear if any of you tried this and what you thought.  I made it for my work colleagues and it went down a storm :)