Go Canada Cake

Today is the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, held here in Canada no less.  I am so excited, and can’t wait to watch all of the sports (yes, every one =D).  Although I’m sure certain ones will have priority on the TV screen in my house, one of my favourite parts of the Olympics is seeing this great mix of sports that you don’t necessarily get to watch any other time.

Now, about this cake.  It started out interesting-looking.  Plops of colour, one thicker than the other, all piled up.  In the oven, it rose up to the sky, doubling in size while not overflowing.  It just went straight up.  After letting it cool, it sank.  But the sinking didn’t leave it thick or eggy or anything.  It left it light.  Delicious.  Homey.

Go Canada Cake

4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla extract *
1/8 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp red food colouring
1/4 cup milk
3 tbsp oil

Steps
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place a round of parchment paper in the base of a 9 inch cake pan and mist bottom and sides with cooking spray.

Whisk together flours, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until mixture is light.  Add in milk, oil and extracts and whisk until uniform.  Add dry mixture to wet mixture and whisk until combined.

Separate the mixture in half, with slightly more in the white portion.  To the other part, sift in cocoa powder.  Add food colouring, and if the cocoa mixture is much thicker than the white mixture, add milk and oil.

Drop a spoonful of white mixture into the cake pan.  Then, drop a spoonful of red mixture on top of the white one.  Top with another white spoonful and so on, until all batter has been used.  I ended up having to start multiple piles as the batter was quite thick.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Let cool in pan for awhile, then cool on rack.

* To make it more “Canadian” you could swap the vanilla extract for maple extract.  Just a thought.  And if you feel like icing it, Maple Cream Cheese Buttercream would be the way to go.  No question.

Its… Mountainous.  But forgiving.  And yummy.  It gives when you press it, and springs back to its original shape, with no memories left in indentations.

Think red velvet marble cake.

Or, just “Go Canada!”

I love the almost swirls.  I suppose you could swirl with a butterknife it if you prefer.  Whatever suits your fancy.  I happen to love this method =D.

—

When my brother had some of this cake (he ate about 1/3 of it, and only 1/2 was eaten at dinner), I asked him if it tasted gluten-full or gluten-free and he said something quite interesting (I’m paraphrasing here, but something like) Well the standards of gluten-free has changed so what I originally thought of gluten-free is not what it is now.  So it does taste gluten-free but so does something with gluten.

And yes, it doesn’t really make sense, but if gluten foods taste like gluten-free ones, it can’t be a bad thing.  No, not at all!

I hope you all enjoy the Olympics, and maybe even with a slice of this cake!

Just a note about the Haiti Ebook: As of when I’m writing this, we’ve sold 84 ebooks for $1320.  With matching that becomes $4640.  This is awesome!  Keep it coming =D.  Best of all: the proceeds are heading to the Red Cross for Haiti Relief.

xoxo

Lauren