Mojito Cake

Mojito Cake! How do you say scrumptious?! I love mojito flavored anything. My grand-daughter and I both love drinking Mojito iced green tea (green tea infused with lime and mint and it is non-alcoholic). I am not a huge drinker but if I am on vacation...Mojito is my drink of choice. It is refreshing and not too sweet.

I planted a lime tree in my back yard (and I am still waiting for it to produce fruit) and I have a little herb garden with some fresh mint. I call it my MOJITO GARDEN! :) I can't wait for my lime tree to start producing fruit.

I had some fresh limes leftover from taco night and I wanted to make a cake. I wanted to try something new. I decided to experiment with making a Mojito cake. I love it! Very refreshing and not overly sweet. It is a vanilla based cake (You can make the cake from scratch or just make it easy on yourself and buy a cake mix. I have tried it both ways and it turned out great either way). I do gluten free baking at our house but you can certainly make this with a regular cake mix or your favorite vanilla cake recipe as the base. These are also absolutely adorable baked in mini bundt pans!

Mojito Cake Recipe:

• 1 box (9x13 size) gluten free cake vanilla or yellow mix (or you can use my vanilla cake recipe below) As I mentioned before....if you don't have a gluten allergy then you can use a regular cake mix or your favorite vanilla cake recipe as the base for this.
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise or sour cream (Mayonnaise is dairy free)
• 1/8 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
• zest from two decent sized limes (more if your limes are small)
• 1/2 cup oil 
• 3/4 cup milk or water or cold unsweetened green tea (I used some leftover mojito green tea once and it was delicious too!)
• 1/4 cup lime juice (I use fresh lime juice. I also like to add less water and more lime juice if I have it available). 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan (or cup cake pans or mini bundt loaves). Pour the cake mix (or homemade dry ingredients from your vanilla cake) into a mixing bowl. Beat the cake mix with the milk or water or cold tea, lime juice, oil and eggs. Add in the mayonnaise or sour cream. Stir in the lime zest and chopped mint leaves. The texture should be slightly thick but not as thick as brownie batter. If it is too thick (different flours can absorb more fluid) then add a few additional tablespoons of water at a time until desired cake batter consistency. Pour into greased pan (or cupcake pan or mini bundt pans). Bake 350 degree oven. I usually check my 9x13 pan after 22-25 minutes with a toothpick. If it comes out clean then it is done. If not, I add additional 5 minutes and check it again. Every oven and altitude with affect the baking time so check yours at the lowest cooking time and adjust accordingly. Cupcakes or mini bundt pans should be checked at 15 minutes and then adjust baking time as needed. You can also bake in a bread loaf pan which will take about 40-55 minutes to bake. I check at lowest time and then add 4-5 minutes and check again. Repeat until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Optional Glaze Recipe:

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• lime zest
• finely chopped mint leaves
• few squeezes of lime juice (just enough to make the glaze thin to spread)

Mix ingredients well with a whisk or fork until smooth consistency. If you need to add a little juice to get it slightly runny the go ahead and do that. This glaze should be very thin and soak into the cake when it is still warm. This glaze is not required. The cake is good by itself but I really think it adds a little extra flavor and brings out the tartness of the cake. You can substitute rum instead of lime juice if you want to add a little kick to your cake if it is an all adult group of people eating them.

I like my cake served plain with just the glaze that has soaked into the cake. My hubby and grand-daughter like it with Whipped cream or Cool Whip. This cake freezes great. I also think it would be fantastic with a lime-cream cheese frosting but I haven't tried that yet. I am still in the experimental mode with this cake.

Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix (Homemade):

• 2 cups gluten free flour mix (I usually make my own gluten free flour blend but I do like cup4cup, King Arthur, Pillsbury or Trader Joes). I do not like to use any flour mix that contains sorghum in my sweet baked goods. It gives it a weird after taste. I also do NOT like to use coconut flour in this particular cake recipe because it makes the flavor too sweet and the texture is much drier. 
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum (only use this if your flour mix does not contain it or guar gum)
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tbs. custard powder or vanilla pudding mix (this gives the gluten free flour a nice heavy texture similar to regular flour for baked goods)
• 1 cups sugar

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we do at my house! I will try to post more photos when I get a chance. I was having some minor computer difficulties and gave up adding more photos. I plan on making this recipe again soon so I will post any updates and additional photos. 

Feel free to post anything that you substituted or brands of gluten free cake mixes that you have used that worked well (or didn't work) for you. We all learn from each other. Gluten free baking is an adventure! Remember...this cake can EASILY be made with regular cake mix. All of my recipes are baked at my house GLUTEN FREE but you can certainly make ANY of my recipes using regular flour or regular non-gluten products. 

Enjoy!

Tanja

Gluten Free Casually

Gluten Free Honey Oat Sandwich Bread (No Knead)

Gluten Free Honey Oat Sandwich Bread! (No Knead) This is by far my favorite gluten free bread to date. I had to play around with the recipe to get the texture just right. I took a basic bread recipe and made it multiple times until I got the right texture with this gluten free flour combination. I didn't want it too heavy but also not too crumbly. Although it has a touch of honey in it and some oats...it is a nice hearty sandwich bread. I just love it with real butter and a lots of honey (enough that it runs down your fingers when you lift the bread!).

I have found that with gluten free bread you need to be gentle and not over mix it or knead it. It makes it tough, heavy and crumbly. I have tried several different flour combinations and although several of them worked and tasted okay...they weren't tasting like "regular bread". I am a huge fan of cassava flour (not the same as tapioca starch). You can find it online but I usually get mine at the Asian market since I have one close by and the cost runs about $11 for 4 pounds. I am new at using the cassava flour but so far I am just loving it. The texture is similar to wheat flour. I would rather go without bread than have a version that just doesn't hit the spot. I like the consistency that quinoa flour brings into the bread but too much of it will make the bread taste "earthy". I limit the quinoa flour to a maximum of 1/4 cup in this recipe if you like to use it.  (I know some of you just love sorghum and quinoa flours in bread but I like them if I can't TASTE them. I'm not a fan of "earthy" tasting bread. I also don't care for coconut flour in my bread unless I am going for a sweet bread. It is too sweet and the texture tends to be crumbly or heavy. Again, this is my personal preference. If you like it that way you can certainly add those flours but the texture and flavor will not be the same as the one I am bringing to you today in this recipe).

I took this bread to Thanksgiving and didn't tell anyone it was gluten free until it was gone. Everyone loved it and only a couple of us were gluten free. Everyone thought it was soft, airy, fluffy and tasted just like regular homemade bread. My mom used to make a bread similar to this (not gluten free) when we were growing up. I believe it was from a Gold Medal flour cookbook that she got free with sending in labels. Anyway, it was the BEST bread and she used to make it and serve it with beef stew and other soups. I LOVED that bread. This bread reminds me of that one from my childhood. Nothing like sitting inside on a snowy, cold day while eating a bowl of beef stew and homemade bread. Of course...that is when I lived in southeast (Appalachian) Ohio. I don't have snow days here in Arizona unless we venture to the northern part of the state which has snow in the winter....sometimes!

Gluten Free Honey Oat Sandwich Bread Recipe:

• 2 cups Cassava flour (you can remove 1/4 cup of the cassava flour and add quinoa flour but if you add more quinoa flour than that it will start tasting earthy).
• 1 1/3 cup oat flour (Put oats in your blender or food processor and until flour texture then measure out 1 1/3 cup after you have it ground pretty fine)
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour or white rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch (you can substitute potato starch or corn starch but NOT potato flour or corn flour. They are not the same texture). 
• 2 tablespoons active yeast
• 1 1/2 cup very warm (not boiling) water
• 1/4 cup oil (I used canola oil since it is a neutral tasting oil)
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of REAL honey (don't cheat yourself and get the honey blend that is mixed with corn syrup. Nope. Yuck. Use the REAL honey. It is worth it in this recipe. Trust me!)
• 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum
• 1 tsp. salt 
• 4 eggs (I used large brown eggs)

Combine the yeast and very warm (but not boiling or too hot) water and let it "bloom". I learned that fancy word on the cooking channel. Basically you just let the yeast sit in the warm water and get kinda frothy and muddy looking. That means your yeast is good, active and is working like it is suppose to work. In a bowl, add the yeast water mixture, oil, honey, tapioca starch, flour, finely ground oats, xanthan gum and beat until just combined. Add the salt and eggs. Beat until fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Pour into a greased 10" loaf pan and cover with a clean dish towel. Allow to rise in a warm area for about 45-60 minutes until it has almost doubled in size. (I usually start pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees and allow the dough to sit on top of the stove top so it feels a little bit of the heat and stimulates the rising. Just don't put the dough in direct heat or it will start baking. You only want to make it feel warm so keep it out of direct heat or cold drafts which will affect the rising). I like to sprinkle the top of the dough with a little additional oats for decoration and texture but you certainly don't need to do that. You can also use a knife to slit the top of the loaf for a rustic look. Bake about 45 minutes in a pre-heated 350 degree oven. Check your bread at 45 minutes and adjust the baking time if you need to due to altitude or if your oven is not exactly accurate. Cool slightly before removing from pan and cutting.

Mixing the dough/batter

Dough rising under a clean dish towel

Ready to bake

Baking in oven

Cooling down before we eat it

Ready to slice

This is the one I took to my mom's house for Thanksgiving.

Just the way I like it. Warm & dripping with honey. Yummy!

I hope you enjoyed this homemade delicious recreation from my childhood. It brings back great memories and makes me appreciate the warm climate here in Arizona while everyone else is shoveling snow in super cold temperatures this weekend. (I am sending warm thoughts to all of my cold weather friends and family!) Feel free to post any photos or substitutions that you have tried that worked great or even those that didn't work well. We all learn from each other. Of course if you DON'T have a gluten allergy you can certainly make this delicious bread using the ground up oats and regular flour or whole wheat flour in place of the Cassava flour, tapioca starch and rice flour and leave out the xanthan gum since you won't need it. 

Oh yeah...I almost forgot. If you have any leftovers it will taste fantastic making French Toast. Deliciousness with warm butter and real syrup or use it to make bread pudding. Keep in mind if you screw up a batch of bread and the texture or flavor isn't perfect you can cut them into cubes and dry them out. I use them as croutons or crush them for coating chicken. I rarely waste my gluten free rejects unless they are completely hopeless. I usually find a way to recycle them into something else. It is the Appalachian girl in me. Waste not.

Have a great weekend and try some of this delicious homemade bread with your dinner this weekend. It also makes great sandwich bread if you're feeling like a sandwich.

Enjoy!
Tanja
Gluten Free Casually