~ "By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; Through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." ~ "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing" ~ "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." ~ "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."~

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Gluten-Free Almond and Buckwheat Cake... with Sliced Pears



Gluten-Free Buckwheat Cake... with Sliced Pears. Years ago, all-purpose flour and bread flour were probably the only flours I used in my baking... every once in a while whole wheat flour would find its way on the pantry shelf. But ever since I moved to Montana, I've used the big grinding machines available at the supermarket to grind Montana Whole Wheat kernels into flour. It has taken me some time to slowly add a variety of other flours as well...some I blend myself, others I buy. I've added quite a collection of different flours in my freezer and try to implement some of the flours in recipes that use just white flour. I've known about buckwheat flour for quite some time now... just never really used it myself.

Buckwheat is not related to wheat, so it is often used in gluten-free baking. Most often you will see recipes for buckwheat pancakes... as they are quite popular. But when I saw buckwheat flour being used in cakes.... well, I had to give it a try. And since I've had wonderful results when using Baking Obsession's recipes, I chose to use Vera's recipe as an inspiration...and tweaked it a bit.

This cake has plenty of cream cheese and butter, so it makes for a real tasty cake....you wouldn't know that you're actually eating a gluten-free cake. At all. Aside from the fact that the color might give it away... The cake isn't a dense cake, but rather a light and fluffy sort of cake. It's a real lovely dessert that can be served plain...or embellished with some sweetened whipped cream, creme anglaise, or some vanilla ice cream. I think it would be a beautiful cake...for an afternoon tea. Really, really liked this cake. Hope you enjoy...

Tips: Feel free to substitute the almond meal with all purpose flour or whole wheat/spelt flour.
~Try substituting the maple syrup with a bit less honey or use regular sugar or other sweetener of choice.
~Add almond extract instead of the vanilla( or right along with the vanilla)... or add some orange/lemon peel, etc.
~Exchange the pears with thin apple slices or cherry halves or other fresh fruit/berries of choice....or simply omit the fruit.
~Top with chopped nuts/chocolate pieces...

Note: In case you would like to read up on buckwheat...here is an interesting read.

You will need: inspired by Baking Obsession
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup almond meal*
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/3 cup milk, room temp.
2 1/2 tsps pure vanilla extract
7 oz cream cheese, room temp.
½ cup packed brown sugar
4 TBS unsalted butter, room temp.
½ cup real maple syrup
2 large eggs, room temp.
1-2 pears, sliced
* I ended up grinding slivered almonds very finely and using it as the almond meal

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a 9-inch square/round cake pan with parchment paper and lightly oil/butter the parchment as well as the sides.

2. Whisk together the buckwheat, almond meal, baking powder, soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. Combine the milk and vanilla extract. Set it aside.

4. Beat the cream cheese and brown sugar with an electric mixer until smooth, creamy, and lump-free. Beat in the butter and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Beat in the maple syrup and mix for another 2 minutes.

5. On medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition.

6. Reduce speed to low and add the dry ingredients and milk mixture in 3 additions... starting and ending with the dry ingredients.

7. Beat only enough to incorporate the ingredients...scraping the bowl after each addition.

8. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan. Add sliced pears on top of cake batter..slightly pressing down into the batter. Bake until golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

9. Cool cake in pan...for 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely on the rack.

10 comments:

Alina---Explora Cuisine said...

This is one cake my husband will love Ellie! he's crazy about pears :) Have a great weekend!

Ellie said...

Alina, I really liked this cake... and if you try it, I hope you will like it as well:). Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Speranta said...

O,noua reteta de care ma bucur foarte mult!

Nu stiam pot sa folosesc "Buckwheat pentru cake,
Este bun pentru sanatate .
Multumesc pentu reteta .
Sa ai o saptamana minunata:)

Ellie said...

Speranta, Da chiar este interesanta idea sa folosesti buckwheat in checuri. Si merge la minune!
Multumesc pentru vizita:)... O zi placuta si tie!

Susy said...

Beautiful!!!

Ellie said...

Thanks, Susy. Glad you like it:)!

megi said...

Hi Ellie, the cake looks lovely, I am planning on trying it today, I recently bought almond flour and I am excited to try it in this recipe. I'll come back and let you know how it turns out. Thank you for sharing this beautiful cake recipe Ellie.

Ellie said...

Megi, I'm really hoping you will like this cake as much as we did. I loved the almond meal addition...as it gave the cake wonderful flavor. It also goes wonderfully well with pears.
I think this recipe can easily be tweaked to include various other ingredients....using some coconut oil,coconut flour, different nut flours...and of course using wheat flour. Regardless, I am sure you will have fun with it:)
Anyway, I hope you like it.

megi said...

Hi Ellie, I can't believe I forgot to let you know how wonderful this cake is. I made it in July and then again today, it's so good! We recently went apple and pear picking so I wanted to use more pears and was able to put 3 sliced pears using a 9 inch cake pan. The cooking time was slightly longer but the cake rose very nicely and is delicious. Thank you for sharing.

Ellie said...

Oh I am so glad you enjoyed it, Megi! Isn't the cake delicious? I can only imagine how tasty it was with fresh picked pears...and it must have been really moist with 3 pears. I really enjoy the texture of fruits in the cake... the more fruit the better:)
We also went apple picking last weekend... but no pears. Even the apples aren't the best here in MT, but I am grateful for the buckets of apple we got recently.
I just love going apple picking...the best time we had was in New Hampshire. I am sure there are some great places in Canada as well.
Anyway, I really appreciate your feedback...and am so glad you enjoyed it.