Coffee Cake

This is my first proper attempt at a gluten free cake, and in fact at gluten free baking. Actually it is cheating a bit since I used Doves Farm gluten free self raising flour. I have been reading Gluten-free Girl and the Seriously Good! Gluten Free Baking book by Phil Vickery and realise that the real science and skill is in the blending of the various flours for each particular dish, whether it be for a cake, biscuits, muffins etc. Thankfully Doves Farm have done the hard work for me on this occasion. I do want to try some of Shauna's recipes from her book as well as some of the Phil Vickery ones, but I'll use up my pre-blends first.

Coffee Cake:
6oz sugar
6oz butter
3 large eggs, beaten
6oz Doves Farm gluten free self raising flour
15ml strong coffee

Icing:
Mixed chopped nuts
Butter
Icing Sugar
Strong coffee

1. Cream together the butter and sugar - ideally until pale.
2. Mix in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour if it curdles.
3. Sieve in the flour and stir through gently.
4. Add enough of the coffee to get the flavour balance. I found this to be around 15ml.
5. Divide into 2 cake tins (I used silicone cake tins - just as I'm too lazy to grease the metal tins) and bake for 20-25 mins at 180C or until evenly cooked. Test with a metal skewer - if it comes out clean, the cake is ready, if not cook for a further 5 mins.

Icing:
Combine enough butter, icing sugar and coffee, tasting as you go to make the amount of icing you need. Spread between the cake layers and over the top and decorate with the chopped nuts.
The icing measurements are intentionally vague, it depends how sweet your tooth is so to speak, and how thick you want your icing. I was actually far more stingy than I have been previously, as eating mainly icing is a bit much!

The cake turned out surprisingly light and moist. I was expecting it to be rather dry as some gluten free baked goods can be. We didn't keep the cake for long enough really to see how stale and dry it got, as it was just so lovely! After about 3 days, it clearly was still edible!