I made gluten free cupcakes for a family birthday party the other day and dressed them up really good in not-so-gluten-free icing and sugar hearts and other decorations (except mine, of course). Several grown-ups said they liked the cakes okay but they didn't taste like the "real" thing, and some of the kids actually didn't like them - I mean, I wasn't holding back in the sugar and oil and vanilla and good things when I made them so that's not very satisfactory feedback. The thing is, I think it's a question of the tastebuds being in the habit of tasting wheat. I doubt bread made from wheat would taste "right" if I ate it now? But I bet it's a problem a lot of celiacs have when baking for non-celiacs.
My only tip is to avoid the glutenfree flour as much as possible because that is what gives you the "strange" taste. Find yourself a cake recipe that is really heavy on chocolate or almonds or something like this great "sticky double ginger cake" from the recipes at the Jamie Oliver webpage. Believe me this is YUM, the ginger balances out the "stickiness", and I made it for dessert for my boyfriend's birthday which worked out superbly. It even ended up looking almost exactly like the picture, something I find is a rarity when you take a "normal" recipe and substitute wheat flour with a combination of buckwheat, rice and potato flour like I do.
On that note of things tasting "funny" and in the light of my latest post extolling the wonders of Mesquite Vanilla Balls, I have to say that the first time I received, opened and smelled a bag of mesquite meal I couldn't help but imagining that there might just be a bunch of business-savvy Peruvians chopping down local trees, bagging the sawdust and shipping it to Europe, laughing all the way to the bank: it just smells stale with a hint of sweetness and it costs a small fortune. However, by now I don't have to believe any of the hype about it, as long as it isn't harmful I will definitely keep eating it. Fingers crossed that it is actually as good as it says on the bag. I bought my mesquite here, at the Funky Raw Shop, which actually ships for a fair price to Denmark, and at their webpage it says that mesquite is mineral rich, high in protein and calcium, and also low glycemic.
Sometimes it does take using a whole different approach to "baking" to come up with a tasty wheat-free alternative. I was never a fan of all those xantham gums and such, so I opted to "unbake" instead. With raw cupcakes, I'm expecting a different flavor and texture. I like the richness of them.
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