28 marks my first gluten free birthday and I couldn't be happier to realise my own gluten free cake this year! Preparing the classic pizza dolce (literally "sweet pizza") following my mum's recipe, was certainly challenging but, a great achievement, according to my friends and family.
So, if you have gluten free birthdays to attend or you want to surprise someone special with a gluten free cake, here are all the steps I took. First of all, I prepared the pan di Spagna senza glutine (or gluten free sponge cake); then, I filled it with 3 types of cream and decorated it.
Making gluten free sponge cake:
Ingredients:
- 6 eggs
- 150 grams of sugar
- 150 grams of gluten free flour (I used Barilla gluten free flour)
- 8 grams of baking powder (1/2 pack of Pane degli Angeli baking powder)
As the video explains step by step the making of the gluten free sponge cake, I will now explain how to prepare the gluten free custard to create gluten free chantilly cream and gluten free chocolate cream to fill the cake.
Ingredients for the gluten free Custard:
- 3 egg yolks
- 6 table spoons of sugar
- 1 table spoon and a half of Gluten Free Corn Flour
- 500 ml of whole milk
- lemon peel
- 1/2 stick of cinnamon
Making gluten free Custard:
Whisk together the 3 egg yolks with the sugar. Add the gluten free corn flour and keep blending meanwhile adding warm milk (make sure it is not hot). Finally, add 2 pieces of lemon peel and 1/2 stick of cinnamon.
The secret for a good custard is to keep mixing the ingredients on a slow flame till it becomes thick and creamy. The smell is incredible!
For the Chocolate cream:
Add 100 grams of dark chocolate to the warm custard cream.
For the Chantilly cream:
Add 4 spoons of whipped cream to the cold custard cream.
Decorating my gluten free birthday cake:
This time lapse explains how I decorated my birthday cake. All you need to do is to cut the gluten free sponge cake in 3 and start filling every layer!
Soak every level with a mix of 120 ml of boiled water, 2 spoons of sugar and 120 ml of Martini. In this way, the gluten free sponge cake will become softer and you'll reduce crumbs.
Fill the first layer with chantilly cream, the second level with chocolate cream and the top level with whipped cream (I made mine with Hopla Wipping Cream). The decorations on top (as the filling) were made with a professional pastry bag.
Remember to save a little bit of chocolate cream to do the writing on top!
Happy gluten free birthday to me!