Orange and Coconut Cake

I've always admired British-style cakes, especially the ones with the frosting on top because there were not like my mother's, they were different, more exotic. The first time I had a slice it was in London. Carrot cake with a fluffy white coating. Yummy! So I bought a book from the UK and I tried some of the "1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & other tempting treats".

A few years later, when I found out I'm celiac, I started a challenge: turning all these recipes into gluten free delights. The Orange and Coconut cake is inspired by that book, I lowered the amount of sugar and made some other adjustments, like using almond milk instead of sour cream. I cannot imagine that the version with gluten could be better than this. Will you try?

Ingredients (8 servings)

• 140 gr flour (70 gr rice flour, 50 gr tapioca starch, 20 gr corn starch)
• 150 gr sugar
• 100 gr butter
• 1 whole egg & 1 yolk
• orange zest (1 orange)
• 3 tbsp orange juice
• 150 ml almond milk
• 85 gr grated coconut

For the Frosting: 

• 1 egg white
• 150 gr  icing sugar
• 85 gr coconut
• 1 tbsp orange juice

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease a round cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
2. Place the sugar and butter in a large bowl and whisk together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat for another minute. Stir in the orange zest, orange juice and almond milk. Add the flour and grated coconut, stir well and then transfer the mix into the tin.
3. Bake for 40 minutes and then leave to cool, ideally 10 minutes in the tin and onto a wire rack.
4. Prepare the frosting for the final touch: place the egg white in a bowl and beat lightly. Stir in the icing sugar and coconut, then add the orange juice to create a thick paste. Spread over the cake and add orange zest or toasted coconut to complete the decoration, as you prefer.

TIPS: The original recipe used sour cream instead of almond milk, so feel free to try that option as well. I haven't tried with lemon instead of orange but it might be an option. If you don't have those exact types of flour, feel free to use any baking mix or white flour brand you have.

Have you tried it? Do you have any suggestions? Leave your comment!