Red Velvet Cake

I think this is my favourite cake in the world. Bright red, moist sponge with a delicate chocolate flavour, filled and coated with light cream cheese frosting - yum!

I first tried it in New York in 2009, and hadn't seen it anywhere in the UK at that time. It has now made its way over here and I've seen it in several bakeries and cake shops. So far, I haven't had the pleasure to find it in gluten free form. Clearly, the only solution here was to make my own!

This one actually took a bit of trial and error. First of all, I ruined the first cake by cooking it too high, resulting in a soggy middle and a concrete exterior. Then I ruined the frosting by thinking it looked a bit too firm and adding a tiny bit of milk. Don't do this! You will end up with sloppy, but tasty icing.

It is based on a recipe I found on the internet, with a few tweaks to make it gluten free. It uses oil instead of butter because the cake should be very moist. I guess you could quite easily make this cake vegan too by substituting the eggs, cream cheese and butter!

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

300g Dove's Farm self-raising flour

1tsp gluten free baking soda

300g granulated sugar

2 medium eggs

480ml vegetable oil

1tsp cider vinegar (or any other gluten free white vinegar)

8-10 tsp red food colouring

2 tsp vanilla extract

240ml buttermilk

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 tubs of soft cheese

300g icing sugar

200g butter

1tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170. Grease/line 3 sandwich tins, or two larger cake tins and wrap the outside in foil. This prevents the cake cooking too quickly at the sides, and also helps to prevent the 'mushroom' effect in the middle of the cake.

Use an electric whisk to mix the sugar and oil in a large bowl. Add the eggs, food colouring, vanilla essence and vinegar and whisk until mixed. Sift the flour and baking soda together, and add to the mixture gradually, whisking to incorporate. Add the buttermilk and whisk on high for a few minutes until the mixture becomes lighter. Divide between your trays and bake for around 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave each layer to cool.

To make the frosting, whisk the butter and vanilla extract in a large bowl on a high setting until it becomes light and fluffy. Add the two tubs of cheese and sift in the icing sugar, a bit at a time, whisking until you have a light frosting. Use to sandwich together the layers of your cake and coat the outside.

To prevent getting crumbs in your frosting, spread a thin layer on first to seal the cake.