Gluten Free Carrot Pineapple Cake
This gluten free carrot pineapple cake tastes just like the Entenmann's cake I love. Don't skimp on the rich cream cream cheese frosting!
Yield: 1 9-inch frosted cake
Equipment
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
Ingredients
For the cake
- 1 ⅝ cups (228 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend (I used Better Batter)
- ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum omit if your blend already contains it
- 6 tablespoons (54 g) cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3 cups (270 g) peeled and grated carrots
- ¾ cup (120 g) raisins
- 4 (200 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs at room temperature, beaten
- ½ cup (112 g) neutral oil (vegetable, canola, or grapeseed all work well)
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (109 g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup (130 g) canned crushed pineapple in its own juice (heavy on the juice)
For the Cream Cheese Icing
- 8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- 6 tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons (42 g) light corn syrup (optional)
- 3 cups (345 g) confectioners’ sugar plus more as needed
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325°F. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan and line it with criss-crossed sheets of unbleached parchment paper. Set the pan aside.
Make the cake batter.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine well.
- Add the shredded carrots and raisins, and mix to combine and separate all the raisins and carrots from one another.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, place the eggs, oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and crushed pineapple in its juice. Beat with a handheld mixer until well-combined.
- Create a well in the center of the bowl of dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients, and mix to combine well. The batter will be thickly pourable.
Bake the cake.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and shake back and forth to distribute the batter evenly in a single layer.
- Place the pan in the center of the preheated oven. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until golden brown all over and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with no more than a few moist crumbs attached.
- Remove the pan from the oven from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the icing.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a handheld mixer), place the cream cheese and butter. Beat on medium speed until soft and fluffy.
- Add the salt, optional corn syrup and 3 cups of confectioners’ sugar. Mix on low speed until the sugar is absorbed.
- Turn the mixer to high speed and beat until the frosting is thickened and fluffy. Add more confectioners’ sugar as necessary to achieve the desired thickness.
- If you haven’t used the corn syrup, cover the bowl and place the frosting in the refrigerator to chill until stiffened slightly, about 15 minutes.
- Cover the cooled cake in a thick, even layer of frosting.
- To make the Entenmann’s-style decoration on the icing, drag the tines of a large fork in the frosting across the cake, leaving 1-inch between lines and cleaning the tines in between.
- Drag a wet spoon lightly across the lines from the fork tines in a diagonal, leaving 1-inch between diagonal lines.
- Slice into squares and serve.
Notes
Originally published on the blog in 2015. Photos, video, and some text new; recipe method modified slightly.