Rich, sweet and tangy, you’ll love this gluten free strawberry sour cream cake. A revamp of a recipe from last year, we’ve gone bigger and bolder – with almost 1kg of strawberries used in the making of this cake! That’s because it’s strawberry season (the best kind of season) and this cake is a total celebration of the delicious fruit and an ingredient that goes so beautifully with it; sour cream.
Jammy roasted strawberries run through a tender almond and lemon flecked sponge, while silky sour cream icing acts as a pillow for the fresh strawberries that sit upon it. The recipe is also low FODMAP and the perfect show-stopping summer celebration cake.
If buttercream isn’t your thing you can use whipped cream in its place (more details below) and likewise if layer cakes aren’t your thing, you can skip the icing altogether, halve the cake batter ingredients and make one 8 inch cake. Serve with a spoonful of sour cream on the side, if you fancy, or just enjoy as is.
A few gluten free strawberry sour cream cake recipe notes:
- A 40g serving size of sour cream is low FODMAP and this recipe uses 250g/12, so is within the recommended limit at 21g a serve. Sadly I’ve never come across lactose free sour cream in the UK (please shout if you have!), so if any lactose is an issue for you, you could use lactose free yogurt in its place. ON THE OTHER HAND, if lactose isn’t an issue at all – whipped cream spiked with lemon, vanilla and a little sour cream is amazing in place of the buttercream
- Unlike lots of other fruit, fresh strawberries are low FODMAP in larger quantities so I’ve been generous here – however you could mix up the recipe for different seasons, using different roasted fruits, as long as your mindful of portion sizes
- A small amount of ground almonds (low FODMAP up to 24g) added to gluten free cake batter helps make for a more tender crumb and to keep the cake moist – but if you need the recipe to be almond/nut free, sub in more gluten free plain flour
Ingredients
For the cake:
525g strawberries, hulled and quartered
300g caster sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
180g unsalted butter
4 medium free range eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g gluten free self raising plain flour blend
75g ground almonds
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
zest of 2 lemons
200g sour cream
For the icing:
250g butter
600g icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g sour cream
350g strawberries, half hulled and sliced and half halved(!)
*make sure all of your ingredients are room temp*
Method
To roast the strawberries, preheat your oven to 200°C/ 180°C fan/ gas mark 6. Tumble the strawberries onto a baking tray and sprinkle over 1 tablespoon of caster sugar. Bake for 15–20 minutes, or until the strawberries start to get juicy and turn jammy. Set aside to cool and turn the oven down to 180°C/ 160°C fan/ gas mark 4.
To make the sponge, grease and line 2 8inch springform cake tins with baking parchment and put to one side.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or using an electric whisk, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and lemon zest then beat in the eggs, one at a time. In a separate bowl, combine your flour, ground almonds, baking soda and salt. Sift it over the wet mixture, stirring to combine. Gently fold in the room temp sour cream, followed by the strawberries until you have a smooth batter and a ripple effect from the jammy fruit.
Divide the batter between the two prepared cake tins and smooth the surface with a spatula. Place on the middle shelf of your oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden, springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. If you need to rotate the trays (I usually do!) to ensure even cooking, make sure to wait until the cakes are three quarters into their bake time. Leave the cakes to cool for 10 minutes, before releasing them from their tins and transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the sour cream icing: In the bowl of a stand mixer or using an electric whisk, beat the butter for a good few minutes until light and fluffy and turned paler in colour. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat until pale and fluffy once again. Stir the lemon zest, vanilla and room temp sour cream through the icing.
To assemble the cake: Place one of your cakes on a cake stand or plate and smooth over half of the icing. Add a layer of sliced strawberries on top of the icing and then place the second cake layer on top of the strawberries. Dollop on the remaining icing, pushing to the edges of the cake with a spatula and finish by topping with the remaining halved strawberries. Serve!
Due to the sour cream, keep any leftovers in the fridge.
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