Gluten-Free Coconut Pound Cake

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I feel like I haven’t done much baking on the blog as of late, so when I saw that coconut pound cake was a popular food offering on religious holidays in Cambodia, I was psyched for the opportunity to adapt a pound cake recipe from a gluten-free cookbook I just picked up the other day.

It’s rich, buttery and dense, just like the pound cake you grew up eating… you know, the one sold in the freezer section of the grocery store.  This one just has a hint of coconut.  Technically, it’s not ~really~ pound cake.  Pound cake is so named because it called for a whole pound of butter, and sugar, and, well you get the idea.  This version only uses 12 ounces of butter, so it’s really like Gluten-Free Coconut 12-Ounce Cake.  Unfortunately that doesn’t really have much of a ring to it.

On the bright side, doesn’t that mean this is really like a low fat cake, since it’s 25% less fat than the original?   In my mind that pretty much makes it diet food and you should have absolutely no guilt eating a piece… or two or three.  You’re welcome.

Gluten-Free Coconut Pound Cake

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 sticks butter at room temperature
* 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
* 1 1/2 cups sugar (feel free to substitute palm sugar for up to half of this amount)
* 3 extra large eggs, or 4 medium eggs
* 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup rice flour
* 1/2 cup sorghum flour
* 1/2 cup tapioca starch
* 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/3 cup dried, unsweetened coconut, plus extra for sprinkling

Directions:

Grease a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and blend.

Add the rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, and salt and blend well until totally combined and the mixture begins to become elastic. Mix in the dried coconut. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Tap the pan on the counter to help break up any air bubbles that may have formed in the dough. Sprinkle the extra coconut over the top of the dough.

Place on the center rack of a cold oven. Set the temperature at 200 degrees and bake for 20 minutes. Increase the temperature to 250 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes. Increase the oven to 275 and bake for another 10 minutes. Finally, increase the temperature to 300 degrees and bake until the crust has turned golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes.

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