Difficulty – Easy
- Dairy Free – A recipe that is both gluten and dairy free.
The Stars and Sprinkles traybake is a super simple bake. It has a vanilla sponge and is topped with a glacé icing, jazzie sprinkles and marzipan stars which add a lovely hint of almond to the cake. Its a recipe that you can’t go wrong with, you simply mix all the ingredients together and bake for 20 minutes, then decorate. It is a great recipe for any beginner baker. It is also a fun recipe for the kids to get involved with, they will love cutting out the marzipan stars and covering the cake with sprinkles and maybe licking the icing bowl too!
Cooks Notes
Gluten free self-raising flour – The gluten free self-raising flour that I have used contains xanthan gum. Xanthan gum mimics the gluten in wheat flour and it helps give structure and moisture to a gluten free cake. If your flour does not contain any xanthan gum, then you can add 1/4 of a teaspoon to the cake batter (step 3 of the instructions).
Ground almonds / Almond flour – As gluten free cakes tend to become dry much quicker than cakes made with wheat flour I have added ground almonds to this recipe. Ground almonds help to keep the cake moist so they prevent the cake from drying out too quickly .
Yogurt – Yogurt interacts with the baking soda in the cake batter, which helps the cake rise. It also adds moisture to the cake which also prevents it from drying out too quickly. I have found that adding yogurt makes a gluten free cake much more fluffy and light, and even after 5 days the cake doesn’t seem to dry out.
Tip: If you do not like marzipan you can use sugar paste instead of marzipan for the stars.
Stars and Sprinkles Traybake – Gluten and dairy free
Equipment
- 1 19 inches x 12 inches x 1.5 inches deep Baking Tray.
- 1 Small Star cutter that is 1½cm in diameter.
Ingredients
- 250 grams Gluten Free Self-raising Flour
- 30 grams Ground Almonds
- 275 grams Caster Sugar
- 150 grams Dairy Free Butter Block
- 100 ml Dairy free yogurt I have used a soya based yogurt.
- 3 Large Eggs
- 3 tsps Vanilla Extract
- 1½ tsps Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
Icing/Decoration
- 450 grams Icing Sugar
- 4½ tbsps Water
- 65 grams Marzipan
- Jazzie Sprinkles
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 150℃ fan, gas mark 2, 300℉ and line the baking tray with baking paper.
- Cream together 150 grams of dairy free butter and 275 grams of caster sugar in a free standing mixer (with the paddle attachment) or with a handheld whisk, until it comes lighter in colour.
- Then add to the creamed butter and sugar; ¼ tsp of salt, 1½ tsps of baking powder, 3tsps of vanilla extract, 3 large eggs, 30 grams of ground almonds and 250 grams of gluten free self raising flour. Mix for a few minutes until all the ingredients are completely combined.
- Finally add 100ml of dairy free yogurt and mix once again until the yogurt is just incorporated into the cake batter.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking tray and spread evenly with a palette knife (or an ordinary flat knife if you do not have a palette knife).
- Place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes or until the cake is a light golden colour and if you poke the cake with a skewer/knife it comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool in the baking tray for a few minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
Glacé Icing/Decoration
- Take 65 grams of marzipan and roll out to about 2mm in depth, then using a small star cutter cut out 30 – 35 stars and set aside.
- Once the cake has completely cooled, place 450 grams of Icing Sugar in to a medium sized bowl and slowly add up to 4½ tsps of water. It is best to add 1 tablespoon of water at a time mixing it together after each tablespoonful. You should end up with a thick but spreadable glacé icing.
- Pour the glacé icing onto the cake and carefully spread out evenly.
- Then take some Sprinkles and evenly sprinkle over the glacé icing. You can add as little or as much as you wish.
- Take the stars you set aside and place one at a time evenly on top of the glacé icing.
- Once the glacé icing has nearly set take a knife and cut out 6cm x 5cm rectangles. You should end up with approximately 22 pieces of cake. Store in an airtight container and consume within 5 days. (If you live in a warm climate store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days).
