Gluten Free Vanilla Pudding Cake with Lemon Filling

Vanilla Pudding Cake with Lemon Curd and Buttercream icing

I threw a bridal shower for a friend on Sunday.  The food was all gluten free and all delicious.  I made red pepper hummus as an appetizer and surrounded it with a variety of gluten free crackers.  I tossed some brown rice pasta with homemade pesto sauce and parmesan cheese (olives on the side), and I made a fresh corn and shrimp salad with a vinaigrette-like marinade.  Another friend brought a green salad and I added some cheeses to go with the crackers and hummus.  But the shining star of the party was the cake.

I wanted to make a white cake and put lemon curd in between the layers and finish it with a silky buttercream icing.  The thought was to make it like a wedding cake and decorate it with white pearl like sugar pebbles.  I decided to use XO Baking Company's gluten free white cake mix.  I have used it before.  It is one of the few white cake mixes out there that are gluten free.  Betty Crocker's mixes are great and taste like the real thing, but they only make a yellow cake mix.  I have used XO's mix before so decided on that one.  Everything I have tried from XO Baking Co. has been outstanding, by the way.

The only problem was that the only time I had used this mix before, I used it for a cake that had the mix as one of several ingredients, including instant pudding, extra eggs, and ginger ale instead of milk or water.  So, not wanting to try it without these extras, i chose a vanilla pudding mix and charged ahead.  It turned out great.  So moist and delicious.  The funny thing is, with all the eggs and the vanilla pudding mix, the cake turned out yellow in the end!  No need to have looked for a white cake mix!

The decoration was a combination of the sugar pearls and lemon gummy pandas as I could not find the larger white sugar pearls, only really tiny ones and I wasn't sure they would show up on the icing.





Vanilla Pudding Cake with Lemon Curd and Buttercream Icing
1 gluten free cake mix (white or yellow)
1   3 1/2 oz. pkg instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup ginger ale
1 tsp vanilla
1 jar prepared lemon curd
1 recipe buttercream icing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease two 8" cake pans.  Cut a round piece of parchment to fit in the bottom of each pan and grease the top.  Combine first 6 ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat well.  Pour into prepared pans and place them in the oven for 30-35 minutes.  Cake is done when tester comes out clean.  Cool in pans on a rack for 10-20 minutes, then run a knife around the edge, invert each pan and remove the cake onto the cooling rack.  Peel off the parchment paper.  Completely cool before frosting.

Place one layer on a cake plate.  Spread lemon curd on top.  Place second layer on top of first and spread icing over top and sides.  Decorate as desired.  Refrigerate overnight for the best flavor and moistness.  Bring to room temperature before serving to let the icing soften.

Buttercream Icing
1/2 cup shortening (I used Earth Balance Coconut Spread)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup scalded milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla

Bring milk to boil twice.  Cool.  Cream butter and shortening together in a mixer.  Add milk and keep beating, add powdered sugar, then egg white.  Add vanilla last.  You may have to continue beating for awhile if you use the coconut spread.  It took a few minutes to thicken.