Gluten-free Raspberry and Coconut Slices

Last week I held a gluten-free bake sale at work to raise money for Coeliac UK, the charity I am running a half marathon for on 9 October.

I made raspberry and coconut slices and chocolate brownies, while colleagues and friends helping me out made apple cake, sweet potato cake, lemon drizzle, chestnut and rum cake and more brownies.

It was a great success - we raised over £100 and my company agreed to match this amount. This puts me over the target of £350 for Coeliac UK!

I'm thrilled to have reached my target a full month before race day. But I'm even more thrilled that we proved that gluten-free cake can be every bit as tasty as gluten-y cake.

Some people (we all know who I'm talking about, Mum) were not very supportive and thought it was a bad idea to bake only gluten-free cakes.

But there was barely any cake left at the end of the day and I think £100 is a pretty good result.

So without further ado, here is the recipe for my gluten free raspberry and coconut slices, which I adapted from a non gluten-free recipe and another recipe for gluten-free shortbread.

You will need:

For the base:
250g gluten-free flour (I used Doves Farm)
pinch of salt
150g butter
90g caster sugar
an 8 inch spring-form cake tin, base lined with greaseproof paper

For the topping:
100g dessicated coconut (finely grated if possible)
half a jar of seedless raspberry jam
2 eggs, beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Rub the butter and flour for the base of the slices together until they resemble breadcrumbs. Mix in the salt and sugar.

2. Knead the mixture together until it just sticks together, then put it in the baking tin and flatten it with your hands until it covers the base of the tin. Bake for 10-15 minutes until it starts to get a faint golden tinge, then take out of the oven.

3. Warm the jam on the hob or in the microwave until it becomes runny, then spread it over the biscuit base with the back of a spoon.

4. Mix together the coconut with the beaten eggs and then spread over the jam.

5. Bake for around 25 minutes until golden brown on top.

A lovely, sweet treat that doesn't need many changes to make it gluten-free.

Happy (gluten-free) baking!

Ellie
xxx