Can I Make A Gluten-Free Lemon Meringue Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Lemon Meringue Cake (from FEAST) has thin layers of sponge that are topped with meringue and sandwiched with lemon curd. The cake layers are quite thin and tender, so we are slightly concerned that if gluten-free flour is used then the layers could break up very easily. So you would need to remove them from the pans and sandwich the layers very carefully.

Also the sponge mixture doesn't have a large amount of liquid, which makes it more difficult to switch directly to gluten-free flour, as gluten-free flour tends to absorb more liquid than regular wheat flour. So it may be better to use half gluten-free plain (all-purpose) flour and half ground almonds (almond meal or almond flour). Please note, however, that we have not tried the cake in gluten-free form we can't guarantee the results and suggest that you may prefer to try Nigella's Lemon Pavlova as a gluten-free alternative. We would also mention that in all of Nigella's recipes plain flour (or all-purpose flour) is wheat flour without any leavening agents added. If gluten-free or other flours are required then this is always specified.