Can I Make The Scented Citrus Cake With A Different Flour?

Our answer

Nigella's Scented Citrus Cake (from AT MY TABLE) is a gluten-free cake made with a combination of ground almonds (almond meal or almond flour) and rice flour. You could certainly use a gluten-free plain flour or baking blend instead of the rice flour, as many of these mixtures contain some rice flour.

The proportion of flour in the cake is quite low vs the other ingredients, so it may be possible to use regular plain (all-purpose) flour. But note that the texture will be slightly different and the cake will not be quite as tender. The glutens in the flour can be toughened if you beat the cake batter too much after the flour has been added. In this case it may be better to add the ground almonds after you have added the eggs (at the beginning of step 4), then fold in the flour and baking powder at the end of step 4, after the citrus juices have been added. However, please note that as we have not tried this cake with wheat flour, we are unable to guarantee the results. We would avoid using other alternative flours, such as cornflour (cornstarch) and potato or tapioca starch, as they are highly refined and will act in a very different way. You may also like to try Nigella's Thyme And Lemon Bundt Cake, which can also be baked in a 20cm (8-inch) square cake pan though will need an extra 5-10 minutes in the oven if you use a square pan.