Gluten and Dairy Free Basic Cake Mix

This is a gluten and dairy free version of my family's 'Jiffy tea cake' which is one of those basic cakes you can add almost anything to! It makes a smallish cake, so I usually double the mixture if making a whole cake, or just use the quantities below to make about 6 muffins. I've given the quantities in 'cups' and by that I actually mean a tea cup that I've been using as my cooking measuring cup for the last 30 years! It doesn't really matter whether you use a metric or imperial cup as long as you use the same cup - though if you only have small eggs, I would perhaps use two. I also like to have a fairly thick batter, so I add more milk or flour as needed to get it to the right consistency - experiment to see what suits you and your oven best.

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Yields: 6 muffins

Ingredients

• 1  cup  gluten-free flour
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1  medium egg
• 1⁄2 cup  oil (I usually use olive, but peanut, sunflower etc is all OK, each will add a slightly different flavour)
• 1⁄2 cup milk (I use lactose free or even better, soy milk)
• 3  drops vanilla

Directions

1. OPTIONAL EXTRAS
2. To make some of the many variations on this cake:.
3. - lemon juice and 1 cup of dessicated coconut.
4. - 1/2 cup sultanas or currants (or dairy free choc chips!).
5. - cocoa to make the chocolate version.
6. - sliced apple rings (arranged on the top of the cake batter before you cook it) and cinnamon sugar.
7. - chopped dates with powdered ginger, nutmeg, and allspice.
8. DIRECTIONS.
9. No fancy directions here - just throw everything into a food processor and mix it all together!
10. If you are adding any of the optional ingredients, put them in last (especially if it's the dried fruit as you don't want to chop that all up into the mixture).
11. Put the mixture into an oiled and floured tin, or a muffin tray, and cook in a moderate oven (180C/360F) for around 15-30 minutes depending on your oven and whether you're doing it as a cake or muffins.
12. Carefully turn out on a rack to cool (or while it's hot, you can spread the top of the cake with dairy-free margarine and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar - mmmmmmm!).
13. You can ice/frost the cake as desired - if you can tolerate dairy, a lemon cream cheese icing made with big scoop of creamed cheese, lemon juice and icing sugar is lovely!).
14. 'SHELF-LIFE' / STORAGE.
15. Like many things made with gluten free flour, this cake is best eaten quickly which is one of the reason why I usually make muffins and put them in the freezer and just quickly heat in the microwave and serve as needed.