If you love the taste of lemons and of vanilla, then this dessert is for you. I know that this lemon rice bundt cake is one of my go-to desserts whenever I have gluten-intolerant friends over for dinner. And other times I make just because it’s darn delicious, regardless of who is coming over.

But who am I kidding? I make it time and time again just because it‘s darn delicious.

It also makes an excellent snack or breakfast-on-the-run for my girls.

See the love in this shot? Now that’s my happy girl…

making gluten-free lemon rice bundt cake

Preheat oven to 400°F. Generously grease a Bundt cake pan with butter.

Remove the zest from 2 lemons, making sure to only shave off the yellow part of the skin. This is how you want the zested lemon to look like: If you get to the white part…

the white membrane immediately underneath the yellow layer, you’ve been a zesting fiend and gone too far…because the white part is bitter.

In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed pot, slowly bring 3 cups of whole milk to a mellow boil on medium heat. Add the lemon zest and ¾ cup white granulated sugar and mix well.

Cook for a couple of minutes. Add 1 ¼ cups Arborio rice and 2 pinches of sea or Kosher saltand stir. Once the milk begins to gently boil again, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. After the initial 20 minutes, raise the heat to medium and stir more often for an additional 15 minutes, to ensure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Check the rice to make sure that it is sufficiently cooked. It needs to be nice and firm, but not still hard in the middle of the kernel. Take off the heat and allow the rice to cool for 15 minutes or so. It will look nice and creamy…like this:

Add 1 cup of ground almonds and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix well.

If you don’t have ground almonds, no biggie. Just place 3 teaspoons of sugar in a thoroughly cleaned out coffee grinder.

Grind until the mixture resembles very fine breadcrumbs.

I find that adding the sugar on the bottom of the grinder prevents the almonds from becoming a sticky mess as they are ground.

While the rice is cooking, separate 4 eggs.

Lightly beat the egg yolks in a small bowl. Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until they form stiff peaks. Click here for a fool-proof way to beat these little suckers to pillowy perfection.

Add the egg yolks to the cooled rice mixture.

Mix well.

Now gently fold in the whipped egg whites.

Mix until white streaks in the batter are no longer visible.

Pour into the prepared Bundt cake pan.

Place it in the oven and lower the temperature to 375°F.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or so. The cake is ready when a sharp knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before flipping the cake onto a serving platter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar right before serving. Makes 10 servings.

lemon rice bundt cake

Created by Serena Cosmo on July 13, 2016

Serves: 10
Category: Baked Treat, Desserts

Ingredients

2 pinches Salt
1 tbsp. unsalted butter to coat a Bundt cake pan
1 lemon
3 cups whole milk
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups Arborio rice
1 cup ground almonds
2 tsps. vanilla extract
4 large eggs, separated
1 tsp. salt for beating egg whites
1 tsp. cream of tartar for beating egg whites
Powdered sugar, for sprinkling on top of finished cake
**If you don’t have ground almonds, no biggie. Just measure out ¾ cups of blanched slivered almonds and place them in a thoroughly cleaned out coffee grinder. Add 3 teaspoons of sugar (to prevent the almonds from becoming a sticky mess as they are ground) and grind until the mixture resembles very fine breadcrumbs.

How To

Preheat oven to 400°F. Generously grease a Bundt cake pan with butter.
Remove the zest from the lemon, making sure to only shave off the yellow part of the skin, as the white membrane immediately underneath the yellow layer, the white part, is bitter.
In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed pot, slowly bring the milk to a mellow boil on medium heat. Add the lemon zest and sugar and mix well. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add the rice and salt and stir. Once the milk begins to gently boil again, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. After the initial 20 minutes, raise the heat to medium and stir more often for an additional 15 minutes, to ensure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Check the rice to make sure that it is sufficiently cooked. It needs to be nice and firm, but not still hard in the middle of the kernel. Take off the heat and allow the rice to cool for 15 minutes or so. Add the ground almonds and vanilla extract and mix well.
While the rice is cooking, separate the eggs. Lightly beat the egg yolks in a small bowl. Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until they form stiff peaks. (The best way to do this is to first start beating room-temperature egg whites for 3 minutes or so on the lowest speed setting. Then add a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of cream of tartar and continue to beat the eggs on the same very low speed for another minutes or so. After doing this, progressively increase the speed of the beaters every minute or two until the whites have formed those coveted stiff peaks.)
Add the egg yolks to the cooled rice mixture and mix well. Now gently fold in the whipped egg whites until white streaks in the batter are no longer visible. Pour into the prepared Bundt cake pan and place it in the oven. Lower the temperature to 375°F and bake for 30-40 minutes or so. The cake is ready when a sharp knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before flipping the cake onto a serving platter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar right before serving.