Gluten Free Easter Tray Bake
Takes 1.5 hours (including cooling time), serves 12.
A combination of my Grandma's iconic tray bake & a whole lot of easter goodies.
The bottom layer of this slice is becoming my favourite base for my tray bakes. I use this same base in my Tan Slice recipe, which initially took me about 5 tries to even begin to get right. It blows my mind that this recipe was initially developed by my Grandma to cook all together at the same time. The wonders of gluten, am I right? Unfortunately, if you try to cook the layers together with gluten free flour, you will be left with quite a soggy bottom indeed.
The middle layers are jam and a basic chocolate sponge. I would suggest picking a good quality jam, I prefer seeded - but that's just a preference. The sponge is super easy, and should rise evenly, if not - try lowering the heat of your oven by 10-20°.
Gluten Friendly Easter Decorations
A good thing to remember is that just because a brand of chocolate is gluten free, doesn't mean their easter chocolates will be. However, the same goes for the opposite - my favourite easter release is by far the KitKat Easter Bunny. Obviously, no other KitKat items are gluten free, so it's pretty special when they have a seasonal item we can eat. I love them, so for this recipe I bought the 6 pack of mini bunnies and stuck them on top of this slice.
Apologies to anyone that can't get these where they live, I truly believe you are missing out. For the other decoration, I went with the Cadbury Mini Eggs, which are available in many places. All I did was whack them with a rolling pin to break them up and then sprinkle them over the icing.
I N G R E D I E N T S
Base
170 grams of softened butter
100 grams cup caster sugar
275 grams of gluten free flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (omit if flour mixture already contains it)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Middle
1/2 cup of jam
110 gram butter
90 grams sugar
1 egg
2 egg whites
120 grams gluten free flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa
1/4 xanthan gum
Top
30 grams of soften butter
150 grams of icing sugar
2 Tbsp of cocoa powder
Chocolate Eggs/Easter Bunnies/Other decorations of your choice
M E T H O D
Make the Base: Preheat the oven to 180° celsius/bake. Line a square baking tin, I use a 9 inch x 9 inch, but don't worry if you haven't got that exact size.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffly.
Sift in the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt.
Start mixing together with a spatula, when it starts to come together swap to mixing with your hands and keep going until you form a smooth ball of dough.
Push the dough into the lined baking tin until it's flat, and make several pricks with a fork.
Place the dough into the oven for an initial 20 minutes. Then remove from the oven and let it cool and firm up in the baking tin.
While the base is cooking, we can make the middle layer.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in the 1 whole egg, and 2 egg whites and beat again.
Sift in the flour, baking powder, cocoa and xanthan gum and fold in to the wet mixture.
Once the middle layer mixture is smooth, set aside.
When the base layer has slightly cooled, spread jam over the top evenly.
Pour over the middle layer mixture, and place in the oven again for 15-20 minutes or until you can insert a skewer into the middle and it comes out clean.
Once the middle layer is cooked, remove from the oven and let it cool entirely.
To make the top layer, beat the soften butter, icing sugar, cocoa, and 2 Tbsp of water until smooth.
Spread the icing over the top of the cooled slice. Decorate with various gluten free easter eggs and bunnies!
