Quasi-Review: SCD Vanilla Pound Cake with Raspberry Glaze

This is mostly a review. This cake is a combination of the "Vanilla Pound Cake" from Raman Prasad's Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and the raspberry sauce from Gluten Free SCD and Veggie's "Raspberry Ripple Cake," with several alterations in both ingredients and method (detailed below). The vanilla cake is, quite frankly, standard. It's sweet, mild, vanilla-y, and (let's face it) almondy. The raspberry glaze is tart with some sweetness and a little creamy coconut flavor lurking there from a small addition of coconut milk. Overall, I think this cake is a good combination, as the vanilla pound cake needs something more exciting than honey once in a while.

How I did it: 

There are lots and lots of SCD plain/vanilla cakes out there, and I don't want to reproduce Prasad's recipe without permission, so if you want to make this, I'd direct you just to make the cake recipe from the Raspberry Ripple Cake, as well, as it is yummy. I just default to the Prasad vanilla pound cake recipe because Alex likes it, it agrees with him, I have it memorized, and there's no need to break out the food processor. I really relied on Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet a lot when I first started and some of the items in that book are still staples for me.  Also, with reference to my dark golden cake, I use Trader Joe's Almond Meal. I know that's unpopular, since the lovely varieties at Digestive Wellness are more finely ground and are made of blanched almonds. But TJ's is $4.00/pound. Deal with it.

Ingredients:

1 SCD vanilla cake (this recipe works very well)
1 cup frozen raspberries
3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp coconut milk
1/3 cup water
1 metal fine mesh strainer (which I don't have, and which I should have had to do this).

Directions:

1. Make the cake.

 2. Add raspberries, honey, and the water to a small saucepan and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer until the raspberries burst and the mixture thickens. For me, it was about 45 minutes. Then, strain it with a mesh strainer over a bowl. Or, if you're me, fashion together a collander with cheese cloth over it and spend 15 minutes trying to strain it before ultimately creating a raspberry sausage with cheese cloth wrapping and massaging out the rest of the raspberry goop.

Bad idea, even though it worked.

3. My strained raspberry sauce, at this point, was very runny.

So, this is where I deviated from Gluten Free SCD and Veggie's recipe. I put the strained sauce back on the burner for about 15 minutes, simmering, stirring frequently, and making sure it did not burn. Then, I added 2 tbsp of coconut milk for some creaminess. The sauce ended up much more glaze-y in the real sense of the word. 

4. Let the glaze and the cake cool, then add the glaze to the cake, spreading evenly.

Ta da!