Gluten Free French Apple Cake, or How to Make Russian Gluten-Free Sharlotka

I have many Russian cakes and desserts on my blog, most of them adapted to be gluten-free. But there's one cake that has been with me since childhood, and which I haven't told you about yet: Russian sharlotka cake.

Most weekends, my grandmother would bake this Russian apple cake with whatever apples she had on hand. Once we came back home from school, on the corner of our kitchen table would stand a towering, quivering cake, its flesh studded with apples and its top a cloud-like combination of whipped eggs and the lightest cake batter imaginable.

Once we cut ourselves a slice, eating it alongside a hot glass of dark Russian tea, we would lose ourselves in the taste of apple sharlotka.

Now that the weekend means thinking up which desserts to regale my own family with, it was only natural that I would make a gluten-free sharlotka. And I'm proud to report that this adaptation is no less cloud-like, fluffy and majestic than my grandmother's original Russian sharlotka apple cake.

Also, after trying many different apples in the filling, I am also happy to report that I found the best apple for baking sharlotka: organic Washington Gala apples.

We eat a lot of Organic Washington apples in my house (the Cosmic Crisp is my son's favourite!), but organic Washington Gala apples are my favourite for baking.

Gala apples are one of the sweetest apple varieties around, and they're very good in baking or pies. Crisp and very sweet, this aromatic apple features pink-orange stripes atop a pretty yellow background.

And from my experience, buying organic is one of the best ways to get the freshest, sweetest apples around. Washington State is known as one of the premier apple-growing areas in the world and the growing conditions make Washington the finest place to grow organic apples.

In fact, if you eat organic apples on the regular, chances are that the apples you buy are, in fact, Organic Washington Apples. The United States is the leading organic apple producer in the world, with Washington State growing more than 90% of U.S. certified organic apples.

So if we're looking to make this gluten-free apple cake the best possible, grab a bag of organic Washington Gala apples and discover how good this sweet, crispy fruit can be!

Making a traditional cake gluten-free requires tinkering with formulas and ratios. And make the best gluten-free sharlotka can be especially tricky, because everyone has their own ideas about how to make the best apple cake.

But with my grandmother's guidance, I believe I really have found the way to make the best gluten-free apple cake.

My secrets for making the best gluten free sharlotka are:

• use a good gluten-free flour mix - In Canada, I like Irresistibles brand all-purpose GF flour mix, or the Robin Hood GF flour mix. If making your own, I like gluten-free on a shoestring's Better Batter mix.
• slice the apples into rings, rather than slices or cubes - this ensures a more pronounced apple flavor, gives more structure to your cake, and looks pretty when you cut the gluten-free apple cake.
• sprinkle sliced almonds or cookie crumbs at the bottom of your cake - this will prevent the cake from sticking to the pan and look really nice when you turn the gluten-free sharlotka upside down.
• choose good apples - I recommend using Organic Washington Gala apples for this recipe, but Granny Smith apples will also produce good results.
• layer the cake - instead of mixing all the ingredients in one batter, I found that this apple cake will rise much taller and become fluffier if you make it in layers, first laying out the apples along the bottom, and then pouring the whipped batter on top.

Absolutely! I have made this Russian apple cake dairy-free and with dairy, and the results are actually identical.

All you need to make dairy free sharlotka is to substitute the butter for non-dairy margarine, or vegan butter. Both produce great results! You can also use coconut oil.

Prepare the oven and pan

Preheat oven to 350F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper, and grease the paper and sides of the pan with butter or oil for good measure.

Sprinkle almonds or cookie crumbs along the bottom

Sprinkle crumbled cookies or sliced almonds along the bottom of the cake pan. This will help soak up the juice of the apples as they cook, and create a nice topping. This is the first secret to making the best gluten-free sharlotka.

Prepare the wet ingredients and dry ingredients.  In a standing mixer or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, whisk the eggs with the sugar until thick and pale yellow and ribbons are formed along the sides, about 8-10 minutes. Gently fold in vanilla, then gradually add in the gluten-free flour blend and salt in two batches, folding just until combined after each addition.

To make the cake, pour the batter over the apples. Use an offset spatula or spoon to try and flatten out the top, helping the batter get in between all the apple slices and all the way to the bottom. Let gluten-free apple cake stand for the batter to settle fully.  Transfer the cake batter to the prepared cake pan. 

Transfer the cake to the oven to bake

Bake the cake in the preheated oven, until the gluten-free Russian sharlotka cake is golden on the top, and a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer pan onto a cookie drying rack and allow the cake to cool in the pan at room temperature. 

This cake is best made in one go, because once you whip the eggs, waiting at all will cause them to deflate and the whole cake to collapse.

The good news, the cake takes about 15 minutes of active work, and then an hour of baking, and it can be eaten hot from the oven - but it tastes great if it has some time to rest. You can make this gluten-free apple cake a day in advance of when you intend to serve it.

The key to a good gluten-free apple cake is great apples. We recommend using Organic Washington Apples, and particularly Gala apples, for best results.

Other than that, the other dominant flavors in this cake are almonds and eggs. We do not recommend trying to sub the eggs to make it egg free. You can use cookie crumbs in place of the almonds, or skip them altogether.