Change is a beautiful thing when we desire it, but when it shows up on our front steps unannounced, we tend to want to slam the door in its face. Woodbury resident Allison Holbrook’s May 2008 diagnosis of celiac disease, a serious gluten intolerance, was one of the latter: an unwelcome, unexpected change.
“I was 24, and I had just gotten engaged,” Holbrook says. “I was going through a lot of change already, and this was one change I did not want to accept.” Holbrook saw numerous specialists before settling on the celiac diagnosis from the Mayo Clinic. “The morning I got the call, I had an upset stomach and was eating saltines to counter it,” Holbrook says. “How ironic. I was eating gluten as I listened to them tell me that I was to never have it again.”
During the first few months, Holbrook struggled to figure out what she could eat. Before the recent popularity of conscious gluten-free diets, the options were limited. “I started with the few mixes that were out there,” Holbrook says, “and I gradually started to try substituting things on my own.”
In 2009, after months of trying out different options in gluten-free baking, Holbrook entered an almond cake into the gluten-free category at the Minnesota State Fair. “One win, and I was hooked,” Holbrook says. The culinary queen has since whipped up five other winning recipes, a win for every single year she has entered. “It’s definitely addicting. And one of these years I’m not going to win, but until then I’ll keep baking away.”
Holbrook talks about her gluten-free dream recipes—her visions of perfecting the gluten-free fried donut or mastering a light, flaky, gluten-free pastry. And therein lies her advice for those who have found themselves with a big change knocking at their door: “Good things happen when you stop thinking of all the things you can’t eat, and start thinking about all of the things you can,” she says.
Almond Cake
This recipe was given to Holbrook by her mother’s cousin, and it served as her initiation to gluten-free baking. A year later, it won Holbrook her first Minnesota State Fair ribbon, and has remained a favorite of her friends' and family ever since.
- 1 8 oz. package almond paste
- 1 cup sugar
- 3⁄4 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 4 large eggs
- 3⁄4 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3⁄4 cup gluten-free flour*
- 11⁄4 tsp. baking powder
- 1⁄4 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. xantham gum
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 9-inch cake pan; line bottom of pan with wax paper.
Cut almond paste into 4 pieces. Place 3 in mixer (you do not need the last piece). Add 1/3 cup sugar to mixer and blend until almond paste is ground to size of sugar granules. Add 1/4 cup butter until paste forms.
Beat remaining 2/3 cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter in a separate bowl. Add to almond paste and beat until smooth. Beat in 1 egg at a time and then add vanilla.
Mix flour, baking powder, salt and xantham gum in separate bowl. Add to mixture over low speed. Pour into pan. Bake cake until brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; turn out onto rack. Peel off wax paper. Optional: sprinkle with powdered sugar.
*Gluten-Free Flour Mix
- 2 parts white rice flour
- 2⁄3 part potato starch flour
- 1⁄3 part tapioca flour
Pre-packaged gluten-free flour mix can be used as well, but if the mix already has xantham gum included, do not include the 1 tsp. in the ingredient list.
For more information on the State Fair’s competition, visit the website here.
