Super Simple Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

This is by far the easiest gluten-free dessert I’ve ever made! Almost easier than opening a prepackaged mix. You only need two dishes to make this; a mixing bowl and a baking pan and you are ready to go. Start to finish, your cake will be ready in under 45 minutes!

I tried to cut down on the sugar since 1 cup seemed like a lot. I started adding it 1/4 cup at a time. I’m not sure if it was the cocoa powder or the gluten-free flour, but found that I definitely needed the whole cup. This cake is extremely rich and chocolatey. I ended up freezing about three-quarters of the loaf (I made mine in a loaf pan, not a cake pan). The slice I’ve defrosted since was just as good as the freshly baked. I think making this recipe into cupcakes, might make freezing a bit easier.

 

 

Super Simple Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake
From Food.com via FitSugar.

• 1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mix (I used Better Batter.)
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon guar gum or 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (only not included in GF flour mix)
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 5 Tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 Tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup water

1. Heat oven to 350°F
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Add all liquid ingredients and mix well.
4. Bake in greased and floured nine-inch square pan (or lined with waxed paper) for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
5. Serve as is or with some berries and cream for extra indulgence.

Gluten-Free Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

I’m really not one for cakes (cheesecake is the one exception, but that’s totally different). But I have to admit, every once in a blue moon there is nothing better than a huge cup of coffee and a slice of coffee cake. I absolutely loved this recipe. I actually only made it because I had all the ingredients on hand, but it was so simple and quick to get together. Perfect for a quick breakfast sweet or an easy last-minute tea/coffee date.

I have to say that this coffee cake is definitely at its best straight from the oven. Despite wrapping  the cake up nice and tight, the next day it was close to rock solid the next day. That’s just the way gluten-free flours tend to be. A quick 10, 15 seconds in the microwave and the problem was solved.

Gluten-Free Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Recipe from Celiac Central.

Ingredients

For the Cream Cheese Filling:

• 8 ounces cream cheese – room temperature
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon lemon juice

For the Cake:

• 1 ½ cups Gluten-Free Bisquick
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• ¼ cup butter – softened
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

For the Crumb Topping:

• ¼ cup light brown sugar
• ¼ cup softened butter – room temp
• 1/3 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour blend (Bob’s Red Mill is fine.)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Generously grease a round 9 in. cake pan and set it aside.
2. Mix the cream cheese filling in a small bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix the butter, milk, eggs, vanilla and sugar. Gradually add the flour and mix until well combined.
4. Spread about a little more than half of the batter in the bottom of the pan. Next put the cream cheese filling on top and try to spread around. (It may be difficult, but using the back of a tablespoon works well.)
5. Lastly, put the remainder of the dough batter on top.
6. In a small bowl, using a pastry blender tool or 2 forks, combine the topping ingredients until it resembles crumbs. Sprinkle over the batter in the pan.
7. Bake for about 20-25 minutes (I would start checking it around 20). Insert a tooth pick into the cake and it should come out clean and dry when done.
8. Cool well before dusting the top with sifted confectioner’s sugar, if you like. After cooling, be sure to keep covered for freshness.

Gluten Free Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

This was a new recipe for me. I have heard of olive oil cake before, but never tried it. It was definitely a different type of cake. Kind of like a cross between a regular ‘box’ cake and a flourless cake. It was both dense and light and really moist. I didn’t find the olive oil to be overwhelming, but the chocolate made it very rich. I actually decided to freeze one of the 9-inch rounds (this recipe yields two) because I knew there was no way to get through a double layer cake that is this rich. I would definitely make this again, but only if I knew there were going to be a lot of people around to eat it.

I topped the cake with a mocha ganache and served it with vanilla whipped cream and some raspberry coulis. 

Gluten Free Chocolate Olive Oil Cake (adapted from BetterBatter.org)

• 3 cups All Purpose Flour (I used Better Batter)
• 2 cups sugar
• 7 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups cold water

1. Preheat the oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
2. With mixer at low speed, beat in oil, vinegar, vanilla and water; beat until smooth.
3. Pour the mixture into two 9-inch pans coated with butter and dusted with more (gluten free) flour.
4. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Put the cake pans on cooling racks and cool for 15 to 20 minutes before removing the cakes from the pans to cool completely.

Mocha Ganache

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup/8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I just used chocolate chips)
• 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

In a heavy sauce pan, bring the cream almost to a boil. Add in chocolate chips and espresso powder. Remove from heat and stir until all the chocolate is melted. Allow to cool slightly before using.

Gluten-Free Strawberry Summer Cake

I’m not so secretly obsessed with Smitten Kitchen. I feel like I’m friends with Deb. We get along really well. We hang out in the kitchen. She always has an answer for any of my questions. She always lets me know what the perfect side dish or appetizer is. Of course she knows none of this, but it still happens on a fairly regular basis. (Hi, my name is Clare and I’m crazy… Yes, also true.)

I saw her recipe for a Strawberry Summer Cake the same day I had acquired 6.5 pounds of strawberries. Just as I was pondering ‘What exactly does one do with six and a half pounds of strawberries?’, Deb once again had an answer. Me and my strawberries were ready for some serious baking.

But before you get down to serious baking, everyone knows you require a serious apron. This one probably ranks number 2 in my current rotation of serious aprons. Number 1 being my amazingly awesome historic Hungarian mustache apron, but to be fair, nothing can compete historic Hungarian facial hair. It’s just a fact. I got my awesome hummus apron at Greenwich Market last year when I was back visiting London and it was definitely a very worthwhile investment.

One of the reasons I started this blog, was to take away the mystery of gluten-free cooking. I wanted to show that it is actually prett easy to adapt your favorite recipes to a gluten-free diet. Gluten-free baking however, still remains quite an adventure. The difference between ‘regular’ all-purpose wheat flour and  a gluten-free substitute is marginal when you only need to use a tablespoon here or there, but when substituting several cups, things can be a bit trickier. In my experience, gluten-free flour is much more temperamental when it comes to baking. Some flour combinations will bake a lot faster than their wheat-based counterparts, which generally results in some kind of burnt inedible blob or they bake much, much, m u c h slower. I swear there is no middle ground on this.

For this recipe I did a straight swap of 1.5 cups of Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour. When I was mixing the dry and wet ingredients together, it seemed like it was taking a lot longer than mixing had taken me in the past when I was using wheat based flour. As a result the mixture was quite aerated and ‘fluffy’ by the time I was done. This also meant that when I put the cake in the oven, it puffed up an awful lot as it was baking. I was a bit concerned about it spilling over, but luckily it didn’t. When I took the cake out of the oven, it turned out the batter had puffed up over the strawberries and the sugar that I had sprinkled on top had made a nice little crust (like creme brulee style) on top of the cake. Definitely not intentional, but a very pleasant surprise. I served up the slices with a bit of whipped cream that had some brown sugar and vanilla mixed in for a little extra flavah (hence the funky looking color in the picture above).

I would definitely make this cake again, but I would be careful to not over beat the batter and I would also add a lot more strawberries. You could taste the strawberries in there, but they kind of got a little lost after a couple bites.