2 Layer Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

Here’s the recipe from Desiree’s birthday cake. It’s basically a hack of a standard wheat flour oil cake. I don’t think it’s perfect yet, it needs to be a bit moister. It’s still pretty good though. I think it just needs a bit more oil.

• 3 c. Short grain rice flour (I grind my own, and used sushi rice. I bet sweet rice flour would make an even better product, but that any old rice flour would work.)
• 1 c. Tapioca starch or flour
• 1/2 c. cocoa
• 1 Tbs. + 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum (how I love xanthan gum!)
• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1 c. vegetable oil (I’m going to up this to 1 1/2 c. next time I make it)
• 2 eggs
• 2c. sugar
• 2 c. water
• 1 Tbs. molasses
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 9″ pans. I use springform pans, which makes prying stubborn cakes free so much easier. First mix the dry ingredients, then in a separate bowl, beat the first three wet ingredients until they thicken a little and are very well mixed. Add the next three wet ingredients to the first three and mix. Then add all the wet stuff to all the dry stuff and mix well. With wheat recipes you can leave lumps, but with gluten free I find it better not to. Pour half into each pan and bake for 30 minutes. Then turn down the oven to 325 and bake for another 10. (I turned it down since the edges were looking a little crusty and I didn’t want them to burn. If your edges aren’t looking crusty I wouldn’t turn the oven down)

Let cool and stick in the fridge to chill if you want to use the icing I used.

You need a double boiler for this one. If you don’t already know what that is, basically it’s one pot inside another that has boiling water in it. So to jury-rig one, you need 2 pots that fit one inside the other. Add water to the bigger pot and put the smaller one inside so that it’s floating a little. Then you put the stuff you want to cook in the smaller pot. You’ll also need a hand mixer. At this point you’re probably asking yourself if this icing is worth all the trouble. It is.

2 egg whites

1 1/2 c. sugar (I used white, but brown sugar makes it look even more like toasted marshmallows)

5 Tbsp. water

dash of salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Put everything but the vanilla into the smaller pot. Get the water boiling then put the smaller pot in the water bath. Get out your hand mixer (or borrow your friends. Tell them you’ll give them a piece of cake.) Start blending the heck out of the ingredients. Keep blending and watch as they start to thicken. Blend for about 7 minutes, or until soft peaks form when you touch the surface of the icing. You’ll notice that the blender is making pretty tracks at this point, and the icing is looking glossy. Stop blending and add the vanilla. Then blend for a couple of more minutes until it’s spreading consistancy. Get out your chilled cakes (if they aren’t cold the frosting can ooze. It still tastes good though) Frost cakes. Eat. Yum. Yay!