My Life is a Picnic
A Canadian Celiac Blog
Amazing Chocolate Cake (edited to include Black Forest Cake)
My husband is a chocolate cake lover. Truly. Whenever we go to a restaurant or bakery, he will seek out the dessert menu for the tallest, chocolatiest (is that a word?), yummiest cake he can find, and then order his meal accordingly. So when I was diagnosed with celiac disease, he was finding there was a big hole in his diet... one that would only get filled if he happened to be out for dinner without me. No more of that! Here's the cake that brought chocolate layers and goodness back into his life!
I make this cake regularly, but I change up the frostings and fillings to create some amazing desserts. Pictured is my sweetie's birthday cake. 4 layers of cake. Peanut butter butter cream filling. Dulce de Leche fill (I bought the President's Choice brand, which according to the website has no gluten ingredients). Covered in chocolate ganache. Yes, he loves me a lot.
The cake batter will make 3 or 4 layers. The baking time will change depending on how many layers you make. It will also make 36 cupcakes. That's a lot of cupcakes.
I've simplified the recipe so that it is more user friendly, but rest assured, the taste is not compromised!
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This year, for his birthday, my husband once again requested chocolate cake! Surprise! not really, it is always expected. He did make a more specific request though- Black Forest Cake. Now there's a challenge for the dairy intolerant!! ha ha! Well, we managed it quite well, thanks to this amazing stuff by So Delicious called CocoWhip. It's like Cool Whip, but instead of being made with edible oil, it is made with coconut milk! And it is DELICIOUS!! I made my own cherry filling (I will include the recipe at the bottom of this post) and then frosted the cake using 2 tubs of CocoWhip. We kept this cake in the refrigerator and made sure to eat it within 2 days. (That wasn't much of a challenge for us! ha ha!)
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Let me know how creative you are at making chocolate cakes! Peanut butter layers? Strawberry filling? What's your favourite! Let me know in the comments! Or post some pictures on the Facebook page!
Therese K.
Chocolate Cake
4 eggs
3 sticks of butter (for dairy free, use 3 sticks of Earth Balance buttery sticks or soy free buttery sticks)
2 cups of sugar
1 1/4 cups white rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 cups dutch process cocoa
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk (or dairy free milk + 1 tsp lemon juice)
Preheat oven to 350F
Prepare pans by greasing sides and using parchment on bottom. You can use 3 or 4 8 inch round pans, or 36 cupcake liners in cupcake pans.
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Cream butter in stand mixer, gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping sides down in between to ensure complete mixing. Beat at high speed until mixture is fluffy.
In separate bowl, whisk dry ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture alternating with milk at low speed, scraping sides between additions. Add dry ingredients in three additions, liquids in 2. Beat batter until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds.
Divide into prepared pans, smooth tops of batter. Place in preheated oven and bake
3 layers will bake for 30-35 minutes
4 layers will bake for 25-30 minutes
cupcakes bake for 20-24 minutes.
Cherry Filling for Black Forest Cake (or pie, or as cake sauce, or for eating out of the bowl)
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1 bag of PC frozen Dark Sweet Cherries (or whatever other brand you want to use)
1/4 cup of water
1 TBSP lemon juice
1/4- 1/2 cup sugar- or maple syrup. This is optional, depending on how sweet you want your sauce to be.
1 TBSP cornstarch (or other thickener) dissolved in water
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Place frozen or thawed cherries in a saucepan, add water and lemon juice and gently bring to a boil. Once the cherries start to soften, you'll want to taste the liquid and see if you want to sweeten it or not, depending on your preference. We like ours less sweet, and the cherries are already sweet. The lemon adds just a bit of brightness to the sauce to make it taste really fresh. Once you have it sweetened to your desire, and with it still boiling, add the cornstarch mixture and mix until it is starting to thicken. Remove from heat, continue to stir and allow to cool. It is ready to use once it is cool.
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For the cake, layer the Cocowhip and then top with cherries in between each cake layer, then frost the cake with more cocowhip.
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For cupcakes, hollow out part of the cake and fill with 2-3 cherries and sauce and then top with a generous scoop of cocowhip.
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Enjoy!
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Therese K.