Chocolate cake inclusive style!!

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Just to prove I can do baking without the need to use diary or non-dairy margarine I thought I'd share the recipe I use for my chocolate cakes. 

The recipe originally came from my brilliant and talented cook of a sister-in-law as 'Never-fail Chocolate Cake'. It might have been 'never-fail' with wheat flour but let me tell you this has taken a fair bit of tweaking to get into a gluten-free cake that does rise and doesn't fall apart. It's my understanding that the original recipe comes from America and that explains why all the measurements are in cups and teaspoons. No weighing out? Suits me!! There's also no need to sieve the flour which is also a bonus.

Who's it suitable for?

Well it's egg free, it's nut free, it's yeast free, it's wheat free, it's vegetarian and also vegan and it's coeliac friendly. It's not high fibre but the high levels of cocoa may not be suitable for all sufferers of IBS and Crohns, best to check. And it does contain high levels of sugar and fat (oil) so it's not suitable for those on a reducing diet.

Ingredients:

3 Cups sugar, granulated will do but Castor works better.
3 Cups gluten free flour*

1/4 C cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons  sodium bicarbonate
1 Cup vegetable oil (Rape oil)
2 Cup cold water (from the fridge if possible)
1 1/2 teaspoons white (distilled) vinegar
3 teaspoons vanilla essence

*A word about the flour, the 'all purpose' blends I tried did not do well, although I suspect a 'bread blend' would. I use 2 cups rice flour, one cup maize starch (in the UK some, but NOT all 'cornflours' are maize starch). I also add 1 level teaspoon of xanthan gum powder. 

Rape oil - I've tried other oils, it did NOT go well, even sunflower oil was a bit off and olive oil was awful. Obviously I wont touch coconut oil with a barge pole because of the allergies but I do wonder if that wouldn't be a good flavour (though you will have to use warm water and reduce the sugar), I'd be interested to hear how you get on if anyone tries it.

Cocoa powder - take care which one you chose as many brands try to sneak wheat and milk in there. I use Green and Blacks Cocoa powder because it's organic and Fairtrade and most importantly it tastes nice!

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 175C or gas mark 3 to 4.

Get your cake tin ready. I tray bake this in a 9x13 inch tin but you could put it in two 8inch round sandwich tins. I always line the tins with greaseproof and grease the paper as well because as I've said before gluten free cakes stick and this inhibits rising.

Mix all dry ingredients well in large bowl, you don't need to sieve but do make sure they are well mixed, I just swizz it around with my hand whisk.  

In a separate jug mix all the liquids (I say mix, leave it one second and the oil will float to the top, it doesn't matter!)

Now remember that time is of the essence for the next bit so move with haste but not with speed or your cake wont rise. Add all liquids to dry mixture and mix thoroughly, mix it well but DO NOT beat.

Pour it quickly into the tins and slam it into the middle of your oven.

Bake for 40 minutes for 2 round tins, or 60 minutes for the large rectangular tin. You want the cake to 'bounce back' in the middle when it is ready, don’t over bake as it gets very bitter and don't open the oven in the first three quarters of the cooking time as a constant temperature is crucial to rising.

I'll be honest and say that this mix doesn't make the greatest fairy cakes, cup cakes or muffins, this is mostly because it doesn't support the weight of icing very well. However the large tray bake can cope with chocolate frosting and buttons on and because it is so large is super for kids parties.

So looking back at the previous post, how does this cake rise when it has just has oil and not solid fat? It's the sodium bicarbonate, reacting with the vinegar to produce nice little bubbles of carbon dioxide gas which will lift your cake up. You want to keep the reaction very slow until it gets cooking, hence using cold water from the refrigerator, once it starts getting hot the reaction goes full pelt but by then your cake is turning solid and the bubbles get stuck stopping your cake from being a solid lump. If you've got the chemistry all right all the vinegar eats up all the sodium bicarb, your cake is 'neutral' and delicious! If your cake does taste a little 'funny' try being more accurate with the measuring of the vinegar and bicarb or using a little less, also watch out that you haven't over baked it as burnt gluten-free flour is bitter. 

Over all this is the simplest cake I have ever made (now I've got the recipe sorted). It is so quick I can go from walking in the kitchen door to 'cake-in-the-oven-and-all-washed-up' in 15 minutes giving me at least three quarters of an hour to get on with other stuff before I have to take it out of the oven and fight the rest of the family off until it's cool enough to eat!

Hope you like it too. xxx

UPDATE!

It turns out that scaled down this works great as a microwave in the mug cake recipe.

1/4 of a cup of rice flour
1/4 of a cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of (diary and gluten free) coco-powder
a pinch of gluten free baking powder
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of oil
3 tablespoons of water
1 drip of vinegar (do not trust yourself to pour this out of the bottle, pop some on a spoon and from there add one drip!)

Add all the dry ingredients to the mug and mix, add all the wet ingredients, mix and pop in a microwave for about 2 minutes (mines a 700W, if yours is more powerful reduce the cooking time). And hey-presto one cake!! Eat from the mug while still warm, maybe add a blob of cream!