Well, here it is, the culmination of 3 years work. I have tweaked this recipe so many times that it barely resembles the original. This can be made a vanilla cake by simply omitting the cocoa powder, or be made chocolate by adding a little more cocoa powder to the whole mix. Be sure to use good quality vanilla and cocoa powder, it makes a difference. I had hoped that when I finally posted my masterpiece I would have a stunning photo to go with it, but we still have not replaced our long lost camera with the "food" setting, so this is the best I could do. I hope this will aid in bringing many happy birthdays to all those who, like me, had all but given up on birthday cake!
½ c Rice flour
¾ c Corn starch
¼ c Coconut flour
½ c Millet flour
¾ c Potato starch
2 c Granulated sugar
1 t Xanthan gum
½ t Salt
2 t Baking powder
1 t Baking soda
2 c Room temperature water
1 T Ener G egg replacer mixed with ¼ c warm water
2/3 c Canola or sunflower oil
2 T Vinegar
1 T Vanilla bean paste
¼ c Unsweetened cocoa powder
1 T Water
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour (I used rice flour) 2 round cake pans or one 9"x13" rectangle.
¾ c Corn starch
¼ c Coconut flour
½ c Millet flour
¾ c Potato starch
2 c Granulated sugar
1 t Xanthan gum
½ t Salt
2 t Baking powder
1 t Baking soda
2 c Room temperature water
1 T Ener G egg replacer mixed with ¼ c warm water
2/3 c Canola or sunflower oil
2 T Vinegar
1 T Vanilla bean paste
¼ c Unsweetened cocoa powder
1 T Water
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour (I used rice flour) 2 round cake pans or one 9"x13" rectangle.
Sift all dry ingredients (rice flour through baking soda) into a mixing bowl, make sure there are no lumps in your coconut flour. Add 2 c water, prepared egg replacer, oil, vinegar, and vanilla bean paste. Mix on low for 30 seconds, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula, then mix for an additional 2 minutes on medium.
Pour 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan/pans. Do not smooth it out, empty spaces will actually help with the swirling.
Add ¼ c of cocoa powder and 1 T of water to the remaining batter. Stir until blended. Pour the chocolate batter into the pan/pans, filling in any holes in the vanilla batter. Use a knife, spoon, or spatula to swirl the chocolate and vanilla together. If you have ever used this method with a "standard" cake you will find it is not quite as easy here. This batter requires more of a forceful pushing than a delicate swirling. If you drag the knife through a glob of chocolate it will float around in the vanilla like an island. Push down, lift up, then swirl… you'll get the hang of it.
Bake 2 round pans for about 40 minutes, bake rectangle for about 1 hour, the middle should spring back when touched gently.
We frosted the birthday cake with this frosting. It can also be made soy free by using all shortening (no margarine) and rice milk or water instead of soy milk. The cake pictured here is frosted with Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge frosting. This frosting is dairy free, as are their regular chocolate and vanilla frostings. They do, however contain soy. Keep this cake covered, due to the high starch content it dries out quickly. Enjoy!
11 comments:
can't wait to try it! That looks wonderful...
This cake looks so yummy, I wonder has anyone tried to replace the corn starch with something else, we can't have corn.
I only recently started using corn starch in this recipe. Before that I used tapioca starch, it works just as well. I even thought about making a note of this in my recipe because my mother is also allergic to corn, but I guess I forgot. Thank you Amy!
Awesome! I love it. I'm glad I'm not the only nutter out there that perseverates on a recipe that's not quite right. I've kept myself up at night ruminating on the causes and possible fixes for flat cookies, gummy cakes and soupy brownies.
Thank you, it does feel good to have a kindred spirit!
Excited to try this cake! Is there something that can be used instead of coconut flour?
Hi BB. Over the years I have made this cake with many different flour combinations. This is the best so far, in my opinion, but certainly not the ONLY option. I think I would try a high protein flour like soy, amaranth, or more millet. Please let me know how it turns out!
Oh why didn't I find this post earlier this week!? Well, I will try it for next birthday instead. So glad to have found it! I had just committed myself to spending the next year refining a GF cake that my ds could eat and actually tasted good too. Now I think you may have saved me the work! Will it still be good without the chocolate? He is allergic to chocolate but we can rotate it.
Edie, it is "good" without the chocolate, but has the familiar taste of an allergen free cake. I'm not even sure what that taste is. The flavor reminds me of a soy protein drink, but there is no soy in the recipe. Can he have carob? It might be really yummy with carob powder.
We baked this today, and it turned out great! Wonderful texture. I frosted it with a chocolate buttercream frosting. I could still taste the "allergen-free cake" taste. I don't know what causes it, but the frosting helped mask it. I think next time I'll make the whole cake chocolate.
*note* Instead of buying coconut flour, I ground unsweetened flake coconut in my coffee grinder. Not a perfect substitute, probably, but much cheaper.
BTW, I've tried these two recipes from www.nourishingmeals.com. Both were excellent, with good texture. Maybe you or some of your readers would be able to use them.
http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2009/12/milk-chocolate-cupcakes-with-chocolate.html
http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2009/02/gluten-free-vegan-sugar-free-chocolate.html (this one isn't nearly as sweet as "normal" cakes. I add Enjoy Life chocolate chips to the mix to sweeten it a bit)
Hi Robin, thank you so much for your feedback! Thank you also for the links to the Nourishingmeals blog, it's a great site.
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