One of the first things I ever baked was chocolate cake and since then I've probably tried more than a hundred different recipes and most of them contain dairy and gluten.
I have quite a few friends who are dairy and/or gluten intolerant so, throughout the years, I've tried to adapt some of the recipes I encountered. This one has not failed me yet:
You will need:
For the cake:
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup gluten-free flour
1 ts baking powder (gluten-free)
50 ml vegetable or sunflower oil/vegetable spread
50 ml water/soy milk
1 ts vanilla essence
2-3 tablespoons cocoa powder
For the chocolate filling:
150 g vegetable/dairy-free spread
200 g dark chocolate (melted)
2 tsp cocoa powder
2 tsp icing sugar
Optional: 50g peanuts/raisins/cranberry/dried fruit/ fresh berries
How to:
Preheat the oven to 180 fan/gas 4. Mix the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder.
Add the eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla essence and water and mix everything until the batter becomes smooth.
Pour the batter into two tins and bake for 30-35 min (until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean) then leave to cool.
Meanwhile, break the chocolate into pieces and melt it either in the microwave* or a bain marie** (preferably) and leave it to cool down for a few minutes.
In a bowl, combine the dairy-free spread with the melted chocolate, icing sugar and cocoa powder then add the peanuts/dried fruit.
Sandwich the two layers using half of the chocolate mixture as filling, and use the other half to cover the whole cake.
You can enjoy it as it is or add chocolate chips, fresh berries, chopped hazelnuts or peanuts on top.
*To microwave the chocolate, place it in a bowl and microwave for 20 seconds, take the bowl out and give it a stir, then repeat this whole process until the chocolate is fully melted.
**For bain marie - place the heatproof bowl on top of a pan with simmering water and let the chocolate melt, stirring occasionally.
This recipe is designed to be gluten-free and dairy-free but, if your diet allows, feel free to use plain flour, butter and milk chocolate.
If you try this recipe please let me know how it turned out in the comments.
I hope life is treating you well.
Take care.