No seriously, it's delicious

I promised a gluten-free chocolate birthday cake recipe, and I make good on promises.

I was really excited to test out my Asian sweet rice flour in a cake. We got our wedding cake from a wonderful bakery in Baltimore called Tenzo Artisan. Her gluten-free wedding cake was literally a dream come true for me, and so delicious. We very randomly stumbled upon her cake shop. We had actually gone up to Baltimore for a gluten-free cake taste test with Renee from Sweet Sin Bakery. Her cake was great and we were all set to go. We thanked her and headed down to Federal Hill for a little shopping. I got to chatting with one of the ladies in a shop and happened to mention we had just been cake testing. She asked where and I told her she wouldn't know the place because they specialize in gluten-free baking. She then said, "Oh, the place around the corner? She's wonderful!" I was confused because the place we'd just come from was on the other side of the city. She gave us the name of the shop (Tenzo) and we decided to drop in. Sure enough, gluten-free dessert galore! We set up a tasting with her and were truly amazed. When I asked her secret, she said, "Sweet rice flour!"

Anyway, both Sweet Sin and Tenzo products are wonderful. The woman who owns Tenzo is a former OB-GYN who decided she loved her baking hobby so much she'd follow it full time. I'm glad she did!
Isn't our little gluten-free cake adorable? She copied the pattern of some of the embroidery on my dress on the bottom layer. We served "normal" sheet cake to the rest of our guests. Our caterer wrapped up extra pieces for us to take with us to our hotel. We saved the top tier and took it with us on our anniversay trip. We had to keep it in a cooler because we were camping, which made it crucial to eat cake at four meals lest it go bad. I hope everyone has the opportunity to eat as much cake as possible in 24 hours before it goes bad at least once in a lifetime. Oh little cake, we have fond memories.

I tried out this recipe for my birthday cake and the result was wonderful. I had been planning to just find any cake recipe and substitute in some of my sweet rice flour, but I this was one of the first recipes I found and it just happened to include my flour already! I felt one happy step ahead. I didn't have any potato starch, so I used 1/2 a cup each of sweet rice flour, white rice flour and tapioca starch. I also used about 1/2 a teaspoon of xanthan gum. You can find the sweet rice flour at any Asian food market.

I made a two layer cake and used whipped cream between the layers. I frosted it with buttercream. The hubby said it was the best gluten-free cake he's ever had! I think he was exaggerating, because that Tenzo cake was seriously awesome, but this really was a close second.

Killer Chocolate Cake
(recipe from www.celiac.com, courtesy of Dave Ross)

Killer Chocolate Cake (Gluten-Free)

This recipe comes to us from Dave Ross.

Gluten-Free Flour Blend Ingredients:
25% Asian white rice flour;
25% Asian sweet rice flour;
25% tapioca starch; and
25% potato starch.

I use no Xanthan gum in these recipes. I buy a 12 oz. bag of each at an Asian store and mix them into a glass container for general use.

Gluten-Free Cake Ingredients:
¾ cup or 1 and ½ sticks butter melted
¾ cup cocoa powder
2 ¼ cup sugar
5 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cup gluten-free flour blend (above)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 of an 8 oz. block cream cheese warmed in microwave
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350° F

Gluten-Free Cake Directions:
Grease and cocoa 9” by 13” pan. Flour it with cocoa instead of flour. In mixer with whip mix melted butter with cocoa till smooth. Blend in sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, salt, flour, cream cheese, baking soda and powder and mix until smooth.

Blend in the milk, stopping to scrape the sides and mix a little more to be sure everything is well blended. Pour into baking pan and tilt pan to even out the batter. Bake for 45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and set pan on a cooling rack. Leave in pan to cut and serve.

Check it out and enjoy!

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