I’ve been a bit scarce the past few weeks. In a bit I’ll be posting why… had a succession of pity parties for myself lately. But more on that later. This post is all about yum-tastic gluten-free chocolate cake.

I have 5 younger sisters. 3 of us live in the same town, 2 live about 4 hours away, and one lives way up in Alaska. That sister is here visiting with one of her kiddos for a few days and last night we had one of our big family meals here at my house. The meal was made according to AK sister’s request: chicken strips, hush puppies, and whoopie pies.

Gluten-free flour isn’t the cheapest thing in the world and as I was faced with using quite a few cups to make the whoopie pies (when I’m the only person who *has* to be GF) I hit upon an idea – a whoopie pie cake. Less flour and just as yum. Traditional whoopie pies are a bit dryer and flakier than a cake but I figured it wouldn’t matter. Chocolate cake with whoopie pie filling would be fab. And it was.

I pulled out an old recipe I’ve had for a dark chocolate cake and decided to give it a whirl. Oh my holy tastebuds. So freaking delish!! Rich, dense, deep chocolate. Moist and cakey and absolutely no way you’d know this was gluten-free. And best of all, it used about 1/2 the flour I would have making a double batch of whoopie. Pies, that is. haha.

No frosting on this cake – just the whoopie pie filling (which is basically 4 ingredients: shortening, powdered sugar, marshmallow fluff, vanilla). Everything that is so very bad for you and yet so amazingly yummy, you just don’t care. Even with being a triple decker cake – there were 12 people here and the slice pictured at the top is all that is left. The rest was sucked down in record time.

This recipe will be my new go-to choco cake for the future. Next time I’ll try cupcakes and see how those turn out. Should be just as delicious and moist as the cake, I’d imagine.

Best EVER Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake
makes 3 layers of delicious goodness

2 cups boiling water
1 cup dark cocoa powder
2 3/4 cup gluten-free flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tbl vanilla

Pour boiling water over cocoa powder and stir until well blended. Set aside to cool.

Heat oven to 350F and grease 3 cake pans.

In large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients (including cooled cocoa mixture) and mix until well blended.

Pour into cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from pans.

Frost as desired and enjoy! Want to fill with whoopie pie filling? Recipe can be found here.

The other night we had lentil soup and some pretty delicious gluten-free popovers that I crammed full of jam (first one) and honey (second one).

And then jam… for the third one. I just couldn’t stop!

Tonight we had the remainder of the soup and I was going to make the popovers again but decided to jazz them up a bit and make them savory rather than sweet. What a great decision. These are super tasty and are almost a meal in themselves.

The center is a bit soft and delicate and that coupled with the crusty outside and crunchy top make for a treat that is oh, so enjoyable. I could see cutting these in half and filling the bottom with a bit of scrambled egg and then topping them with hollandaise or perhaps a cheesy sauce. YUM!

These are simple and inexpensive to make and will be something I make ahead to take on road trips. There are far too many times that we are out and about, I get hungry and there is nothing to eat. This will definitely hit the spot!

Gluten-Free Savory Popovers
makes 6 jumbo muffin size popovers

4 eggs
1 1/4 cups gluten-free flour
1 cup milk
2 Tbl butter, softened
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 ounces shredded cheese
crumbled bacon or chopped ham

Preheat oven to 400F and generously butter large size muffin or popover tin.
Place all ingredients, except cheese and meat, into blender and pulse until blended and somewhat thick.

Pour into buttered tin, each cup should be approx 1/2 full. Sprinkle tops with a few Tbl of shredded cheese and then a bit of the bacon or ham.

Bake 40 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately dump popovers onto cooling rack. Serve warm with a bit of butter. Store leftovers (assuming there ARE any!) in zipper bags at room temp. Great snack for traveling!

Want to make standard popovers? Add 1 tsp vanilla and skip the savory bits on the top. Serve warm with butter and honey or jam or apple butter or whatever floats your boat.

Yum.

Today we took a drive to the beach. My father-in-law was in town for the night and we took him sightseeing. Visited Forks, WA, home of Twilight, and then headed to La Push to visit the beaches. No, we didn’t see any werewolves nor vampires. It was a beautiful sunny day. A bit windy, but gorgeous.

As I sat in the back seat on the way home, my thoughts turned to dinner. And more specifically – dessert. What to make. The day called for something light and not terribly sweet. No chocolate. Nothing frosted. Something summery to celebrate the sun and spring arriving. A Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Deliciously sweet and summery pineapple with cherries. Delish!

This is a slightly dense cake. And next time I make it I’ll double stack the pineapple so I can use the last 3-4 rings that were left over. One can’t have too much pineapple here. Same with the cherries – the more the merrier, in my book.

Enjoy this delicious and easy-to-make treat. I see many more of these in my BBQ spring/summer meals. And church potlucks. And birthday parties. And afternoon teas. And… well, anytime!

Gluten-Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake
serve warm with whipped cream… yummy!

Topping
1 can sliced pineapple, drained
few maraschino cherries
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (secret ingredient!)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Melt butter in cake pan or *large* pie plate (I used a deep dish pie plate). Evenly sprinkle brown sugar over butter and lightly tap to smooth. Lay out slices of pineapple to cover brown sugar and then put a cherry in each pineapple hole. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Cake
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup shortening or softened butter
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl and beat until smooth and thickened. Pour over pineapple topping and bake 50-60 minutes or until top springs back OR toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and immediately turn upside down on plate. Let rest 10-15 minutes and remove baking dish.

Let cool another 5-10 minutes and then serve. Amazingly delicious with a dollop of lightly sweetened fresh whipped cream. Mmmm…

Some of my greatest ideas come in the later evening as I’m resting on the sofa watching tv, reading a book, or knitting. Last night was no exception. As we finished watching Top Chef Masters, I had an urge to make a cake. It’s grocery shopping time here and as a result, my frig and pantry are pretty bare so as I looked around at what I had, it hit me. An allergy friendly cake. Or to be more specific – a chocolate cake with none of the major allergens (or corn!) in it.

No eggs. No dairy. No soy. No corn. And of course, no gluten. Just dense chocolately goodness in a pan.

I remember making a crazy cake when I was a kid. You put flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda in a cake pan and made 3 holes. One for water, another for oil, and the last for vinegar. As the oldest, I was given the first choice in cookbooks awhile back and I just so happened to have the one that had the Crazy Cake recipe in it. So I pulled that out and with just a few adjustments, created a simply DIVINE cake that in no way resembles anything allergy friendly. We’re talking just flat out all kinds of yum here.

It’s amazing how removing ingredients that one deems necessary can still result in a perfect dish. I’m not a professional chef and my knowledge of culinary science is quite limited and so it amazes me that you can create a cake without eggs. And a gluten-free cake at that. And yet this cake is moist and dense and has a nice crumb – you don’t even miss the eggs. Suffice to say, this has really rocked my baking world and I’m quite anxious to see how far down I can pare other recipes to their essentials and still come out with a perfect ending. I do so love experimenting in the kitchen!

For my frosting, I did use milk and standard powdered sugar but that’s simply because I had them and wanted some frosting on this dessert. However, if you’re corn or dairy intolerant, this is easily overcome. Corn-free powdered sugar can be found in places like Whole Foods and other major health food chains and for the milk, you can switch that out for coconut milk, rice milk, soy milk, etc.

This cake is every bit as delicious today as it was last night. I just served my hubby and nice giant slice and he was making sounds of delight the entire 2 minutes it took him to polish that off. I’m guessing that means he likes it. Ha!

Enough blabbering. On with the show!

Gluten-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Corn-Free Chocolate Cake
perfect without frosting! but you know you want to frost it

3 cups gluten-free flour
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups cold water

Preheat oven to 350F.

Put all ingredients into mixing bowl and beat until smooth and no lumps remain. Consistency will be like a standard cake batter.

Pour into greased 13 x 9 pan OR 2 round cake pans. Bake 35-55 minutes or until top springs back when touched. (shorter for cake pans, longer for the 13×9)

Remove from oven and let cool, if you’re able, until room temp. Frost as desired.

Basic Frosting
3/4 cup palm shortening
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract, if desired
enough milk to make smooth and creamy

Beat shortening with sugar and flavorings and add milk until desired consistency. Beat additional 3-5 minutes or until super fluffy and smooth. Frost cake when cooled and dig in!