Chocolate Cake Recipe (Gluten & Dairy-Free)

One of the first things I ever baked was chocolate cake and since then I've probably tried more than a hundred different recipes (yes, I bake a lot) 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 is one that 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 tbs cocoa powder

• 2 tbs icing sugar

• Optional: 50g peanuts/raisins/cranberry/dried fruit

How to:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 fan/gas 4. Mix the flower, baking powder and cocoa powder together.

2. Add the eggs, sugar, oil , vanilla essence and water and mix everything until the batter becomes smooth.

3. Pour the batter into two tins and bake for 30-35 min (until a toothpick insterted in the middle of the cake comes out clean) then leave to cool.

4. 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.

5. In a bowl, combine the dairy free spread with the melted chocolate, icing sugar and cocoa powder then add the peanuts/dried fruit.

6. Sandwich the two layers using half of the chocolate mixture as filling, and use the other half to cover the whole cake.

*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 heathproof bowl on top of a pan with simmering water and let the chocolate melt, stirring ocasionally.

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.