Gluten Free Devil's Food Cake

I have never been able to make a really good gluten free chocolate cake.  They always turn out dry or dense. I've tried Pamala's chocolate cake mix which is not bad in a pinch, it always tastes "gluten free" to me. Betty Crocker's gluten free chocolate cake mix is actually pretty good (a bit dry), but I love to pride myself in making things from scratch.

This weekend, for Easter, I adapted a Martha Stewart's recipe for a chocolate cake that turned out great! Now, hopefully everyone wasn't just being nice, but I thought it tasted yummy! I doubt my whole family would lie to me...some had second helpings which tells me it was a success! Finally, a chocolate cake recipe from scratch that I can use more than once!

Now, I will tell you, Martha's instructions were pretty annoying and high maintenance. Add this one at a time, stir twice, bla bla bla...everything turned out just fine even though I added the chocolate mixture in first instead of the flour... Come on Martha, can't you make things a little more simple? So, I've changed some of her instructions to make it easier.



Ingredients:
3/4 cup dutch process cocoa powder*
1/2 cup bowling water
1 cup milk
1 1/2 (3 sticks) unsalted butter plus more for pans
2 1/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, lightly beaten

3 cups gluten free flour*
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp xanthum gum
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans.
2. Sift cocoa into a medium bowl and wisk/stir in the boiling water until there are no clumps. Set aside and let cool.
3. In a large bowl or electric mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar until light and fluffy, 3 or 4 minutes, scraping down the sides. Beat in vanilla. Drizzle in eggs, a little at a time.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, xanthum gum, and salt.
5. Whisk the milk into the reserved cocoa mixture until smooth with no clumps.
6. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour and cocoa mixtures to the batter, a little of each at a time, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
7. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans. Bake until tester comes out clean, about 35-45 minutes.
8. Let the cakes completely cool before attempting to remove them from the pans.
9. Frost with your favorite frosting!

*Want to make Cupcakes? Simple put batter into prepared cupcake tins and bake for the same amount of time. Makes about 24 cupcakes.

*I read up on this type of cocoa. It is different than your normal cocoa ( I usually just use Hershey's baking cocoa). Dutch cocoa is processed differently so that it tends to make cakes less dry! So, my guess is using this type of cocoa helped this turn out more moist than in would have with normal cocoa. I used Hershey's dark chocolate cocoa powder.

My 'go to' chocolate frosting recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup whipping cream
6 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tbs butter

Instructions:
Heat the whipping cream and butter, bring to a simmer. Pour over the chocolate chips. Stir until smooth, and let cool, stirring occasionally. Once the chocolate mixture is cool, which may take 30-60 minutes, whip with an electric mixture until you get a creamy, consistency. It should turn a little lighter in color. Spread on cake as desired.

*Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
2 sticks of room temperature butter
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
Milk to thin