Gluten Free Cocoa & Coconut Cake

It’s party time! You are asked to bake the perfect chocolate cake for your best friend that celebrates her 40. But she is coeliac! No problem, we have the perfect recipe for a beautiful delicious chocolate cake!
And it’s gluten free!

Dough Ingredients

3 eggs

1/2 cup of oil (120 ml)

1 cup of lactose free milk (240 ml)

1 cup of sugar (160 gr)

2 full spoons of cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup of gluten free flour mix (180 gr)*

1 table spoon of yeast powder (10 – 15 gr)

*The flour mix can be home made as we referred some good flours to be measured and mixed to have a nice sponge cake. Or, to be even easier, we would recommend the Marks Spencer gluten free flour.

Sauce Ingredients

1/2 cup of coconut milk and regular milk mix (120 ml)

1 full table spoon of sugar (15 gr)

Topping Ingredients

150 gr grated coconut

1 condensed milk can (395 gr)

1/2 cup of milk (120 ml)

1 table spoon of butter

DOUGH PREPARATION

At first pre heat the oven to 180°C (gas mark 4).

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl (sugar, flour, cocoa and yeast) and reserve it.

Put in a blender the liquid ingredients (eggs, oil and milk) and blend it for 3 minutes, until it gets a white plain colour.

Pour the blended mixture into the bowl with the powder mix, stirring it very well with a wooden spoon or a whiskey to avoid lumps.

Lightly grease a cake tin with butter and sprinkle some gluten free four all over the tin, to have an even cover where the dough will be placed.

You may use a medium size cake tin and have a one-layer cake or cut the cake horizontally through the centre into two layers in order to add a filling. In this case the advice is to use the coconut cream as filling and, as topping, a chocolate ganache.

Bake the cake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes. To check if the cake is cooked slightly touch the top with a fingertip and it should spring back. Another test is to insert a skewer into the centre of the cake – it should come out clean.

Once baked, remove the cake tin from the oven and wait it cool down, so when it’s just warm the cake can be removed and placed on a large plate.

With a fork carefully skewer the cake all over the top and with a spoon wet the cake with the sauce mix (coconut milk, milk and sugar), slowly, waiting the cake absorbs the liquid and keep going until it’s over.

In the cake is layered, use a bit more of the sauce as you must moist the two halves of the cake.

TOPPING PREPARATION

In a pan mix the topping ingredients and take it to a medium flame, stirring it with a wooden spoon non-stop, until mixture thickens and you can see the button of the pan. Remove from heat.

Evenly cover the cake with the topping. Once it cools down sprinkle some dark chocolate to decorate.

If using the coconut cream as filling, the chocolate ganache is easily done in microwave, as following:

1 dark chocolate bar melted in microwave

200ml of fresh cream to be added to the chocolate and mixed up. Cover the cake and sprinkle some grated coconut to decorate.

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