In all the gluten free cakes I’ve tasted (and as a bakery owner, that’s a lot), there’s just one reaction I’m looking for when I bite into a slice of cake: “I can’t tell this is gluten free.” As simple as this, you’d be surprised how rarely it’s achieved.
Folks, the cake below can be served to a party of 200 guests and no one will ever suspect it’s gluten free. Just ask me how I know. ;)
It’s everything you want a chocolate cake to be: rich, decadent, and intensely chocolatey. And it’s the most popular gluten free cake we serve at Loveletter Cakeshop in NYC.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by the owner of Love Letter Cake Shop in New York, NY.
The key to this recipe is the flour. You need your gluten free flour to be free of any off-putting flavors, and just as importantly, be strong enough to carry the rest of your ingredients without collapsing. Wheat gluten does this exceptionally well in conventional recipes, and you’ll need a worthy replacement.
After testing over a dozen different gluten free flours, we decided Pamela’s Gluten Free Artisan Flour Blend is the most reliable flour on the market. By reliable, I mean the flour that produced the best results after substituting it 1:1 in our regular cake recipes across all of our different flavors (vanilla, chocolate, red velvet, carrot, etc.). Yes, you can use others. Bob’s Red Mill, for example, will also work well with the recipe below. Pamela’s, though, is our personal preference for its robustness across recipes.
This recipe calls for chocolate ganache, but you’re free to fill it with your favorite trusty filling, frosting, or buttercream.
Without further ado, here’s the recipe:
Classic Double Chocolate Cake (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
cake
2 ¼ cups gluten free all purpose flour
2 cups cocoa powder
2 ¼ cups sugar
2 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 cups water
½ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
dark chocolate ganache
5.5 ounces dark chocolate (chips or buttons)
5 ounces heavy cream
0.5 ounces sugar
Preparation
cake
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and set aside.
- Measure your wet ingredients (minus the eggs) into a large bowl.
- Add your dry ingredients slowly and set mixer to low/medium.
- Add eggs, one at a time. Keep mixing until fully combined.
- Pour batter into two 8 inch pans and bake for 45 minutes (test for doneness to make sure—all ovens are different!)
dark chocolate ganache
- Melt chocolate completely. When chocolate is perfectly smooth, set aside.
- Combine the heavy cream and sugar and bring to a very light boil.
- Pour chocolate into the heavy cream (never the cream into the chocolate!), and stir until fully combined.
- Set at room temperature until firm, about an hour
