Mary’s Black Chocolate Layer Cake

This is a chocolate version of my Yellow Gold Layer Cake. The cocoa powder counts as a flour, so you’ll see that the amounts of each of the other flours is reduced. A chocolate cake also needs extra sugar. Since sugar makes a cake less structured, I’ve used whole eggs instead of egg yolks. The egg whites in the whole eggs increase the structure of the cake.

This cake is delicious without icing. The pictures show the cake with a packaged German chocolate icing. Since we make several cakes for this class, I froze this Black Chocolate Layer Cake and then thawed it the next Saturday when we had company. It was even more delicious then!

Black Chocolate Layer Cake

3.6 oz.(2/3 c + 2 Tbsp.) brown rice flour
2.7 oz. (1/2 c. + 2 Tbsp) tapioca starch
2.7 oz. (1/2 c.) sorghum flour
2.5 tsp. (12 g)baking powder
1 tsp. (3 g) xanthan gum

3.0 oz. (1 c.) cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
12.0 oz. (1 2/3 c.)granulated sugar
4.0 oz. (2/3 c.) brown sugar
6 oz. (3/4 c.)water
9.0 oz. (1 1/8 c.) oil
1 tsp. vanilla

6.0 oz eggs (3 large)
1/4 tsp. salt
4.0 oz (1/2 c.)water

1. Place an oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Place a baking stone on it and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Start by mixing the flour, xanthan gum and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Whisk by hand with a fork for 1 minute or at medium speed on a hand mixer for 30 seconds. Set the flour aside.

3. Put the sugar and cocoa powder into a large mixing bowl. Heat 6 oz. of water (3/4 cup) to a simmer. Add the hot water to the sugar/cocoa mixture and mix to dissolve the sugar. Beat in the oil, vanilla, and salt at medium speed.

4. Add a third of the flour mixture to the sugar mixture. Mix at low speed just until incorporated and then add in remaining flour a third at a time. Total mixing time for this step should be approximately 5 minutes.

5. Add the last 4.0 oz of water and the eggs to the batter and mix until just combined.

6. Pour the batter into one 9″ x 13″ cake pan or two 9″ cake pans. Be sure to grease and flour the pans first; or grease the pans and then line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper. Drop the pan onto the counter from a height of 4″ to remove any large air bubbles.

7. Place the cake in the oven on the stone and bake until the cake reaches an internal temperature of 209 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 30 minutes). If you do not have a digital baking thermometer, the cake should spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted into the middle should come out clean, but moist. The cake should not pull away from the sides until after it is out of the oven.

Back to Cooking Class: A Beginning Class in Gluten Free Cakes.