This recipe is an adapted version of my Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe (see here).
It came about through a dear friend Wendy, who is tasked with the mighty job of preparing four wedding cakes for her son’s upcoming wedding. That in itself may not seem too difficult to some, but when there are multiple allergies within all arms of the family, it had to be a cake that everyone could enjoy, and would also travel well as the wedding it going to be “down south”.
So we both looked at the recipe for my Chocolate Fudge Cake and made some adjustments (it was already dairy and egg free so ticked those two boxes), however Wendy was the one who had to do all the recipe testing based on what her family could eat, and how we decided to alter it.
The beauty with this cake is that it is very easy to mix together, and normally bakes up beautifully. It is also large so will feed many people, another plus for someone in Wendy’s position.
However, automatically swapping the flour for commercial GF flour proved to be a challenge … whilst I don’t like being negative about particular brands, I need to say that White Wings GF flour was “awful” in this cake … it baked up very solid and dense, and with the tiny taste I had I didn’t want a second mouthful.
So Wendy and I discussed different brands of GF flours as there are so many … but one I do like which is easily available is Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF flour … when you look at the ingredients there are only five (chick pea flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, white sorghum flour, and fava bean flour) and no gums in sight!
Wendy went back to the drawing board in her next attempt (her third!) and used Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour, and to add more moisture to the cake (which GF flours tend to lack) we combined 1/2 GF flour and 1/2 desiccated coconut to replace the flour component. The result was lovely, but if anything a little too moist, so the next (and final attempt) was to combine 2/3 flour and 1/3 desiccated coconut and BINGO!!!! It worked!!! The cake is high, rich, delicious and moist without being “wet”, making it easy to cut thin slices which was what Wendy wanted to.
To add extra flavour we upped the flavourings (some GF flours can be a touch bland), and now Wendy feels she has developed a cake that can be shared with all her family whenever there is a special occasion.
To decorate the cake Wendy will use chocolate ganache made with coconut cream (see here for ganache recipe), and chocolate shards using tempered chocolate (see here for tempering process), and fresh raspberries. While I don’t have a picture of the final results from Wendy yet, I do have a pic of the cake that it is modelled on, and expect the final results to look the same but with the addition of the chocolate shards and raspberries.
Well done Wendy on working so hard to get this right!!!!
- 650 filtered water
- 200g light olive oil (used Bertolli Light in Taste)
- 40g vanilla extract
- 50g apple cider vinegar
- 420g gluten free flour (used Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour)
- 220g desiccated coconut
- 90g Dutch cocoa powder
- 530g Golden Caster Sugar
- 2½ tsp bi-carb soda
- 2 tsp sea salt flakes, or 1 tsp fine sea salt
- Grease and line a 24cm (base measurement) cake tin (use a ruler to ensure it is 24cm wide)
- Heat oven to 150 degrees fan forced and place rack into middle of oven
- Wait 10 minutes to allow oven to heat up, then start to make cake
- Place all the ingredients into TM bowl in the order listed … the bowl will look really full but don’t worry … it will all come together when you blend it
- Mix 10 seconds / speed 5, scrape down sides and mix again 10 seconds / speed 5
- Check and if necessary remix another 2 seconds / speed 5 to fully incorporate
- Pour batter into tin, level the top, and bake for 1-1/2 hours until cake skewer inserted into centre comes out clean
- Cool in tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto cake rack to cool
- Remove tin but leave baking paper on while cooling to stop cake from drying out around edges (it will take a while to cool before icing)
- Spread with chocolate ganache and decorate as desired
Hi Gina ,
Is it possible to bake this eggless chocolate fudge cake using regular flour too?
Hello Shobhana … that is absolutely okay … you will find a link to my original recipe in the first statement on this post … it was the original recipe that first attracted Wendy as it is eggless and nut free which is what she needed (for allergy purposes) but then also needed it to be GF and that was why we adapted the original recipe … here is the link just in case you are unsure of where it is in the post:
https://www.thepassionatepantry.com.au/chocolate-fudge-cake/
It is a fabulous cake … hope you like it! xo Gina