This recipe I came up with on the fly, out of the blue, in order to have something quick and easy for dessert. I looked around at other recipes but I can’t find anything really that it is like. As you may have noticed I really love baking cakes and that’s what I mostly do when I want to bake. The problem with cakes is how long most of them can take to make. These brownies were easy to make and quite good. They have more of a cakey texture and the peanut butter is a wonderful combination. The honey adds extra sweetness and a moist texture. I usually prefer fudgy brownies but these turned out well.

The grocery store has been out of arrowroot starch for a few weeks now. Either they won’t restock it or they have moved its location and I can’t find it. I didn’t want to go back to using cornflour (corn starch) or potato starch, so I decided to see if coconut flour could replace it. It seems to work just fine. Because it absorbs so much moisture it acts in many ways similar to a starch. If you can’t get or would rather not use coconut flour, then arrowroot starch, cornflour (cornstarch), or potato starch would work instead. In case you were wondering, it did not impart the taste of coconut. If you used something in place of the coconut flour, then the flours are easy to find.

Peanut Butter Honey Brownies

80 ml (1/3 cup) oil

225g (1 cup) caster sugar

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

60g (1/2 cup) cocoa

110g (1 cup) gluten-free flour blend (I used white rice flour, tapioca flour, and coconut flour)

80 ml (1/3 cup) water

3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons honey, golden syrup, maple syrup, or agave syrup

Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Grease a 23 cm (9 inch) square tin. In a bowl, mix together oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add salt, cocoa, gluten-free flour blend, and water. Mix until smooth. Pour half the batter into prepared tin. Put dollops of peanut butter on the batter. Drizzle the honey or preferred syrup over the batter. Pour the other half of the batter over the top and spread gently to cover the peanut butter layer. Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool on a cooling rack. Makes 9-16 brownies, depending on how small you cut them. Enjoy!

Woohoo! A cake made with beer! I’m not a big fan of beer, but Brian is. I’m the chocolate cake fan. This cake looked quite toothsome and I really wanted to see if the beer gave it a unique taste. I came across it on The Village Green. Thanks Celia for sharing this recipe. This is the third of Nigella’s recipe I have tried and I have been happy with 2/3 of them. Not bad at all.

There aren’t many gluten-free beers currently available, especially darker ones, as Guiness is. Redbridge is all I’ve ever been able to find. If you are lucky enough to live somewhere that makes darker gluten-free beers or you feel like ordering some, then I’d use that over Redbridge, which is a lighter beer. Thusly, the finished cake will not likely have the same quality as the Guiness cake, but it is fun to make a different sort of chocolate cake. If you’d rather not use any beer or alcohol, you could certainly substitute water, coffee, or even root beer.

This cake is extremely dark and moist, as the original is claimed to be, which is good. I love the dark contrast of the cake with the icing. The resemblance of the finished cake to a foaming pint is lovely. This is the crumbliest cake I’ve made in a while, so if crumbs bother you you could add some xanthan gum, 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon. It’s really nice that you can make the whole thing in one pot, well except the icing, but who needs that, right ? There is a sort of taste of grains in this cake, coming from the beer, that is different from other chocolate cakes. Mostly it reminds me of a devil’s food cake. It is rich and chocolatey and definitely does not taste of beer, if you’re worried about that. All the alcohol will cook out of the cake when it is baked. Enjoy!

Redbridge Chocolate Cake

250 ml (1 cup) Redbridge beer (this is not a whole bottle, so swig the rest or hand off to someone to do so )

250g butter (1 cup)

75g (rounded 1/2 cup) cocoa

400g (2 cups) caster sugar

140 ml (about 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon) sour cream

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

275g (2 1/4 cups) gluten-free flour blend (I used white sorghum flour, tapioca flour, and arrowroot starch)

2 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Icing

300g (10 oz) cream cheese (you could even use 2/3rds of this and be fine)

150g (1 cup) icing sugar

125 ml (1/2 cup) cream (you could cut this in half if you wanted)

Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Grease and line a 23 cm (9 inch) springform tin or two 23 cm (9 inch) round cake tins.

Add Redbridge to a large saucepan. Slice up the butter and add to the beer. Slicing it up will allow it to melt much more quickly. After the butter is melted, remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the cocoa and sugar, beat until well combined. Add the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla, and beat well together. Last, beat in the gluten-free flour blend, bicarbonate of soda, and xanthan gum if you choose to use any. Cake batter will be extremely thin and runny.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin or tins. Bake for 25-35 minutes for two tins or 45 minutes to an hour for one or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from the tin(s). If you have two cakes, it’s your choice, put one on top of the other or serve each separately with half the icing.

Beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together. Add cream and beat until smooth and spreadable. Plop the icing on top of the cooled cake and spread it around until it looks like the frothy top of a pint of beer. Enjoy!

Here is another good recipe from Anna at Cookie Madness. Just the name alone is amusing enough for me to want to bake them. When my kids tried to pronounce the name it came out as “Chooga Chew-Chews” at first, then shortened up to just “Chew-Chews”. These are tasty bars and to me tasted like a cross between Millionaire’s Shortbread and a Skor bar. The caramel filling here is more toffee like than Millionaire’s, which is a smoother caramel.

To try something different, I put chocolate chips on half the bars and 80% dark chocolate on the other. The dark chocolate was definitely richer and did taste good, but in the end I think I prefer the chocolate chips, as there is a better balance of chocolate and toffee and the chocolate chips did not overwhelm the toffee as much as the dark chocolate did. I wonder what a caramel chocolate bar on top would be like? Delicious I’d expect, hopefully not too gut-bustingly rich.

I found myself without arrowroot starch for this recipe, so I had to come up with a substitute. I don’t think I’ve ever tried a gluten-free flour blend before, premixed or one I’ve blended myself, that didn’t have a starch in it, so I was curious to see how the recipe held together. I used tapioca flour, buckwheat flour, and white sorghum flour. It worked, but I found it a bit crumbly, more so than other shortbreads I’ve made. Those didn’t have pecans either though, which could possibly have contributed to the crumbliness.

The first pic above, is of the bars just out of the oven, with the chocolate melted but not spread over the top yet. You can see the toffee peeking out, which doesn’t really show up as well in the other two pics. All in all, these are good.  They are rich and toasting the pecans brings out a good amount of nuttiness. If you have a nut allergy, though, I’m sure they would be just as tasty without the pecans.  Thanks Anna for sharing the recipe.  Enjoy!

(Semisweet chocolate on the left, 80% dark on the right)

(Dark chocolate on the left this time. Are those two waltzing? )

This is another recipe inspired by a great one from the Food Network. Their original is from the Retro Desserts cookbook. Peanut butter and bananas is one of my favourite combinations, so I’ve had this recipe on my list for some time now. The cake is baked as a loaf cake, then sliced as if it were a loaf of bread and made into a sandwich with bananas and peanut butter buttercream. Hot fudge sauce and ice cream, if desired, are put on top, making the dish into a sort of hot fudge sundae.

This was my first time using Montina Flour. It is similar to wild rice flour in taste and texture only coarser. When I looked at it and smelt it it reminded me of bits of grass seed and I knew those flecks would appear in the batter after it was baked. Mixing it into a banana cake, since bananas have those flecks too, seemed the perfect way to work with the natural graininess. If you can’t get Montina flour or wild rice flour, then brown rice flour, teff flour, or buckwheat flour would be good as well.

Overall this cake was wonderfully decadent. I liked it with or without ice cream. The banana cake is not as dense as I am accustomed to banana cakes being, which was nice. The only problem I had was not being patient enough with it to let it bake as long as it needed to set all the way through. It needs a long time to bake and I was getting tired of poking it every five minutes to see if the last bit of wetness had congealed, so I pulled it early. I paid for my impatience with the cake falling in the centre just a bit. Since it gets sliced up to serve anyhow, I wasn’t too bothered. Those slices from the centre were shorter in stature and gummier on the top than the others but still tasted delicious.

The nice thing about the versatility of slices is you can use even half of one slice as the top and bottom of the sandwich if you feel like eating less. I suppose you could slice the whole cake in half for one big sandwich if you felt like it .

Peanut Butter Banana Sandwiches Cake

280g (2 1/2 cups) gluten-free flour blend (I used montina flour, tapioca flour, and arrowroot starch)

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

170g (3/4 cup) butter

280g (1 1/4 cups) caster sugar

3 eggs

3 ripe bananas

100 ml (1/2 cup) sour cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat to 175C (350F). Grease or spray a 21 x 11 cm (8 x 4 inches) loaf tin. Line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment paper. Sift the gluten-free flour blend, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, and salt together into a bowl. Repeat two times for extra airiness. (You could probably just sift once and have the cake be ok, but if you really want to sift in those extra air molecules, then sift away .)

In a separate mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until well combined. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Continue beating until light and fluffy.

In a bowl, mash the bananas until smooth and not lumpy. Stir the sour cream and vanilla into the bananas. Beat 1/3rd of the flour mixture into the creamed butter and sugar. Next, beat in half of the banana mixture, then another 1/3rd of the flour. Beat in the other half of the banana mixture and the last 1/3rd of the flour.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. (I recommend going with the skewer test over the time, since this cake is a bit wetter than most. Start checking it after 45 minutes baked, then every five minutes or so until done.) Let the cake cool completely in the tin on a rack.

Accompaniments:

4 bananas

Peanut Butter Buttercream (recipe below)

Chocolate fudge sauce (recipe below)

Ice Cream (optional)

Peanut Butter Buttercream

115g (1/2 cup) butter

225g (1 cup) creamy peanut butter

85g (3/4 cup) icing sugar

Beat the peanut butter and butter together with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the icing sugar and beat on high until icing is fluffy and light.

Chocolate Fudge Sauce

60 ml (1/4 cup) very hot brewed coffee (I used instant)

55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar

60g (1/2 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder

60 ml (1/4 cup, 4 tablespoons) golden syrup

60g (2 oz) semisweet chocolate, chopped

15g (1 tablespoon) butter

Prepare the coffee, then combine it with the sugar and cocoa powder in a medium bowl. Add the golden syrup and stir together until texture is smooth and even. Place the chocolate and butter in a bowl set on top of a pot of simmering water. After the chocolate is completely melted, stir in the syrup-cocoa mixture until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside. Store in a sealed container in the fridge or the freezer.

Assembly:

Turn the cooled cake out of the tin onto a plate or cutting board. With a serrated knife, cut the loaf into slices. (For a smaller serving, slice each of those slices in half again.) Peel the bananas and cut them into thin rounds. To assemble, spread half the cake slices with peanut butter buttercream and layer with banana slices. Top with remaining cake slices to form sandwiches. Put a scoop of ice cream on each sandwich and pour the chocolate fudge sauce over it. Enjoy!

This recipe was inspired by one for a Chocolate Truffle Pound Cake from Diana at Dianas Desserts. I was looking for a way to use the raspberry icing that I botched when making my daughter’s birthday cake. (Which again, I have been keeping in the freezer. I love my freezer. It helps me do my baking projects at my own pace.) Anyhow, a dear friend of mine mentioned soaked sponge cake and I thought that this icing would be wonderful paired with a chocolate sponge cake if it was melted down to a syrup and used to soak the cake.

I made the recipe for the pound cake batter, then split it into three layer tins. The raspberry syrup was then poured as evenly as possible between each layer and drizzled over the top. If you don’t happen to have botched raspberry icing sitting in your freezer to melt down, you can melt all the ingredients together instead to make the syrup that much quicker. I put the cake in the fridge overnight to chill mostly because I ran out of time. It ended up helping the cake set so when I iced it with chocolate icing the next day it wasn’t all soggy. I’m sure it would have been all wonderful and gooey though if I had put the chocolate icing directly on top of the raspberry syrup . I used almonds to garnish it around the edge.

The cake tasted wonderful. The smooth texture of the icing paired with the light texture of the cake was indeed like a chocolate raspberry truffle. Mmmmm. The youngest son couldn’t resist trying to snag a bite.  Thanks Diana for sharing a great recipe.

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake

225g (1 cup) butter

600g (3 cups) brown sugar (Yes, that’s a lot of sugar. Yes, this is a big rich cake.)

6 large eggs

280g (2 1/2 cups) gluten-free flour blend (I used quinoa flour, sweet rice flour, and arrowroot starch)

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

60g (1/2 cup) cocoa

225 ml (1 cup) buttermilk

175g (6 oz) bittersweet chocolate, melted

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Raspberry Syrup

75 ml (1/3 cup) raspberry juice

115g (1/2 cup) butter

300g (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Chocolate Truffle Icing

115g (1/2 cup) butter, softened, or trans-fat free shortening

175g (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar

75g (2/3 cup) cocoa

75 ml (5 tablespoons) cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Garnish (optional)

about 24 whole almonds (40g, 1.5 oz, 1/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 165C(325F). Grease three 23 cm (9 inch) layer tins, line with parchment paper, then grease the paper as well. Make sure you have a very large bowl or be prepared to split the batter into batches. Cream the butter with a mixer until smooth. Add the brown sugar a little at a time, breaking up any lumps that may have squeaked by with your fingers. Beat for 5 minutes until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

In a separate bowl, sift together the gluten-free flour blend, bicarbonate of soda, salt, and cocoa. Add 1/3rd of the dry ingredients to the to the batter, mix until well blended, then add half the buttermilk. Add the next 1/3rd dry ingredients, mix until well blended, then add the other half of the buttermilk. Add the last 1/3rd dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Fold in the melted chocolate by hand and pour into prepared tins.

Bake for about 1 hour and 20-30 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean. It’s a long baking time, but the cakes really do need it in order to set up properly.

Let the cakes cool in the tins for about 20-25 minutes, then turn out onto racks and cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.

Make raspberry syrup by melting all ingredients together in a pot over low to medium low heat, stirring constantly until it forms a smooth, slightly thick syrup, about 5-10 minutes. If you wait too long, you’ll get something more akin to raspberry caramel, which I’m sure would be delicious but not very easy to pour and definitely not well suited to soaking a cake.

Make the chocolate truffle icing by combining all ingredients until light and fluffy, either by hand or with an electric mixer.

To assemble, place the first cake layer on a plate, pour 1/4th of the syrup over it and smooth it around, waiting until it soaks in just a bit. Repeat with the second layer. Place the third layer on top, then pour all of the remaining syrup over the whole cake, allowing it to drizzle down the sides and collect in all the crevices. Put the whole cake in the fridge overnight, in a cake dome, to chill. You could skip this step and go straight to icing it if you don’t mind raspberry syrup oozing out when you put the icing on.

Ice the top of the cake with the chocolate truffle icing. Place whole almonds around the edge. Enjoy!

I thought of putting these brownies together when I saw Paula Deen making Maggie’s Decadent Brownies on the Food Network. She said it reminded her of her Marsh Mud Cake. There are so many different variations on this recipe that whatever floats your boat you could find something that suits.

I don’t usually do mixes. I prefer to mix up a substitute for the mix if the recipe calls for it, but my grandmother gave me Bob’s Red Mill Brownie Mix for Christmas, so I baked it up in this recipe to see what it would be like. I’ve made four things from gluten-free mixes ever I think, including this one. Sometimes they can be fun to experiment with and the better ones taste pretty good.

These were good for what they are: something easy to whip up. They were best just out of the oven. After they cooled I found them too salty. Heating them up improved the richness of the taste but upped the sweet factor so much that I found them too sweet. The nuts softened up in the baking and I would have preferred them crunchier. Next time I would put the nuts on top of the baked brownies after the marshmallows instead. With ice cream these brownies really found a balance, especially with strawberry, reminding me of a chocolate-covered strawberry.

Ooey Gooey Rocky Road Fudge Brownies

1 Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free brownie mix

170g (3/4 cup) butter, melted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

175 ml (3/4 cup) warm water

120g (1 cup) chopped pecans

150g (3 cups) mini marshmallows

Fudge Topping

1 395g (14 oz) tin condensed milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

340g (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Grease a 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13 inch) baking dish. Place brownie mix in a bowl. Beat in melted butter, vanilla extract, water, and pecans until combined. Pour batter into prepared dish and bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Immediately sprinkle with marshmallows, so the hot brownies melt them a bit and they get all nice and gooey. Next, prepare the topping: in a saucepan over low heat, combine the milk, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate chips are melted. Remove from heat and pour over the brownies. Spread the topping out evenly, so every bite gets as much of all three layers as possible . Enjoy!

This cake has been a three day effort in honour of my daughter’s 5th birthday. She described to me in quite good detail exactly what she wanted. The title above is what she’s been calling it. I went to my list of recipes and found one I thought would fit the bill. It comes from Joy of Baking. Stephanie says she adapted it from Alice Medrich’s book, Chocolat, and Judy Gethers’ and Mary Bergin’s book, Spago Desserts. I made it in three layers, which is three of Stephanie’s recipe. I chose to change some of the order of directions, for what was easier for me to help the cake come together. Thanks Stephanie for sharing these recipes.

Between each layer of cake, which is a chocolate genoise or sponge cake, is ganache, again using Stephanie’s recipe. Over the ganache I put drained frozen strawberries and raspberries and maraschino cherries. On top of the berries went chocolate mousse, using Stephanie’s adapted recipe (included with first above cake link). On the top layer is ganache, then a layer of strawberry icing based on Stephanie’s chocolate icing, which she says she adapted from Bonnie Stern’s book Desserts and Lisa Yockelson’s book Chocolate. I left out the chocolate and substituted the reserved juice from the strawberries to make the icing pink. On the very top is fresh raspberries and more maraschino cherries.

This cake is truly a piece de resistance. Not only is it one of the most involved cakes I have ever made, but my husband, sister, and mother all said they couldn’t tell it was gluten-free, which is the first time I have heard that with anything gluten-free I have baked. I don’t believe they were just being nice in the past, it’s just that this cake was so good. It needs some special attention but was otherwise easy to adapt, mostly because there isn’t much gluten in the original recipe to replace. All the heat, whipping, and aerating help to give it a good crumb and a nice light texture. The taste was rich but not too heavy and the combination of the chocolate with the cherries, strawberries, and raspberries was just heavenly. It kept surprisingly well and the ganache kept the cake from getting soggy.

On the first day I made the chocolate mousse and ganache and put them in the fridge. On the second day I made the three cakes and put them in the fridge as well. On the third day I made the icing and assembled the cake step by step: cake, ganache, berries and cherries, mousse, cake, ganache, cherries and berries, mousse, cake, ganache, icing, cherries and raspberries, and of course candles. In the end what emerged was beyond what I could have pictured before it was complete.

Cherry Berry Chocolate Strawberry Cake

Chocolate Genoise

45g (3 tablespoons) hot melted butter or ghee/clarified butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

50g (1/2 cup) gluten-free flour blend (I used quinoa flour, sweet rice flour, and arrowroot starch)

40g (1/3 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder

4 large eggs

150g (2/3 cup) caster sugar

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Grease a 23 cm (9 inch) round cake tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper. (If you are making three layers, you will need three tins, one for each cake. I chose not to line my tins and I highly recommend it, after the fact. It would make getting the layers out easier. Even heavily greased, the ability to just loosen the edges and flip is not there without the paper. While it is fun to get your hands in the cake, I certainly enjoyed it, it takes more time and nerves to get it out that way. Perhaps I’ll learn someday )

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.

In a large heatproof bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk constantly so the eggs don’t curdle and scramble, until they are just lukewarm to the touch, about 5 minutes. (I used the bowl from my stand mixer to save washing a second bowl. If you’d rather not, then pour the mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer after the eggs are heated.) Beat on high speed until the mixture has cooled, tripled in volume, and looks like softly whipped cream. This will take about 5 minutes and the batter is beaten sufficiently when it falls back into the bowl in a ribbon-like patter. (Mine took about 12 minutes. I had to beat it on a slightly lower speed to avoid flinging eggs all over the kitchen.)

Sift about one-third of the flour mixture over the eggs and fold it in gently. Do not overmix or you will deflate the batter. Fold in half the remaining flour, then fold in the rest. Combine the warm butter and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Stephanie suggest folding some of the batter into the butter to lighten it and then folding the butter mixture into the rest of the batter. I tried it both ways and found that the cakes baked up evenly whether I lightened the butter or not. (Just don’t forget to fold in the butter until you’ve poured the batter into the tin. I did that and my cake fell in the centre. I used that layer as the bottom.) When completely combined, pour the batter into the prepared tin, gently smoothing the top.

Bake until the cake shrinks back slightly from the edges of the tin and the top springs back when lightly pressed, about 20-25 minutes. (Mine took 25 minutes. I made and baked the cakes one at a time.) Cool on a rack. When the cake has cooled completely, run a knife or spatula around the edges to release it. The genoise will keep well-wrapped two days in the fridge or three months frozen. (My cake lasted four days in the fridge kept in a cake dome).

Chocolate Mousse

175g (6 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, cut into pieces (I used Green and Black’s Dark 70%)

350 ml (1 1/2 cups) cream or one coconut cream recipe (see below)

3 large egg yolks (I used one whole egg. I hate finding ways to use egg parts.)

75g (1/3 cup) caster sugar

60 ml (1/4 cup) water

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (optional)

In a medium heat-proof bowl, set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate. Take the saucepan off the heat and set aside, but leave the bowl of chocolate over the warm water to keep it slightly warm.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, whip the cream until soft peaks form or prepare coconut cream. Place in the fridge, covered, until needed.

Place the egg yolks in a large heatproof bowl and set aside.

In a small saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a boil. Boil until the sugar is dissolved, a minute or two, to produce a sugar syrup. Then, whisking constantly, pour the boiling syrup over the egg yolks. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture is thick and light in colour and hot to the touch, about 10 minutes. (Again, I used the bowl from my stand mixer.)

Remove the bowl from the heat and quickly scrape the egg mixture into the clean bowl of your stand mixer. On medium speed, or with a hand mixer, beat until the volume has doubled and the bottom of the bowl is completely cool to the touch. Turn speed to low and beat in the warm melted chocolate mixture until well combined. Fold in half the reserved whipped cream or coconut cream, then the second half, then the vanilla extract, if using. Use immediately or put in the fridge, covered, until needed. If it is a bit runny, the chilling will firm it up.

Coconut Cream

1 400 ml (14 oz) tin coconut milk, chilled overnight

30g (2 tablespoons) caster sugar (original used 15g (2 tablespoons) icing sugar)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chill a mixing bowl and beaters. Open the chilled coconut milk and spoon the cream from the top, avoiding the thin liquid underneath. If you don’t, then your cream will not set properly. Beat the coconut cream in the chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Beat in the icing sugar and vanilla extract.

Ganache

225g (8 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, cut into pieces (I used Scharffen Berger Dark 70%)

175 ml (3/4 cup) cream or non-dairy milk

30g (2 tablespoons) butter or ghee/clarified butter (may omit)

1 tablespoon cognac or brandy (optional, I used vanilla extract instead)

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium stainless steel bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream or non-dairy milk and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately remove from heat and pour the boiling mixture over the chocolate and allow to stand for five minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth and add liqueur or extract of your choice.

Strawberry Icing

75 ml (1/3 cup) strawberry, raspberry, pomegranate, or other reddish juice

115g (1/2 cup) butter, softened and cut into pieces, or trans-fat free shortening or margarine

300g (2 1/2 cups) icing sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place butter, or shortening, or margarine and icing sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on low speed until well combined and creamy. Slowly add the juice, salt, and vanilla extract. When the icing starts to come together, increase the speed to medium and beat until smooth. If necessary, add more juice or sugar to reach a smooth spreading consistency. (I originally followed Stephanie’s instructions of placing the juice, sugar, vanilla, and salt in the bowl, then adding the butter. My icing ended up full of lumps that I could not beat out, so I changed the order of combining the ingredients and it came together nicely.)

Filling and Garnish:

285g (10 oz) frozen strawberries, thawed and drained

285g (10 oz) frozen raspberries, thawed and drained

about 30 maraschino cherries (455g, 16 oz), drained

fresh raspberries

Assembly:

Place one layer on a plate. Spread a thin layer of softened ganache over the top of the cake. Place the cake in the fridge until the ganache is set, about 5 minutes. Spread half the strawberries and half the raspberries on top of the ganache. Place 10 of the cherries on top of the berries. Spread half the chocolate mousse over the fruit.

Top with the second layer. Spread a thin layer of ganache over the top of the second cake. Again, place the cake in the fridge to allow the ganache to set. Spread the rest of the strawberries and raspberries on top of the ganache. Place 10 more cherries on top of the berries. Spread the rest of the mousse over the fruit.

Top with the third layer. Spread a thin layer of ganache over the top of the third cake. Place the cake in the fridge until the ganache is set. Spread a generous layer of strawberry icing on top of the ganache. Decorate with the raspberries and the rest of the cherries. Enjoy!

Casein-Free Option:

Use coconut cream instead of the whipped cream for the chocolate mousse. You could use your favourite ready made dairy free pudding as well. For the ganache, use your favourite dairy-free milk (such as hemp milk, rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk, or soy milk) or goat’s milk. Substitute trans-fat free shortening or ghee for the butter, or leave it out altogether. For the strawberry icing, use trans-fat free shortening or margarine for the butter.

I have been recovering this week from a clogged milk duct. (Too much information perhaps, but bear with me, it gets better, I promise.) This cake from Gluten-Free Mommy, seemed just the thing to brighten my mood. Natalie says her sister, Caroline, brought her this cake to cheer her up when she was 9 months pregnant, make her feel lighter than air, and it did! Well, this cake worked its miracle on me as well and I felt as if I were floating on a cloud.

This cake, which is much like a souffle, is dark and rich but light and fluffy at the same time. I couldn’t eat much of it at once and that is a compliment. My mother-in-law would love it. Using good quality chocolate just helps accentuate it. The filling helps cut the richness of the cake and adds to the lightness of the texture. I could see adding other liqueurs or flavourings to it for different tastes: Bailey’s, Rum, Kahlua, Kirsch, chocolate liqueur, esspresso, coffee, chocolate extract.

I opted not to put my layers in the freezer because I had no room. I had already taken the time to beat the egg whites in two batches and bake the cake layers two at a time (I only had three tins). I was not about to put one layer at a time in the freezer and wait for them to chill one after the other. Not to mention assemble the cake, then wait two hours to eat it. Perhaps it wouldn’t have taken that long but I did not want to find out. Having enough space when you make this cake definitely helps.

Warning: if you do decide to go this route and not freeze your layers, as I did, be prepared to work s…l…o…w…l…y and expect one or more layers to break. My first layer reached the plate safely, the second broke in half, the third in thirds, and the fourth was in more pieces than I could count. The good news: this cake repairs easily! Due to the soft texture you can press the broken bits together and the filling cements them. Storing it in the fridge firms it up.

This cake is not the easiest to make, especially with three kids running through the kitchen. They were all curious about each step and when the cake came together there was no keeping them away. All four of us put pink m&ms (pink for breast cancer awareness) on the cake in the shape of an M. M for you know what: Mommy, Mum, Mummy, Mom, Mama, Ma, Mother. Too perfect! Thanks Natalie and Caroline for helping brighten my day.

Natalie and Caroline’s Lighter Than Air Chocolate Cake

For Cake Layers:

340g (12 oz) fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, at room temperature (I used Green and Black’s Dark 70%)

90 ml (6 tablespoons) water

12 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

300g (1 1/3 cups) caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

15g (2 tablespoons) unsweetened cocoa powder

For Filling:

475 ml (2 cups) cream

45g (6 tablespoons) icing sugar

60 ml (4 tablespoons) Grand Marnier (I used 30g (4 tablespoons) of cocoa and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, as Natalie and Caroline did)

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Grease four 23 cm (9 inch) round cake tins and line bottoms with circles of parchment paper.

Melt chocolate with water in a small heavy saucepan over very low heat, stirring. Cool to lukewarm.

Beat egg yolks, 150g (2/3 cup) of the caster sugar, and salt in a large bowl until thick and pale, about 5 minutes with a stand mixer. Fold in melted chocolate until blended.

Beat egg whites with clean beaters until they just hold soft peaks. Gradually add remaining 150g (2/3 cup) of caster sugar and beat until whites just hold stiff peaks. (I beat half the egg whites in my stand mixer with half of the rest of the caster sugar (75g, 1/3 cup), then the other half with the last of the sugar (75g, 1/3 cup)). Tip: Chilling the bowl and beaters before beating the egg whites (and cream for the filling) will help them hold stiffer peaks longer.

Spread batter evenly among four baking tins and bake until puffed and top is dry to the touch, about 15 minutes. Transfer tins to cooling racks.

Sift cocoa powder over tops of cakes and place a piece of greaseproof paper (waxed paper) over the top of the tins. Place layers in freezer for about an hour until they are firm enough to be carefully lifted without breaking.

Make filling: Beat cream with icing sugar and Grand Marnier, or other flavouring, with clean beaters until it just holds stiff peaks. (You don’t have to use whipped cream. You could use something different, like coconut cream, custard, applesauce, jam, etc. Something creamy though, really accentuates the light texture of this cake.)

Fill Cake: Bring first layer out of the freezer and arrange on platter, cocoa side down. Spread one-quarter of filling evenly over the cake. Repeat this process until all layers and filling are used.

Keep the cake in the fridge until you are ready to serve it.

Caroline and Natalie suggest dark chocolate grated into curls or writing out something special in chocolate chips.

Casein-Free Option:

The cake itself is casein-free.  You could freeze all four layers, bring out one layer at a time to serve, dusted with cocoa or icing sugar, with berries on the side and forgo the filling altogether.  For the filling, substitute coconut cream, applesauce, your favourite dairy-free pudding, some fresh berries, sliced bananas, or a small amount of melted chocolate for the whipped cream.

This recipe is from Baking Bites. Nicole says it was inspired by Trader Joe’s Peppermint Jo-Jos, a peppermint Oreo chocolate sandwich cookie. She says they are one of her favourite recipes of 2007 and no matter how many times she baked them they were always eaten up. With such good reviews I just had to try these. I love chocolate and brownies and I have made brownies with Oreos before, but not peppermint and Oreos.

There is no Trader Joe’s in Aberdeen and gluten-free peppermint Oreos are difficult to come by. Nicole suggests using other chocolate-peppermint cookies or to use plain Oreos with 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract. I went this route, but added 2 teaspoons of peppermint extract instead, as after adding 1 the batter didn’t have enough peppermint for my tastes. If you can get gluten-free peppermint chocolate sandwich cookies, then by all means, use those. If you can’t, then plain chocolate sandwich cookies and peppermint extract are wonderful.

I must agree with Nicole. Despite being skeptical of how much sugar went into them, these are some of the best brownies I have ever tasted. They are rich indeed; and I have read so many brownie recipes claiming to be rich and then been disappointed by the lack of intensity when I made them. These brownies do not disappoint. My husband, who is picky about his brownies and not as fond of chocolate as I am, wanted seconds. The peppermint comes through nicely but does not overwhelm, balancing out the rich chocolate. I couldn’t taste the quinoa flour, so my hunch was correct, other flavours help mellow it. The Oreos are a nice texture. They soften up in baking and provide a nice texture difference from the fudgy brownie. These are fantastic. Thanks Nicole for a fantastic recipe.

(Isn’t that a fine tophat the brownie is wearing?)

Peppermint Cookies and Cream Brownies

225g (1 cup) butter

170g (6 oz) unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped (I used Ghirardelli)

675g (3 cups) caster sugar (Yes, that’s correct; it’s that much sugar!)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon peppermint extract (optional) (I used 2 teaspoons)

4 large eggs

185g (1 2/3 cups) gluten-free flour blend (xanthan gum is not necessary, but won’t hurt if your blend has it. I used quinoa flour, sweet rice flour, and arrowroot starch)

40g (1/3 cup) cocoa powder

216g (3 cups) roughly chopped gluten-free chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreo-type, with peppermint, if you can get them), approximately 18

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Grease a 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13 inch) tin or line it with foil or paper and grease lightly.

In a saucepan over low heat, melt together butter and chocolate. Whisk in sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract (if using), then turn off heat. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, waiting until each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Stir in flour and cocoa powder until mixture is uniform. Stir in Oreos and pour batter into prepared tin. Crush 3-4 additional Oreos finely and sprinkle on top of batter (optional).

Bake for about 35 minutes (mine took 35 as well), until a skewer inserted comes out with moist crumbs, but not coated with batter.

Cool brownies completely, then slice. Nicole says she got 36 brownies or 48 small ones. It depends on how you slice it. If you don’t want to slice it, then you’ll have one extremely large brownie .

I saw Alton Brown make this cake on the Food Network and thought it sounded tasty. This was my first time using quinoa flour, which I have steered away from using in the past because I thought it would have too strong a taste. I decided to give it a fair chance to see what it might actually be like.

My youngest son climbed on a stool we have for the kids to use the sink (he is quite clever) and pulled off a bit of cake as it was cooling. He likes it and couldn’t wait for it to be done! Thankfully I was able to cover it up with the cream. The cream is much like diplomat cream and is a nice contrast with the soft texture of the cake. I did not notice the pepper at all. I decided not to make the full recipe of the cocoa mix. What I have below is roughly what I estimated for the smaller portion.

I prefer teff and amaranth flour over quinoa, despite the nutritional benefits of a complete protein. As soon as I smelt it I was thinking it was like millet, and the taste is similar. I forgot to add the vanilla extract to the cake and perhaps the taste would not have been as strong if I hadn’t. Mixing it with other flavours, such as berries, chocolate, cinnamon, or ginger might mellow it. I smell more experiments! I always enjoy another reason to bake.

Alton Brown’s Gold Cake with Cocoa Whipped Cream

140g (3/4 cup) butter-flavoured shortening (I used 170g (3/4 cup) butter)

300g (1 1/4 cup) caster sugar

300g (1 1/2 cup) gluten-free flour blend (I used quinoa flour, sweet rice flour, and arrowroot starch)

1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 egg yolks, beaten (130g)

180 ml (3/4 cup) milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 175C (350F). Grease two 23 cm (9 inch) cake tins and set aside.

Cream together the shortening (or butter) and sugar. Combine the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt. Slowly alternate adding the dry ingredients with the egg yolks and milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, and mix until well combined. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.

Pour into the prepared tins, Alton says about 550g of batter (or roughly half), for each tin. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took 22 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Cocoa Whipped Cream

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon gelatine or agar-agar

475 ml (2 cups) cream

80g (1/2 cup) Good Eats cocoa mix (recipe below)

Chill your mixing bowl and beaters. In a metal measuring cup or a small saucepan combine the water and the gelatine. Let this sit for 5 minutes, then place over low heat for 2 minutes to melt.With your mixer on low, combine the cream and cocoa mix in the chilled bowl. Slowly pour in the melted gelatine. Add the vanilla extract and turn mixer to high and whip to medium peaks.

Good Eats Cocoa Mix

20g (3 tablespoons) icing sugar

15g (2 tablespoons) cocoa

45g (3 tablespoons) milk powder (may omit)

pinch salt

1/4 teaspoon cornflour (cornstarch) (I used arrowroot starch)

pinch cayenne pepper, more as desired (optional)

Notes: After the cake had time to sit, I noticed that the pepper has a small kick. It’s nothing overwhelming, but if you don’t want that, you could omit the pepper.