Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Can Be Yours!

Imagine the perfect piece of chocolate cake. Can you see it? Is it light and airy, frosted with ganache or filled with your grandmother’s famous chocolate custard? Can you feel the texture on your tongue? Is it warm or frosty, fudgy, gooey, or dense and studded with chocolate chips? Can you taste it? Is it Devil’s Food, or something similarly sinful? Triple Chocolate Orgasm Cake, perhaps? Or maybe it’s Entenmann’s Chocolate Fudge Cake in the square blue and white box, with the thick icing that you can peel off in a single layer (only when no one’s looking, of course)?

Chocolate cake comes in so many different varieties, all revered and coveted by the true chocolate lover. In my experience, one or two particularly noteworthy varieties are held in perpetual reserve in the memory banks as our ultimate favorites.

These are the kind of cakes that you request specially on your birthday, or that you pull out just once or twice a year, because company’s coming or at some other extra-special time. Adapting to a gluten-free diet can complicate all that. But never fear — Celiac Disease or a wheat allergy doesn’t mean you have to give up chocolate cake altogether. Not even close.

Celiac Disease

My mom was diagnosed with Celiac as a baby back in the ‘60s. Or rather, she was diagnosed with something largely misunderstood that was then referred to as “Tropical Sprue.” It was once thought that this type of wheat intolerance was something that children outgrew, so she was actually able to eat the same foods that I did for a while, until she was in her mid-20s and I was a few years old. Of course, she didn’t realize at the time that being asymptomatic didn’t mean she was cured. To some extent, it actually meant she was causing silent, unseen damage to her intestines.

Today, we know much more about Celiac, an autoimmune disease that is now known to affect about 1 in 133 people in the United States. There are specialists, studies and organizations devoted to a better understanding of the disease, and medical tests are readily available today to diagnose various types of food intolerances and allergies accurately and quickly. We also have a better understanding today of wheat allergies, which are (believe it or not) an unrelated malady.

Growing Trend

Sadly, gluten-free diets have also become something of a trend. Though there are some positives (i.e. food manufacturers have responded with a plethora of gluten-free products), there are also many negatives (restaurant workers struggle to please increasing numbers of customers who are playing into a fad rather than voicing a legitimate health risk when they demand gluten-free dining options). This can be dangerous for those with Celiac or a legitimate wheat allergy.

Whereas the imminent dangers related to peanut or shellfish allergies and the potential for anaphylactic shock are well understood, the risks involved when it comes to gluten-free eaters exist in more of a grey area. Eating at home remains the best option for many with Celiac, but this can be severely limiting. In my opinion, it’s downright unfair.

Tolerance Challenges

When I was growing up, it wasn’t uncommon on birthdays and other special occasions to see two cakes on the table — a gluten-free cake for my mom, and a “regular” cake for the rest of us. Sometimes, like if it was my mom’s birthday, all of us would share the one cake. But typically, because it took so long to make, because the ingredients were a little more expensive, and because we just didn’t want to rob my mom of the opportunity to eat as much cake as she wanted, we refrained from sharing in the deliciousness.

At least in all of our minds, that cake that my grandma or I made for my mom, or that she made for herself, was special and existed as the sole property of its rightful owner – my mom. It took about an hour to prepare and an hour to bake. It also required a special trip to the health food store to purchase all of the various starches and flours followed by some careful measuring and mixing in order to get the batter just right.

Because my mom is not a big eater, most of the leftover cake would be sliced, wrapped in plastic, and packed in a resealable storage bag in the freezer to be enjoyed slice by slice over the coming weeks. It tasted great frozen or defrosted, it was usually a sponge cake, and it was usually flavored with a sweet citrus drizzle, or sometimes made with nuts and bananas. Though my mom loved chocolate as a kid, it just wasn’t something that she ate much in her adult years.

The severe lack of chocolatey gluten-free desserts in my mom’s diet was in part due to the fact that she is also lactose intolerant and to some degree fat intolerant. This means chocolate, at least certain types of chocolate, aren’t a viable option for her. For many gluten-free people, this is not the case. The ability to enjoy milk- and fat-based products makes gluten-free baking a cinch. Adapting for eaters with additional intolerances can be more difficult, but not impossible!

The thing is, being able to enjoy food together with friends and loved ones is a key part of the dining experience, especially for those who are going through the transitional phase of adapting their diets to new health-based restrictions. It is important to be able to share meals with the ones you love.

True, it can be a little costlier, but sometimes you need to prioritize. Budget for things that are delicious, nutritious, and free of allergens. When it’s time to make a gluten-free chocolate cake for the holidays, ignore that boxed mix or the tiny frozen gluten-free cake from the health food store, spend a few extra dollars, and make something homemade that the entire family can enjoy.

Where to Start

When faced with a Celiac diagnosis for the first time (or for those who have chosen to adopt a gluten-free diet for other health-related reasons) many individuals initially experience an immense feeling of relief. It’s wonderful to finally discover a reason for their digestive problems, and to be free from the physical symptoms related to gluten intolerance. Then comes the process of figuring out what to do next. Adjusting to a gluten-free diet may take some time, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. There are so many fantastic gluten-free products on the market today, so a Celiac diagnosis no longer has to be an exercise in giving up one’s favorite foods.

When it comes to buying and making certain types of gluten-free food, sometimes you need to get creative. Though gluten-free certification has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, some foods (and recipes) do not loudly and proudly proclaim themselves to be gluten-free. In some cases this is obvious. Items that do not contain flour or wheat gluten and that are not made in manufacturing facilities where these ingredients are involved generally have no reason to contain gluten. For example, it would be a shock to find packaged orange juice that is not in fact free of glutens.

Other items can be trickier to figure out, especially when they contain hidden forms of gluten like certain types of vinegar, alcohol, and starch. When it comes to recipes, sometimes you just need to know where to look. Just as a quick search for vegan recipes can open up all kinds of new ideas and opportunities for the lactose intolerant, recipes for Passover (made without flour) can offer a huge variety of ideas for the gluten-intolerant. Paleo recipes, hearkening back to a time when people had not yet mastered the ability to procure flour from grain, can also provide some enticing options.

What is Gluten-Free?

Rose Levy Beranbaum’s famous book The Cake Bible (first published in 1988) does not specifically use the term “gluten-free” but offers many suggestions for cake baking during Passover. She describes her Chocolate Cloud Roll as “more a flourless soufflé than a cake” (138).

So what is a cake, really? It’s usually made with eggs, some kind of fat like butter or shortening, sugar, and some kind of flavoring. Is it still a cake when ground almonds are used in place of wheat flour? Beranbaum seems to think so, and I agree wholeheartedly! Not to mention, but I will point it out just in case any of you somehow missed out on this summertime trend – we live at a time when people are cutting the rinds off watermelons, frosting them, and calling THAT a cake! No flour, no eggs, no baking….

Maybe, in the end, cake is really defined by ritual. If you can stick candles into it, cut it into slices, and eat it with a fork, at least in some sense, you’ve got yourself a cake. But, I digress. Back to the chocolate…

Making a genoise, or sponge cake, is a fantastic option that can easily be made gluten-free. According to The Cake Bible, finely ground almonds can be used to great effect in place of flour. When making this kind of cake, eggs are beaten until light and frothy to create an airy batter that fluffs up nicely when it’s baked. When you don’t have the stretchiness that gluten provides, eggs are a fantastic alternative.

Gluten-Free Choices

Whereas some gluten-free chocolate cake recipes use semi-sweet or baking chocolate, others incorporate a mixture of cocoa powder and hot water. Still others feature a combination of the two, where cocoa powder is mixed with the dry ingredients and melted chocolate is stirred into the wet ingredients.

Because solid chocolate contains cocoa butter and thus has a much higher fat content and smoother texture than cocoa powder, this can affect the outcome of your baked goods. Chocolate lends itself to fudgy, brownie-like cake and is best used in ganache and frostings, whereas cocoa powder is often a better option for flavoring light and airy cakes.

Other Options

I got my mom on the phone earlier today to talk about gluten-free chocolate cake, and she had a brilliant suggestion that I’ve never actually tried – chocolate flavoring.

When it comes to extracts and liquid flavorings, vanilla is by no means your only option. Though this not something that I have yet experimented with very extensively, I wonder if chocolate flavoring might be a viable option for those who cannot tolerate the addition of extra fat, or who might not be able to eat straight-up cacao-derived chocolate for other reasons. My flavoring arsenal has yet to extend beyond vanilla, peppermint, orange, lemon and almond, but I see no reason not to add another liquid flavoring to my spice shelf. Even a dash or two of smoky, earthy chocolate bitters might be worth a shot.

Anything referred to as “flourless” in the cake world tends, more often than not, to be a great option for gluten-intolerant individuals. Flourless chocolate torte, anyone? That’s a cake, right? It’s at least something a lot like a cake that uses ground nuts in place of most or all of the flour. A gooey, deliciously decadent cake, if you ask me. Though a crust is sometimes involved, perhaps made from piecrust-like chocolate sable dough, almond flour can generally be used to replace the wheat flour in this basic recipe. One of my absolute favorites is the chocolate tart with chocolate sable crust featured in Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox’s book The Craft of Baking. Theirs has more of a custard- than cake-like filling so it doesn’t quite qualify as a torte, but the immediate onset of chocolate overload that sets in after you eat a few bites will quickly make you forget that you thought you wanted cake in the first place.

Nuts for the Gluten-Free

Almonds are often the best option for gluten-free baking due to their light, almost bland flavor and relatively low fat content. Not only are they the basic ingredient in marzipan, almond flour is also the main ingredient used to make the cookie part of French-style macarons (not to be confused with macaroons, the coconut-based confection). Ground walnuts are sometimes used in baking in place of flour as well. Another added bonus of using almonds in baking – they add a bit of extra protein to your baked goods as well!

Gluten-Free Baking

Though it is often easier to find and use recipes for gluten-free chocolate cake that were originally written to be gluten-free, adapting your favorite recipes is not out of the question. Though it’s still possible to buy and combine various types of gluten-free flour and starch like we did when I was a kid baking for my mom, the convenience-focused prepared-foods industry has come to the rescue with many gluten-free options.

Thanks to the invention of Cup4Cup, gluten-free Bisquick and other gluten-free baking mixes, some wheat-reliant recipes actually require little or no tinkering. Just use that gluten-free baking mix in the same measurements as you would use regular flour and you’re ready to go.

In cases where cake flour is called for, just replace two tablespoons of gluten-free baking mix with two tablespoons of gluten-free cornstarch per cup. For those who can tolerate gluten, this works for regular all-purpose flour as well. Use this formula: 1 cup flour – 2 tablespoons flour + 2 tablespoons cornstarch = 1 cup cake flour. Just remember to sift the mixture well in order to distribute the cornstarch throughout.

It’s best to use almond flour or ground almonds in recipes where they’re called for rather than attempting to directly substitute almond flour for cake flour or all-purpose flour in a cake recipe. Gluten-free mixes like Cup4Cup use a blend of gluten-free flours and starches carefully engineered to mimic the qualities of gluten-containing wheat flour. Whereas the structure of brown rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, arrowroot powder, or other gluten-free ingredients may not hold up on their own in a recipe, turning out less than satisfying results, a blend of gluten-free flours and starches can get the job done right.

Typically, you’ll find a combination of brown and white rice flours, tapioca flour or starch, potato flour or starch, cornstarch, and some xanthan gum in these blends. The xanthan gum serves as a thickener, which helps to replace and in some ways replicate the role that gluten plays in wheat-containing baked goods.

If you think you may be experiencing digestive issues related to wheat, I implore you not to self-diagnose. Consult a doctor. All kinds of different things might be going on, and a specialist can help you with that. And remember: Gluten-free foods like chocolate cake are delicious. If you’re lucky, a gluten-free chocolate cake made according to my suggestions can be a treat for the whole family to enjoy.