In honor of my sister’s seventeenth birthday, I attempted my first gluten-free cake.  As many gluten-free people know, a birthday just isn’t quite the same without cake.

I didn’t have much luck finding a classic chocolate cake recipe that was gluten-free, so I modified a standard cake recipe by changing the flour and sweetener.

Unfortunately, I got a little confused while mixing the ingredients, didn’t mix them in quite the right order, so the cake turned out a little denser than I would’ve liked.  It still tasted nice, though.  I also discovered that frosting a cake is much harder than I’d imagined. My hat goes off to everyone who is able to make frosting look like an art form (I’m just happy if I can get it on the cake and not all over the kitchen).

Allergan/Sensitivity Info: Gluten-free, sugar-free, nut-free.   

Ingredients:

• 3/4 softened butter (don’tput it in the microwave, let it stand for about 30 minutes)
• 3 eggs (these also need to be at room temperatures, so you can let them sit with the butter)
• 2 cups brown rice flour(gluten-free)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder (check the label to make sure it’s gluten-free)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 and 1/3 cups Spenda/generic brand of sucralose (you can also use 2 cups sugar instead if you don’t need it to be sugar-free)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 and 1/2 cups milk

Directions:

1. Lightly grease the bottoms of two cake pans (either 8x8x2-inch square pans or 9×1 1/2-inch round pans).  Line the bottoms of the pan with waxed paper (I didn’t have any on hand so I lightly dusted the bottom of the pans with coco powder after I’d greased them).
2. Stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt (in other words, all of the dry ingredients except the Spenda/sugar).
3. Use an electric mixer to beat the butter for about thirty seconds. Then, slowly add Spenda/sugar and beat it for a couple of minutes until well combined (don’t forget to scrape the sides of the bowl).
4. Add eggs to the butter and Speenda/sugar mix.  Mix for about a minute after adding each egg.  Then, beat in vanilla.
5. Now, alternate between adding the milk and the flour mixture to the butter mix.  Beat together.
6. Divide the batter between the two pans and spread it out evenly.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).
8. Cool cakes completely before removing them from the pans.
9. Frost with whatever you like and serve.  I used Pillsbury’s Creamy Supreme vanilla frosting (both sugar-free and gluten-free).  Homemade cream-cheese frosting would also be yummy.