If you think that a big slice of chocolate cake just can’t be beaten but need to avoid wheat or gluten in your diet, you may be finding it hard to shake your chocolate cake craving. Well the good news is that you don’t have to – there are so many flour and gluten free chocolate cake recipes out there that don’t sacrifice on flavour or texture at all.
Why might you need to cut wheat or gluten out of your diet? You may be sensitive or allergic to wheat, or have coeliacs disease which means you should avoid gluten altogether – gluten is not only found in wheat flour, but also rye and barley. Those who suffer with coeliacs have an autoimmune reaction to gluten when it enters the system and this can cause inflammation of the small intestine.
It’s the gluten in wheat flour that traps air during baking, giving cakes that light and airy texture. If you’re looking for a simple chocolate cake recipe that doesn’t use wheat flour, you can substitute other types of gluten-free flour like corn, gram, buckwheat or rice flour, but you’ll often struggle to get the same spongy texture.
Today’s pre-mixed gluten flours are better than ever at mimicking the airy results of wheat flour in baking, and are made from a careful mix of various flour types to get the best texture and flavour. It’s worth having a go at mixing up your own gluten-free flour combinations at home though, as shop bought mixes can be quite pricey.
Using gluten-free flours for your chocolate cakes can make them more crumbly or grainy than you might want, so you often need to use plenty of binding ingredients like eggs to improve their texture. Xantham gum is also a popular ingredient in gluten-free cakes as it’s able to trap gas during cooking in a similar way to gluten, helping to keep your chocolate cake light in texture.
So if you need to keep your chocolate cake flour or gluten-free, what options do you have? If you want to aim for a traditional spongy texture, then use gluten-free flour and baking powder and try adding courgette or beetroot (yes really!) to keep the chocolate cake lovely and moist.
Lots of flourless chocolate cakes use ground almonds in their mixture which will give you a fairly dense but gorgeous cake. If you want to give your chocolate cake added flavour, look for a chocolate banana cake recipe – just add mashed banana into the mix for a really moreish treat.
Baked chocolate mousse cakes are another variation if you want to avoid flour altogether – they’re light and moist in texture, very rich in flavour!
So experiment, don’t be afraid to play around with different textures and variations and see which gluten free chocolate cake you prefer.