Chocolate Cake (Gluten Free)

This is a light, versatile chocolate cake recipe. I sometimes make it as a sheet cake, topped with simple chocolate icing or a sprinkling of icing sugar, as a treat for picnics. I have also baked it as a layer cake for a birthday, deliciously iced with whipped chocolate ganache. The instructions here are for 9 inch by 13 inch rectangular baking pan, which I cut into 20 pieces once baked and iced. Adjust the baking times if you use a different size or shaped pan. This uses a 250 ml mug as equal to 1 cup.

What you need:

6 eggs

¾ cup of white sugar

½ cup of brown sugar

1 tablespoon of vanilla essence

1/3 cup of butter, melted

1/3 cup of mild-flavoured oil

¾ cup of cocoa powder

1/3 cup of tapioca starch

1/3 cup of potato starch

1 tablespoon of baking powder

¼ teaspoon of salt

What to do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150°C fan and grease the baking pan well.

2. In a large bowl beat together the eggs, white sugar and brown sugar until very light, fluffy and pale. I do this with the whisk attachment in my stand mixer but beating well with a handheld electric mixer would also work.

3. Add the vanilla essence, melted butter and oil to the bowl and carefully mix into the beaten egg and sugar, trying not to lose any of the air that has been incorporated into the egg/sugar mix.

4. Sift together into a new bowl the cocoa powder, tapioca starch, potato starch, baking powder and salt. Add half of these sifted ingredients to the bowl with the egg/sugar/butter/oil mixture and very carefully fold together. Add the remaining half of the sifted ingredients to the egg/sugar/butter/oil mixture and again very carefully fold together until everything is fully incorporated.

5. Pour the mixture into the greased baking pan and bake in the middle of the pre-heated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until done. You can tell that the cake is done when the middle of the cake is firm to the touch, the sides of the cake are baked and pulling away from the sides of the pan and a skewer or toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.