The Hungry Boy turned thirteen yesterday and he wanted to have a celebration cake made out of his favourite flavours....chocolate and mango! Yesterday morning I set a few hours aside, donned my apron and rolled up my sleeves and got stuck into having a go at making a gluten free/dairy free cake good enough to eat for his birthday. Luckily we have introduced eggs back in to our diets every now and again and so the prospects of it turning out OK (and not falling to pieces) were hanging in my favour.
I decided to use a Mary Berry's chocolate cake recipe and change it around to accommodate our food intolerances. You can find the original recipe here.
- 3 large eggs
- 175g (6 oz) self-raising gluten fee flour
- 175g (6 oz) coconut palm sugar
- 175g (6 oz) coconut oil
- 1½ level tsp baking powder
- 40g (1½ oz) cacao powder
All the ingredients (except the cacao) went in to the bowl together and got whizzed up by an electric mixer. The cacao was then made in to a thick paste (with the addition of a small amount of water) and added to the mixture.
The mixture was divided between two cake tins and baked in a 180 degree oven for 25 minutes
While I was waiting for the cake to cook I set to work to make a Mango Curd ( exactly like lemon curd but made with mango!) to put in between the two cake layers.
This is the recipe that I used:
- 450g of diced frozen mango
- Zest and juice of 1 lime
- 125g coconut palm sugar
- 125g coconut oil
- 4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
You can use fresh mango as well if you like but I've done the recipe before and I've found that frozen tastes just as good as fresh.
If you use the coconut palm sugar it makes the curd go a slightly browner colour so if you don't like that I suggest you use normal caster sugar as the original recipe states. I have actually made a batch with no sugar in at all because I know that it doesn't last very long in our house... the sugar makes it far too sweet for my liking and it's only other use in my opinion is for preserving the curd.
see original recipe without the adaptations here
I put the mango in the vita-mix and pureed it up... and then added all the ingredients together in a bowl (above)
I placed the (heat proof) bowl over a pan of boiling water whilst I continually stirred the ingredients. It eventually turned in to a nice thick, smooth creamy mixture. Once done I poured it in to a clean jar (ideally sterilized.... if you are planning on keeping it in storage for a period of time) and left it to cool down before placing it in the fridge to set a little more.
Next job was to make a ganache out of dairy free chocolate drops and solidified coconut milk. If you put the can in the fridge for a few hours it will separate the coconut "cream" from the fluid. I separated the solid coconut from the fluid (which was set aside to be used later in a smoothie)
chocolate spreading/ganache icing:
- 150ml (5fl oz) coconut cream
- 150g (5oz) dairy free chocolate chips
The ganache is made in a similar way to the curd....I placed the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water and stirred till melted... I folded in the coconut cream until it fully mixed and then set it aside to cool and thicken.
When the cakes were cold and the mango curd was set, I spread the curd over the bottom cake and put a layer of coconut cream on top of it (I had some left after making the ganache). To add another twist of flavour, I also added a layer of passion fruit seeds on top of the cream and placed the second cake layer on top.... the cake was now ready for the ganache to be spread all over it.
The chocolate ganache was spread on top and around the sides of the cake until all the cake was covered.
Before serving chunks of mango were placed around the base of the cake to decorate ...together with some candles on top.
....followed by a dusting of icing sugar
...and ready for eating at our evening celebration meal... with added dollops of the mango curd!
All in all the cake turned out very well... I think next time I would make some minor changes to the recipes though and add a little more cacao to the cake mix..... and make a batch of curd minus any sugar..... I think it would then be even better!
The cake is definitely a "cake" ...no a "brownie" and is therefore dryer in texture, but the added cream and curd balances this nicely.
If you have any favourite G/F & D/F recipes I'd love to hear about them on twitter or facebook..... I also have a Pinterest board on which I pin all the intolerance recipes that I like...it acts as a nice resource to pull from when I'm looking for ideas.
If you have never made a gluten free dairy cake before, this is certainly an easy one to start off with.... or if you fancy checking out the other recipes I have pinned you can click here.
Enjoy
Jx
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