Gluten Free Chocolate Cherry Cake

I was doing some work on the blog and realised that there was a gap of baking proportions. It’s not good enough and I apologise! I suppose a gluten-free chocolate cherry cake will have to do. 

My page on Facebook is getting busier and busier, and I regularly get asked for recipes to meet with special diets. In particular my gluten-free recipes are in high demand.  I don’t eat a gluten-free diet but I do believe in minimising the amount of wheat that you eat on a daily basis. So today I’ve a new recipe for you to try out.

Rice flour is far more absorbent than regular (wheat) flour so you do need every single bit of the syrup from the tin of cherries to stop the cake from being dry.  Please assume for all the ingredients that I’ve used gluten-free products (saves me typing it so often!).

Gluten Free Chocolate Cherry Cake (serves 8 generously)

Ingredients

• 75g butter, softened
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 tin of black cherries in syrup
• 2 medium eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 50g Cocoa Powder
• 100g Rice Flour
• Chocolate for decorating (optional)

Method

Preheat your (fan) oven to 160 degrees Celcius. Grease a 7 inch round baking tin (I use a loose bottom for ease of baking), then dust well with cocoa powder.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Pour approximately 1/3 of the syrup from the tinned black cherries into the butter and sugar and beat well.  Crack the eggs in one by one, beating very well after each addition.  It may curdle a little but don’t worry, add the baking powder and cocoa powder, then beat again. Pour in the rice flour and mix in well.  The batter will become stiff.  You need it stiff to get it to hold the cherries in the cake rather than them all sinking to the bottom like a stone.

Remove half the cherries from the tin, leaving the syrup behind and stir them loosely into the cake batter.  Transfer the batter to the prepared cake tin and bake for 35 minutes.

Once baked, remove the cake from the oven and using a cocktail stick, poke holes into the top and pour the remaining syrup from the black cherries slowly onto the cake while it is still warm.  Leave to cool slightly before carefully removing from the cake tin.  Spoon the cherries on top and then chocolate shavings to decorate.

Perhaps a spoon or two of whipped cream might finish this off with a cup of tea?  Or even a shot of Kirsch?