Gluten free baking as posted to the Ibiza Sun

Gluten Free anyone?
Hello my fellow bakers, well another busy week comes to a close, last cakes delivered and my congratulations go to Tim who enjoyed his 40th Birthday yesterday at the lovely restaurant Casa Colonial, hopefully the cake was enjoyed by all! Now on to charity events, travelling and generally enjoying myself!
I made a gluten free chocolate cake as part of the last order, although there are many ways to make gluten free cakes, this recipe is rather nice as it doesn’t use flour at all. Of course for gluten free you can ‘just’ replace normal flour for a gluten free variety; the cake cooks well, except that it is generally a little dryer in texture than using normal flour. It is an easy option, if you can find good gluten free flour here on Ibiza which is not always so easy!
The following recipe which I really like to use is similar to making a dark chocolate mousse, except it is cooked. Chocolate especially dark chocolate has so many good properties in it that it is very good for us, to the extent that it is highly recommended to eat 2 squares of dark chocolate each day, as this helps with the prevention of heart disease, cancer, etc. In fact the list is endless. This recipe is a good way to have the dark chocolate and not feel quite so guilty when faced with cake! You don’t have to be ‘gluten free’ to enjoy this lovely dark cake.
Gluten free dark chocolate cake
Line a muffin pan with 12 cupcake cases.
Preheat the oven to 140c
Ingredients:
4 large eggs separated.
100g sugar (preferably caster)
100g butter
100g ground almonds
100g dark chocolate at least 74% (I use 85%)
2 tsp. instant coffee dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water
2tsp of rum.
Method:
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Melt the chocolate with a small amount of the butter over a pan of boiling water, be careful not to let it touch the water, stir frequently, or: place in a microwave and melt at 30 second intervals, stirring until all has melted.
In a mixing bowl: Add the remaining butter, sugar, egg yolks, ground almonds, coffee mixture and rum, whisk this altogether until smooth and creamy. Now gently using a metal spoon, fold in the stiff egg white mixture, until totally mixed in.
Now pile into the cupcake cases, fill the case ¾ full, at least as this mixture doesn’t rise too well. Now immediately place in the oven on a middle shelf and cook for 45 minutes.
The cake will be light and fluffy, delicious when warm to serve as dessert with a dollop of cream (or cream fraiche to be a little less indulgent) or when cold they can be decorated to your choice, vanilla butter cream is a lovely contrast.
Enjoy!
Till Next week Ibiza’s Queen of Cakes xxx
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