*To make this cake and icing vegan, you will need to make alterations to the icing recipe below.
I can’t believe I waited so long to post this recipe and of course, now that I’ve posted it, I’m going to have to go home and make a Deconstructed Whoopie Pie Cake. This recipe started out as me wanting to create a really good, really reliable gluten-free chocolate cake recipe. You know, like normal people have for their gluten-full cakes.
I used to regularly make “Crazy Chocolate Cake” because my sister is egg-free and it’s a bonus that the recipe is also dairy-free but the last few times I tried it with different flours it just wasn’t good. It would sink in the middle or be gummy on the bottom or, once, the flavor was so bad I had to throw it away. I didn’t alway understand the reason for it.
So, I set out to make the best chocolate cake I could that worked each.and.every.time.
I started working on the recipe a few months ago and then, I guess, it got put aside for others and I totally forgot about it. When I found it on a Friday night last month I couldn’t remember whether the recipe was good or not because someone forgot to put notes on it. Can’t imagine who that would be … so, of course, I had to make it to see if it was good.
It was amazing! It was dark and rich. It was firm but tender, rose beautifully in the center and didn’t fall when it cooled. To me, after baking gluten-free for so many years that’s like some kind of black magic.
Once I knew I had a good cake recipe I had to figure out what to do with the cake – a perfect chocolate cake cannot be wasted. It needs to be elevated with some kind of icing to match it’s perfection. I had just the thing! Whoopie Pie Icing!
By now, the whoopie pie craze has run around the whole nation. As someone from Lancaster County, PA where the sun rises and sets on the best Amish bakers anywhere, I’m just a little bit protective of my whoopie pie roots.
To me, whoopie pies originated at my Aunt Donna’s house (also in Lancaster County). That’s where I first remember eating these soft cookie-like cakes as a very young child.
I remember her whoopie pies as delicate, dark chocolate cakes with bright white cream filling with just the slightest crystallization from the sugar. The pies would be wrapped up in wax paper and when you removed it a thin layer of cake would stick to the paper inviting you to swipe your finger over it to get every last crumb. They were that good. This cake, although not in the same shape as I remember, is a little taste of nostalgia for me.
My family loved this thing but I think the best compliment I got was from a friend who is a wedding photographer. You know, wedding photographers love to eat and she’s tasted all the best cakes around Philadelphia. She told me it was the best cake she’s ever eaten and there was no way she could tell it was gluten-free. And, let’s be honest, gluten-free friends – we’re always striving for those recipes to fool even the most skeptical critic.
I hope you’ll love it too.
- 1 ½ c. gf flour (I used King Arthur Measure for Measure)
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 Tbls. Cocoa
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 6 oz. oil (such as refined coconut, avocado or light olive oil)
- 1 Tbls. White vinegar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 ¼ c. cold espresso or strong coffee
- Heat oven to 350˚.
- Prepare baking pan(s) with parchment on the bottom and sides sprayed with cooking spray.
- Combine all dry ingredients and mix slightly.
- Add all the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Pour into pans and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until center is set and toothpick comes out clean.
- (If doubling the recipe, you will need to bake it longer. Start testing it at about 40 minutes.)
- 3 Tbls. Neutral-flavored Gluten-free flour mix (I used King Arthur Measure for Measure)
- 4 Tbls. Milk (For vegan, use a dairy alternative such as coconut or almond milk)
- 2 large egg whites (For vegan use aqua faba, whipped to stiff peaks)
- 1 ½ cup organic, non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening (please do not use Crisco or generic shortening)
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 4 ½ cups 10x sugar
- 2 pinches of mineral salt
- With a whisk or in a small mixing bowl, beat egg whites to stiff peaks adding 4 Tbls. 10x sugar out of the 4 ½ cups to help it stay firm.
- In a large mixer bowl, combine flour, milk and shortening and mix thoroughly.
- Add vanilla and one cup 10x sugar and mix well.
- Continue to mix all the sugar in one cup at a time, mixing thoroughly between each addition.
- Add beaten egg whites and beat well for 3-4 minutes.
- Ice cake or whoopie pies as desired.
- Makes about 4 cups icing.
- (You may have extra from icing the small cake and need to eat the rest with a spoon.)