29 August 2011

Gluten-Free Quinoa Chocolate Cake

My friend Koleta brought this to a potluck I had recently and it was awesome. I made it with a cream cheese icing (which I will post soon) and it was super moist.

2/3 cup white or golden quinoa
1 1/3 cup water
1/2 cup goat milk >> I didn't have any of this on hand. My mother suggested I use Half and Half cream, which I kind of regret doing (for caloric reasons). Next time I'll do skim milk for sure.
1 tsp vanilla extract >> I always use more vanilla. I easily used 1 tbs.
3/4 cup melted and cooled butter >> what I usually do is cut the butter into cubes (maybe 2cm x 2 cm), lay them out untouching on a plate, and microwave for two short 10 second blitzes. I find this helps you get evenly softened butter, as opposed to a huge brick that is liquefied on the outside yet still cold and hard in the middle.
1 1/2 cups white or cane sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 large eggs

  1. Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Cover and reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave the covered saucepan on the burner for another 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and allow to cool. >>I was in a crunch for time so I spread the quinoa out over a large dinner plate and put it in the fridge for a bit. It would have taken forever to cool down in a hot saucepan.
  2. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease two 8 inch cake pans.
  3. Combine milk, eggs, and vanilla in a food processor or blender. Add 2 cups cooked quinoa (>> I found that using 2/3 cup dry quinoa and 1 1/3 cups water produced exactly 2 cups cooked quinoa. How perfect.) and butter and continue to blend until smooth. >> It will still have a few chunks, obviously.
  4. Whisk together the sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium/large bowl. Add the contents of the food processor and fold until blended.
  5. Divide the batter evently between the pans and bake on centre rack for 40 - 45 minutes (>> I was fine after 40. The toothpick came out clean-ish and the edges had pulled back from the side of the pan). Cool before icing.

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