If you listened to last week's podcast you maybe heard tell of a certain cake. This is that cake. It's a chocolate fudge cake layer, topped with a chocolate chip cookie dough layer, topped with a bittersweet chocolate layer, topped with a chocolate buttercream. I'll be honest, it took about 5 hours and a cycling of springform pans, but Jeremy, Theo and I enjoyed every last bite of this piece of heaven, after after the buttercream had turned to buttercream soup from being banged around on the back of my bike. Oh, and it's 100% gluten-free and dairy-free.
It's very, very far from sugar-free or fat-free, though, which is why it tastes so good. You can also make this recipe with regular old all-purpose flour, milk, and butter instead of soy-free earth balance, cane sugar, icing sugar, tapioca flour, and white rice flour, but for those of us who are lactose-intolerant and gluten-intolerant, this is probably one of the most amazing cakes you'll ever eat. I do not write that lightly.
I really don't suggest making this unless you have a fair bit of time. You can make it over the course of two days (or one very long day) if you only have one springform pan. The trick with gluten-free flour is to sieve it to lighten it, and whisk it when combining. Stir it as little as possible. Think of it as egg whites (soufflé, mousse, meringue) that you don't want to lose their volume. You don't want that dense, gluten-free flour taste.
Ingredients
Bottom Chocolate Layer:
1/2 cup tapioca flour (not starch)
1/2 cup white rice flour (not glutinous rice flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup organic unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 vanilla bean, split open lengthwise and seeds scraped out with a spoon* (or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)
1/3 cup sunflower oil or canola oil
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup cold water
Middle Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Layer:
1 1/2 cups tapioca flour (not tapioca starch)
1 1/2 cups white rice flour (not glutinous rice flour)
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups cane sugar
1 tsp molasses
1 cup earth balance
1 vanilla bean, split open lengthwise and seeds scraped out with a spoon (or 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract)
1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
5-6 tbsp almond milk
Top Chocolate Layer:
1 oz. bittersweet, dairy-free chocolate (either weigh it or calculate it out. From my bar of my dark Green & Black's Organics, it was about 1/3 of the bar)
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot coffee or water
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp almond milk
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1 vanilla bean, split open lengthwise and seeds scraped out with a spoon (1 tsp vanilla extract)
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup cane sugar, tightly packed
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup earth balance at room temperature
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1 1/2 cups earth balance
4 cups powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean, split open lengthwise and seeds scraped out with a spoon (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
2 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt