I have a 7 month old baby…WHAT?! It seems to have both flown by and been the longest 7 months ever.  Time takes on a funny and odd incarnation when you become a mom, you have both a ton of it and none at all.  We have filled our days with naps, walks, visits to the beach, tummy time, bouncing time and lots of trips to Whole Foods.

A few weeks ago I agreed to take on a wedding cake.  Now that Brown has figured out how to take a real nap (1.5 hours in the morning and close to 2+ hours in the afternoon) I figured if I planned it right, I could easily make a cake for 60 guests.  The bride, the sister of my dear friend Brie, opted for chocolate raspberry cake and needed a small portion of the cake to be gluten free.  I haven’t done much gluten free baking so I wanted to test out a recipe or two to get a feel for it and see what might taste the best.

First up with Bob’s Redmill Gluten Free baking mix, which gets rave reviews from the Babycakes Cookbook.  I was not a fan, the finished cake was spongy and flavorless.  I quickly decided that I wanted to try to find a recipe that didn’t use a thickener like xanthan gum.  I came across a devils food cake recipe that used cooked quinoa and well, it turned out amazing! Moist and full of rich chocolate flavor it has a slight brownie like texture.  Freshly baked it closely resembles any other devils food cake recipe, and after a day or two in the fridge it becomes more dense and fudgy, which personally, I loved!

I suggest cooking the quinoa and then spreading it on a sheet pan to “dry” for a few hours.  My freshly cooked quinoa was rather wet and my first test came out a little too moist.  I typically make my cakes in deep pans and then slice them into layers, this cake is stable enough to do that but the directions below suggest cooking it in two layers, choose whichever method you like.  Also, make sure you blend the quinoa/egg mixture till smooth, it takes longer than you think it will.

Congratulations to Tana and Paul!

Quinoa Chocolate Cake (Gluten Free)

2 cups cooked quinoa
1/3 cup nonfat buttermilk
4 whole room temperature eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp espresso powder or instant coffee
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F and then line two round cake pans (or a 9×13” pan) with parchment paper.
Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl (cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, espresso powder and sea salt).
In a blender, combine the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla extract then blend for ten seconds to combine.  Add the cooked and cooled quinoa along with the melted and cooled butter then blend until completely smooth, about one minute.
Add the wet ingredients in the blender to the bowl with the dry and mix together with a rubber spatula until well-combined.
Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the cakes from the oven when tester comes out clean and allow to cool.

Frost and or layer with your favorite frosting and filling.