Gluten free chocolate cake

My daughter’s 4^th birthday was this week and she asked for a chocolate cake with My Little Pony decorations. So I pulled out my Hershey’s Gluten Free “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake Recipe (https://www.hersheys.com/recipes/en_US/recipes/96550/glutenfree-hersheys-perfectly-chocolate-chocolate-cake.html). I decided to add a little twists to it. I saved a meme on Facebook about how to make boxed cake mixes taste more like bakery cakes. So, here it is my version of Hershey’s Gluten Free “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake.

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups gluten free all-purpose baking mix (I used Krusteaz Gluten Free All Purpose Flour)

¾ cup Hershey’s Cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup (2 sticks) melted unsalted butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup hot coffee.

Directions: Heat oven to 350° F. Grease two 9-inch round baking pans; dust with cocoa.

Stir together sugar, baking mix, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Mix one at time: eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Beat on medium with mixer for 2 minutes. Stir in hot coffee (batter will be thin). Pour into prepared pans.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for at least 5 minutes; remove from pans to a wire rack. Cool completely before icing.

Since my daughter wanted a My Little Pony Cake, I decided to do a vanilla buttercream. I did two different recipes for buttercream icing. The first recipe is simply to frost the cake and the second recipe for the decoration.

Vanilla Buttercream Icing:

Ingredients:

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1/3 cup heavy cream, or milk or half and half

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Cream butter in mixing bowl. Alternately add powdered sugar and heavy cream, beating to spreading consistently. Frost cooled cake.

Vanilla Buttercream icing for decorations:

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks on unsalted butter, softened

6 cups powdered sugar, sifted

½ cup heavy cream or milk or half and half

2 teaspoons vanilla

For colors: Red, Blue and Yellow food dyes

Directions:

Combine butter, 4 cups of powdered sugar, heavy cream, vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time beating for 2 minutes after each additions until icing is desired consistency.

Divide icing into 4 1 cup bowls: add dye to 3 bowls to make desired color: Red, Yellow, and Blue. Leave the fourth bowl just white.

Place colored icing into prepared piping bags. With a #5 round tip, create semi-circles along the bottom border to create small rainbows. With leftover white icing, create clouds as a border. On top of the cake, with a #10 round tip, create a rainbow, with white clouds at the ends of the rainbows. Place My Little Pony decorations and write Happy Birthday message.

My daughter was extremely happy with the end result. The cake was moist and very chocolaty. I had so many compliments on this cake that this recipe is a keeper.