As you know, I do a lot of baking for other people. Most people I bake for aren’t even gluten-free–they just like good baking. Which makes me so very happy. To have my gluten-free baking considered just plain ol’ good baking is one of my most cherished accomplishments.
One of the first recipes I adapted to gluten-free is Alice Medrich‘s Fastest Fudge Cake from her book Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate
Is it any wonder that I wanted to make her fudge cake recipe? This is one of the easiest and most delicious chocolate cakes you will ever bake and eat. The cake isn’t really that fudge-y, it’s just a terrific chocolate cake with a nice crumb and a simple ganache frosting that is out of this world! One of the my very first “gluten-free baking for non-gluten free people” experiences occurred at the christening party for the daughter of two of our friends. I was still in the beginning of my gluten-free baking career and I brought this cake. It was so important to me that people liked it. I was relieved and so proud when everyone not only liked the cake, they loved the cake, asked for more, and then asked for the recipe. It was such a wonderful evening for me–and helped me feel empowered to continue on my gluten-free baking path. That was over 6 years ago and I haven’t looked back.
Currently, I have a group of women that I’ve been getting together with for several years for regular lunch potlucks. Every time one of them has a birthday, they request this cake. Sometimes I try to get creative and I bring another cake. Now, these other cakes are always delicious and well-received, but the birthday girl inevitably pulls me aside and makes sure I know to make the chocolate cake next time. I’ve learned to not mess with tradition. And why should I? This is a winner!
On top of being delicious, this cake always looks so elegant. It’s deceptively simple, which is terrific. I really like presenting it on it’s own on a pretty plate. You could get creative and add berries to the side. One time I found some edible gold foil that I crumpled up and put on the top, in the very center, for decoration. Wow, talk about elegant! But, whatever you do, this cake is a knock-out and is sure to please anyone in your life who is a chocolate lover (I’ve even won over some non-chocolate lovers with it, too!).
Fast, Easy, and Elegant Chocolate Cake, Gluten-Free
-adapted from Alice Medrich’s Fastest Fudge Cake
-makes one 8″ or 9″ round single-layer cake, or 10-12 cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cake
1 cup (145 g) Jeanne’s Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (30 g) unsweetened cocoa, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (4 oz, 115 g) unsalted butter, melted and warm (but not hot)
1 1/4 cup (190 g) dark brown sugar (packed)–you may also use light brown sugar if you prefer
2 extra-large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) hot water
For the Ganache
1 1/4 cup (8 oz, 230g) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup (235 ml) heavy whipping cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C/Gas Mark 4.
The best way to prepare your pan for a cake layer such as this is by lining the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper. No other greasing or flouring is needed. By doing this, you make sure the cake doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan, but the rest of the cake has some traction to climb up the sides of the pan to allow it to achieve its fullest possible height.
In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs until they are pale in color and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the brown sugar, beat for 2 minutes more. Carefully add the melted butter, beating on low while you add it to the egg mixture. Beat about 1 more minute. Add the vanilla extract. Beat to combine.
With beater on low, beat in flour mixture. Very carefully add the hot water to the mixture and beat on low until just combined. Pour batter into your prepared pan–pour into the middle of the pan so you don’t shift the parchment paper. Thump the pan on the counter once to release any trapped air bubbles.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes for a 9″ pan and 35-40 minutes for an 8″ pan (or until tester comes out clean). Let cool in pan for five minutes and then turn out onto rack to cool completely. Peel off parchment paper round.
Cupcakes: Line 10-12 muffin tin spots with paper liners or grease well. Spoon batter into muffin tins–about 3/4 full for each cupcake–and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely on cooling racks while you get your ganache ready.
While the cake is cooling, make your ganache.
Carefully heat the cream in a heavy bottomed pan until it is hot–watch carefully, you don’t want it to burn. Take it off the heat. Add the chocolate chips to the pan and whisk until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Wait until the mixture has cooled and thickened up a bit before pouring onto cooled cake.
Once the cake is cooled, place it on your serving plate. When the ganache is ready, slowly and carefully pour the ganache over the top of the cake. You want to cover the top with ganache, and let it drip down the sides to cover the sides. You will have little pools of ganache form on the plate at the bottom edges of the cake. This is fine. You and your guests will want to scoop up these ganache pools as the cake is being served because they are so good!
Cupcakes: Let ganache cool until it is spreadable consistency (not pourable). Frost each cooled cupcake.
Enjoy!
Note: If you use a different gluten-free flour mix, alter the amount of or eliminate the xanthan gum or use a different gluten-replacer, use dairy-free or egg-free substitutes, or change any other ingredients in this recipe, your results may not match my results.
This is the cake as it looked at our last potluck–I bring it in a vintage cake carrier and serve it directly from there. I was in a hurry that day and you can see that the ganache hadn’t cooled much–but it’s delicious no matter what!
This post contains affiliate links–which means that I get a tiny percentage of each purchase you make through the link (at no extra cost to you!). Thank you!
Delicious cake!! I made it for my son’s 12th birthday today. We just started a gluten free diet on January 1st, due to my husband’s and my autoimmune diseases, and it’s been so much easier because of your amazing recipes! The cake fell in the middle. Not sure if that’s common, or if there’s something I can do to remedy that. I may cook it a tad longer next time. Thank you for being so generous in offering all these recipes online! I really appreciate it.
Alice: cakes usually fall if there is not enough structure for them to retain their rise. A simple fix is to let it bake for a little less time. Also, happy birthday to your son!!
Thank you, Jeanne! I made it a second time and it turned out better. Actually I doubled the batch, but then ran into trouble, as I didn’t have two pans the same size…so I had to guess in dividing the batter evenly. 🙂 I made a few cupcakes along with the cake. This time I ended up baking it a bit longer, and it didn’t fall. I think there was more batter in the pan. Anyway…it’s amazing, and I’ll be making it many more times!
Alice: Yay! I’m so glad!
I am new to gf baking however, I am learning more by my mistakes than by my success. However thank-you so much for Baking Blog. I know your recipes are tried and true. The only problem I have I try to convert some of the recipes to dairy free. I know you are going to suggest a non-dairy spread and all have corn which I am also allergic to. So..my question is to you can I substitute oil instead of butter in this recipe to get the same results?
Thank you again for all the hard work and time you put in for us that are on the same path behind you.
Robina: All I can say is try it and see how you like it!
I don’t even know if this web site is still active, but I am gluten-free as of last July, so I only found Jeanne around Christmas. I made this cake this week for my son’s birthday. He is vegetarian/egg-free, so I substituted flaxseed & water for the eggs. This was fantastic! I used a 9×13 pan, & adjusted the cooking time, then after it cooled, I cut it in half & made a layer cake. Luckily it was just for my family, because it didn’t look very pretty, but nobody cared. We used a GF cookies & cream frosting for inside & on top, & refrigerated it for a couple hours. The texture was fabulous, and the taste absolutely awesome! So fudgy & rich–we were all blown away. This is our go-to cake from now on! Thank you, Jeanne!!!
Jenny: Yay! I’m so glad. And I love that you made your own tweaks to it–hooray! Also: it’s my go-to cake, too. It’s kind of the perfect cake. 🙂
FYI – I went to the home page & saw the info for your latest cookbook release. When I said I wasn’t sure if your site was active, it was because other comments this recipe page were from a year ago, but I still wanted to leave my review. I am paying attention, I promise! 🙂
Jenny: No worries :). There are so many recipes on the site–some have more active comment sections than others. Happy to have you here!
Jeanne, I am brand new to gluten free baking. I made this recipe into cupcakes and topped them with chocolate buttercream frosting for a fundraising bake-off. Despite being the only gluten-free entrant, it won the contest for best taste! Thank you so much for helping all of us to be healthy while still eating well.
Kate: Hooray! I’m so glad!! Congratulations!
Hi Jeanne! Last night I made your incredibly scrumptious Elegant Fudge Cake. I used two – 6″ cake pans, as I wanted the layers to be higher. It worked beautifully! I then moistened the top and bottom of the two layers while still nice and warm with “Torani’s Chocolate Syrup. Oh my.
I had some Lemon Swiss Meringue Butter Cream Frosting left over and I frosted it with that. I did use some self restraint/control (which I completely lost later in the evening!), and put the beautiful little cake on my pretty cake stand and popped it into the fridge.
I did finally loose control about 8:30 pm and cut myself a lovely piece, and took pictures for you, too.
I must say that the first bite nearly caused me to swoon, and in fact my eyes watered with genuine tears. I have been refusing to buy any premixed boxed GF product as I am a great baker and own my own catering company. So i’m limited on time to get to play and figure something new out in the GF arena.
Thank you so much for playing with your food and sharing with all of us.
I’m going to take this recipe and expand on it to make some of my life’s favorites. And I’ll share them, too!
Thank you again, Jeanne!
Debbie: Yay! I’m so glad!
I just made this recipe as cupcakes. It made 12 good sized cupcakes. Bake for only 25 minutes.
I am also using the frosting recipe from: https://artofglutenfreebaking.com/2009/11/tribute-to-sheila-lukins-decadent-chocolate-cake/
So yummy!
Sara: Yay!!
I discovered your site while searching about gluten free baking powder (great article you put together btw), and I saw a link to this delicious looking cake. In any case, I’m curious. Do you know the difference between white rice flour, and sweet rice flour? I’ve done some GF baking these past few months, and I’m constantly amazed at how many flours there are. I can hardly keep track!
Now I’m off to explore your recipes…..
Thank you!
Megan: Thanks. They are from two different types of rice. Sweet rice is also called “glutinous” rice. It’s more sticky. Read my Flour Mix post for more info.
I just wanted to say THANK YOU! We eliminated wheat from our diet nearly completely last January and I lost 20lbs in the process. I thought I had given up the opportunity to bake with my children though. I made this cake (although 3 layers, ganache between 1st 2 layers and frosting on top) for my birthday today and it was fantastic. I have also made your pancake recipe and my kids gobbled it up. Can’t wait to try your other recipes and enjoy baking with my children again.
Kristin: Yay! I’m so glad! I felt the same way when I was diagnosed–I was worried that I wouldn’t ever be able to bake with my daughter. Luckily, that turned out to no be true! Yay!
Hi Jeanne,
I am so excited to try this as cupcakes for my friend’s birthday! I love how easy this looks and your comments are so user friendly. I don’t consider myself a baker but your recipes and website do not intimidate and I love that. Thank you! Anne (@littleredhens)
Anne: Yay!! So happy to know this site is helpful for you! And yes–this recipe is so awesomely easy. Also, the ganache can be used as frosting: just let it cool to a spreadable consistency.
I tried making this cake the other day (used your suggested flour mix), I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not exactly the Queen of baking but for some reason the cake just didn’t get the height that it shows in your photos 🙁
I really tried to follow each of your instructions exactly but was disappointed with my result! Any ideas what I did wrong? I used a 9′ cake tin but the cake only ended up about 1′ in height! I really want to use this recipe for my daughters first birthday cake so any advice would be great!
Sonia: The photo is of a cake baked in an 8 inch pan–so it will be a bit higher than one baked in a 9 inch pan. If you want more loft, I would recommend trying it in an 8 inch pan. 🙂
I love your recipes. I use coconut sugar and dates in place of processed sugars, I love the results both in taste and on my waistline. We have adopted a GF and Low GL lifestyle and I can’t tell you the difference it has made in our family. Thank you for the recipes!
Christine: Yay! I am so glad! And you are welcome!
Greetings Jeanne!
Just found your website a few days ago and I’m baking my way through your recipes. Such fun!
I’ve made some substitutions to the mix and the recipes b/c of dietary issues. (can’t have that much white rice)
Instead of 1 1/4 c. white rice flour in the mix – I sub’d 1 c. sweet white sorghum flour and I increased the sweet rice flour to 1 1/4 c.
All else was the same.
Made the Fast/Easy/Elegant Choc Cake first and was it a hit!
My hubby who hates all store-bought gluten-free mixes and products didn’t even know it was gf.
I used 3/4 c dark brn sugar and 1/2 c xylitol. (Next time I’ll use all xylitol – see * below.)
The cake was perfect – great mouth feel – tasted and felt exactly like choc cake is supposed to feel in your mouth. (NOT LIKE THE GRITTY ALL RICE FLOUR MIXES FROM THE STORE!)
Today I made the pancakes with my adjusted mix.
Used xylitol for the sugar, sub’d soy milk. Could not tell they were gf !!!
Did not fall apart in the pan – fluffy – perfect texture.
I did add 1 tsp each of lemon extract and vanilla extract for some added flavor. It was gf heaven!
As I work my way through your recipes, I will be using xylitol for the sugars where possible.
Going forward, I’ll be using my homemade brn sugar * which I make in the food processor with xylitol and molasses.
Sometimes with choc cake recipes, I’ve noticed that “cool” feeling in your mouth from the sugar alcohol when ALL xylitol is used. It doesn’t affect the taste – just the mouth feel.
I’ve learned to add just a little regular sugar to offset that – but I’m really supposed to use just xylitol as my sweetner.
I’ll report back from time to time, if you wish.
Thank you for all your time, effort, and for the thousands of batches you made through the years to perfect these amazing recipes.
Blessings on you and your new cook book.
AnnA
Ann, wow! Thank you so much for all of this information. And xylitol mixed with molasses? What a fab idea! Ppl ask me for alternative brown sugar options–I’ll mention that one. I”m so glad my recipes are helpful for you. It sounds like your are doing terrific things with them! Yay!
Hi Jeanne!
I used this recipe to make cupcakes that I’ll be taking to a dinner party tonight. These are amazing–there’s NO way you would suspect they are gluten free! Not as quick as a wheat flour recipe, but worth the effort. The recipe made 12 cupcakes (I used the baking cup liners) and took about 18 min. in a 350 oven. Now I’m off to ice them with a buttercream icing.
Thanks,
Lynne
Lynne: So awesome! This is recipe is one of my (and my friends’) favorites. It’s the one every requests! So glad it turned out well for you!