Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Whenever I bake something, my parents give me this look. One of them usually asks me "What are your plans for that one?" They tend to not like the baked goods sitting around the house because a) no will power and b) ants. So what I end up doing 9 times out of 10 is just taking it into work. It always works because I'll either come home with an empty tray or sometimes just a little bit left. But I feel really bad. My manager Jeanie was diagnosed with Celiac disease right before I got home from college for the summer, so she can almost never eat the stuff that I bring in. She gives me these sad eyes when I have to tell her it's not gluten free, and I guess it worked because I made this cake. I finally got my hands on some xanthan gum (a necessary ingredient in gluten free baking) and then used that along side a store bought all purpose GF flour blend, and I was really excited to see how this turned out. My expectations were low since most GF cakes have a weird textural problem. But I truly couldn't have been happier with this cake!

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Marshmallow Filling
Ingredients
Cake- adapted from A Girl Defloured
2 cups of sugar
1¾ cups of GF flour blend
1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
¾ cup of cocoa powder
1½ teaspoons of baking powder
1½ teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
½ cup of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 cup of hot water (recipe calls for hot coffee, but I don't like my cake that dark)

Marshmallow Filling

3.5 ounces of marshmallow fluff (half a small jar)

1 stick of butter, room temperature

1 cup of powdered sugar

½ teaspoon of vanilla

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 stick of butter, room temperature

4 cups of powdered sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

¼ cup of milk

Directions

Line the bottom of two 9-inch round pans with parchment paper, and cover the sides with butter, then cocoa powder. Also preheat the oven to 350. The batter is wildly easy. You only need one bowl. So put all the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, xanthan gum, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt) in the bowl of a stand mixer and give it a little whirl. Then add the eggs, milk and vegetable oil. Finally, add the hot water or hot coffee if you'd prefer. Pour it evenly between the two pans and bake for 30-35 minutes. I managed to do something magical. I opened the oven with about 12 minutes left and seemed to have deflated the part that still hadn't set, so my cakes were perfectly flat. That was awesome. So let them cool in the pans for 5 minutes then flip them out and let them cool on a cooling rack.

To make the filling (the absolute best part), cream the butter, then add the fluff and whip it. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, and that's it! Try not to eat too much of it. The peanut butter frosting is just as easy. Cream the butter and vanilla, add the sugar and milk back and forth, then add the peanut butter. If it seems a little stiff, add a little more milk. It should be smooth and spreadable. Once the cake is cool, cover one layer with the marshmallow filling. Then plop the other cake on top, and spread the peanut butter frosting all over. And that's it!

Reviews
This was so much better than I expected. You could not even tell it was gluten free. Jeanie was really pleased. She ate two slices before 10:00 AM, then took most of the rest home. It was her first cake since being diagnosed and she was so excited. She even told me it was better than her mom's chocolate peanut butter cake, AND it's gluten free! That's high praise. Kevin's step-mom Perri also cannot eat gluten, so I brought her a slice, and she was impressed by the texture. It was still moist and not at all dense, which is rare for a GF cake. My mommy also said it was the best chocolate cake she'd ever had!