Gluten Free Devil’s Food Cake with Mocha Buttercream Frosting

This is called Devil’s Food cake as it is a dark, dense, moist cake with more chocolate than a regular chocolate cake and with buttercream frosting that makes this cake sinfully delicious 😊. This cake is also gluten free and honestly, you will not be able to tell the difference!

I had tried baking cake using gluten free flour and did not like the texture of the cake, but this is very different as it uses a combination of flours like, rice flour, cornstarch, potato starch and sorghum flour. Sorghum flour, also known as jowar flour, is a great substitute to wheat flour for gluten free baking.

Recipe from faithfully gluten free – https://www.faithfullyglutenfree.com/gluten-free-devils-food-cake-with-mocha-buttercream/

Ingredients

Dutch-processed cocoa powder – 64 gm
Hot coffee (or water) – 1/2 cup
Milk – 1 cup
Unsalted butter, softened – 170 gm
Granulated sugar – 140 gm
Brown sugar – 160 gm
Large eggs – 3
Vanilla extract – 2 tsp
White rice flour – 142 gm
Potato starch – 76 gm
Cornstarch – 9 gm
Sorghum flour – 34 gm
Xanthan gum – 1 tsp
Baking powder – 2 tsp
Baking soda – 1 tsp
Salt – 1/4 tsp

Mocha Buttercream:

Unsalted butter, softened – 226 gm
Dutch-processed cocoa powder – 84 gm
Gluten free vanilla extract – 1 tsp
Instant espresso powder – 1/2 tsp
Confectioners’ sugar – 200 gm
Water – 4 to 6 tbsp

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line two 9-inch round baking pans with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, mix together the Dutch-processed cocoa powder and hot coffee. Let it sit for a few minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.
Sift together the white rice flour, potato starch, cornstarch, sorghum flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl when necessary. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Mix until well blended.
Add the milk to the cocoa/coffee mixture.
With the stand mixer running on low, add half of the sifted dry ingredients to the mixer. Mix until nearly all blended. Add the cocoa mixture, and when that is incorporated, add the rest of the dry ingredients. Once it is all incorporated, divide the batter between the two prepared pans. Place on middle rack in preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Remove cakes from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before running a knife around the outside of the cake and inverting the cake onto a wire cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting. Before frosting, you can either cut each cake in half horizontally, giving you a four-layer cake, or leave each layer as is, giving you a two layer cake.

Mocha Buttercream:

With a hand mixer, beat together the butter, cocoa powder, vanilla, espresso powder and confectioners’ sugar. Slowly add enough water to reach desired consistency. You want the frosting to be stiff enough to hold its shape, but soft enough to easily spread over the cake.
Use an offset spatula to frost the cake as desired. This recipe makes enough frosting to frost a four-layer cake, but just enough. If you want a thick layer of frosting, make another half recipe.