Chocolate Orange Cake (Gluten Free Or Not)

Jaffa Cakes! That is what they are called but they are not cakes.  They are hard to describe...but they are pieces of spongey goodness dipped in dark chocolate with an orangey bit in the middle.  When we are in England, my son and I really enjoy them.  Richard would have them if he could get some that are gluten free! I wonder if I could make a cake that would be similar in taste for Richard that is gluten free?  And then, I wonder if I could make one for my son that is made with wheat flour.  Turns out, I can!  Would you like to know the recipe?  Here it is!

Kay's Almost Like A Jaffa Cake: (Please note how to easily make this gluten free).

1 1/2 cups flour           (For gluten free- use 1 cup almond flour, 1/2 cup rice flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt  (I think this is 1/8 tsp)
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
Mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl.

2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup orange juice
Mix all the wet ingredients together in another bowl.  Now, pour the wet into the dry.  Or, do like I do and just mix each one of those into the dry ingredients one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
I don't use a mixer, I just beat everything together with a fork.  We really need to use our muscles, ladies and gentlemen, why should machines do everything for us?
Have you remembered to grease and flour your pans?  Well, if you're anything like me you forgot, but hey, that batter isn't going anywhere.  Do it now, and then pour the batter in and put in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for...I think they took about 20 minutes but I couldn't swear to it in a court of law, you have to check. Your oven might be hotter than mine. Just peak at them and get them out when the cakes look done.  Now, with the gluten free cake, there was just enough batter for a nine inch cake pan.  For the regular cake for my son, I used two eight inch pans, but I could have just put it in the one pan.  Since it was 80 degrees outside, I wanted them to cook ASAP, so I put them into two pans.

Buttercream Orange Frosting:

3 3/4 cups Confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
3-4 tablespoons orange juice

You can use a mixer for this if you like.  Once again, I just used a fork.  I didn't have this much sugar, so I just used what I had and made just a little bit of frosting for Richard's gluten free cake.  I had even less when I made the regular flour cake so that was really more like a glaze.  It still had that chocolate orange taste that I was looking for!  Let the cakes cool and then frost them with this icing and place pecan halves around the edge for decoration!
 
  GUESS WHAT!?!  I just asked my son to do a blind taste test to see if he could tell which cake was gluten free and which one was not...AND HE GUESSED THE WRONG ONE!  He really couldn't tell any difference between the two!  That is wonderful news for folks on a gluten free diet!

They might not look like much but they both tasted really good.  That is the gluten free one on the bottom with the thicker frosting and that is the regular flour one on the top for my son.  The ONLY difference between the two recipes is the flour that I used for each one. 

While the cakes are baking, let's look outside my house, shall we?

Little chickadees on our bird feeder. They look like the blue tits in England, but these are black and white, very similar in behavior though.

Our cherry trees are just beginning to show their beautiful blossoms. 

The pink begonias in the pot have survived the wintertime in the garage during the times of cold weather.  When it is sunny, Richard has brought them outside.  The pansies are beginning to bloom quite nicely.

We love the dusty miller, we keep some in pots to put against the more colorful flowers, it makes for quite a contrast.    I say "we" but honestly, it is  Richard that does all the gardening.

Hope you enjoyed seeing some birds, flowering trees and flowers at our home! Let me know if you make the cake.  If you make any changes, let me know that too!  Hope you are enjoying Spring wherever you are.  It was 82 degrees today in Atlanta,  which broke a record for the highest temperature for this date.   I was hoping for a bit of a Spring before we went straight into summer...oh well!

Oh, I almost forgot...if you look at the SIBOL blog for today www.sunshineinternationalblanketsoflove.blogspot.com you will see that there is another article about SIBOL in the magazine KNIT TODAY, the April issue. (This is a magazine in England).  This is the same photo that was in the March issue of INSIDE CROCHET.  My photo is on the bottom row, the 2nd one from the left.  That is  the flower called "snow in summer " I am posing in front of...it was taken on the Eastbourne seafront in England.