Gluten Free Chocolate Orange and Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

1. 250g of unsalted butter

2. 250 g gluten-free plain flour (I used Doves) plus extra for dusting the cake tin!

3. 250g of granulated sugar

4. 4 large eggs

5. 1 Orange

6. 11/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

7. 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder (I found this in M and S and Tesco)

8. 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (I found this in M and S and Tesco)

9. 5 tablespoons cocoa powder

10. 3 tablespoons milk

Topping:

1. 200 g icing sugar

2. 4 tablespoons cocoa powder

3. Twirls

4. 1 Orange

5. Espresso (Lavazza)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190. Line you cake tin with a little butter and a dusting of the gf four – this will avoid sticking! Its not funny when a cake gets stuck in a tin…trust me.

2.Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy and then crack in the eggs and mix.

3. Add the vanilla extract.

4. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and xantham gum (this is great at keeping gluten free mixtures together to avoid the dreaded gluten free crumble).

5. Add the cocoa powder to make it extra chocolatey and fold until mixed. Grate the zest of your orange into the mixture, chop the orange in half and then add the juice of half of the orange.

6. Add the milk gently and stir as you add.

7.Put the mixture into a cake tin and cook for around 20 minutes – to check its done put a knife in it and make sure it comes out clean, if there is still mixture on the knife it needs a little more!

8. Whilst you are waiting for the cake to cook, put the icing sugar, cocoa powder and espresso (I just used Lavazza powder – only a pinch is needed no more unless you want to be awake all day and night or you are a hard core Italian) into a bowl. Squeeze in the juice of the whole orange and mix. This will make the icing sugar into a liquid.

9. When the cake is done and cooled spread the topping onto the cake and leave it to melt and then solidify. I make sure that I don’t put it right to the edges as it will expand. Decorate with Twirl Bites or your choice of sweet treat and voila…a cake!