Gluten and Sugar Free Devil's Food Cake

When I was a kid, more times than not there was an Entenmann's Devil's Food Cake with Marshmallow Icing in the freezer.  It was always my dad's favourite cake (and eating it frozen was the only was to eat it).  A few years back though he found out he had diabetes so he couldn't really eat the cake anymore.  This year for his birthday I wanted to take a stab at trying to recreate it not only gluten free, but also completely sugar free.  The devil's food cake recipe and the way I alter it to make it gluten free yields a moist, rich, delicious devil's food cake.  I actually would love to try this recipe again for myself with real sugar.  I used Splenda, which I do have to admit has a little bit of an aftertaste, but I think because of the flours I chose to use it was an extremely minimal aftertaste.  The icing is what through me off.  At first I tried to make my traditional marshmallow icing I make which is basically whipped egg whites and add basically a boiled homemade simple syrup, but that was a bit of a disaster with splenda instead of sugar.  So I did some research, and someone recommended using Sugar Free Jello Instant Pudding with heavy whipping cream and to my surprise it worked out great!  It actually was pretty damn close to Entenmann's for being Gluten Free AND Sugar Free!  And like I said, if you're not sugar free this would probably make a great just gluten free devil's food cake!

Gluten and Sugar Free Devil's Food Cake

Cake recipe adapted Food Network Kitchen
Made Gluten Free and Sugar Free by Jesicakes
Makes about 2 9" round cakes
Print Recipe for Cake and Icing

Ingredients for the Cake

- 1 cup brown rice flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 12 Tbsp butter, room temperature
- 2 cups + 2 Tbsp Splenda for baking*
- 3/4 cups cocoa powder (I use Hershey's...any that isn't Dutch processed is fine)
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1/4 cup almond milk, or milk of choice

*It is important to use the baking Splenda because it is a 1:1 replacement...if you use regular granulated Splenda this will be intensely too much sugar.  Just make sure if you buy the Splenda to check it's recommendations for the ratios.  And if you want to make this with regular sugar you can replace the Splenda with the same amount (2 cups + 2 Tbsp).

Ingredients for the Icing

Icing Recipe by SugarEd Blog
- 1 Large box of White Chocolate Sugar free Jell-O pudding mix
- 1 cup low fat milk
- 2 cups heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Prepare cake pans by placing cut parchment along the bottom and greasing the sides (I make one 6" round to keep to take pictures with, and a 7"X7" square pan to make it look like an Entenmann's cake)

Whisk together the brown rice flour, almond flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Beat butter until smooth on medium, ~2 minutes. 

Add the sugar, than increase the mixer to medium-high and beat until smooth, ~4 minutes.

 Reduce the mixer to low, add the cocoa and the vanilla.  Beat just to mix it in and scrape down the bowl if need be.

On medium-low, add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute between each addition.

In a saucepan, combine the water and milk.  Bring to boil then remove from heat.

Add flour mixture gradually to the mixer on low

Add the hot liquid to the batter with the mixer on low.  When generally incorporated, remove the bowl form the mixer and finish mixing it with a spatula by hand.

Divide the batter between the pans.

Bake 30-35 minutes, until the cakes are firm and they pull away slightly form the edges of the pan.  Make sure to turn halfway through baking to ensure they bake evenly.  

Allow cakes to cool for at least 10 minutes before you flip them out of the pans.

When the cakes are cool you can level them if you'd like.  I took the parts I leveled and crumbled them are crumbs for the top of the cake.

You can make the icing either while the cakes bake or while they cool.

In a mixer, add the milk and the pudding mix.  Quickly mix until just absorbed.

Add the heavy cream and beat until light and fluffy.  As with making whipped cream, this process may take a little time.  Beat until the icing is nice and thick.  

I just iced it on flat, but it should be able to be piped (according the the site I got the recipe from).  Using the white chocolate jello pudding surprisingly tastes almost marshmallow like when the icing it complete so it was the perfect solution for sugar free icing for this cake.

And voila!  Ice the cake with the icing, top with crumbs and you have you're own version of Entenmann's Devil Food Cake but Sugar Free AND Gluten Free!

The richness of the almond flour I think is what combats the "Splenda" taste very well in the cake.  And the icing you'd never know was sugar free.

It's the perfect cake for someone who needs to either eliminate or reduce the sugar in their diet.

Tweet