A Review of Two Cakes

This week I have tried out two new cake recipes with the hopes of increasing my gluten-and/or-dairy-free arsenal.  


For Valentine's Day, I made a Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake that is so insanely and marvelously good that I think the recipe had to have been Divinely Inspired.   Originally I bragged that this cake would also be sugar-free; in the end it was not.  Although it can be made as such, I am still on the hunt for less expensive sugar alternatives.  The sugar source erythritol (which is what this recipe called for) is reported to have the lowest impact on blood sugar levels of available sugar alternatives, and I am excited to try baking with it to see if its aftertaste is as noticeable as Splenda's, or other alternatives on the market.  However, with a current cost of $17 a pound, it isn't exactly in my cake-testing budget. I am open to suggestions and alternatives. :)  Please stay tuned; I will have sugar-free cakes in the future!


This GF, DF cake has a dense, moist texture, and isn't very crumbly.  It works well for medium-sized layer cakes, like an eight- or nine-inch round, and I think would be amazing with a cherry or raspberry filling.  There is also a white, vanilla "sister" cake, if you aren't a fan of chocolate.   






Dairy-Free Tres Leches, or "Tres Mentiras", needs some tweaking, but it will get there!
  
The cake was dry and almost tough, partly because it didn't absorb the "cream" very well, partly because (in my professional opinion) I think it was just a dud of a cake recipe. The next time around will hopefully result in a more absorbant, lighter cake with stronger vanilla overtones to balance the definite coconut flavor. It may have to be renamed "Tres Cocos", or whatever "Three Coconuts" is in Spanish. 


If you like coconut, this cake is for you.  I have never tasted creme of coconut before making this cake - heavenly, luscious stuff! I am hooked. I can't wait to play with it more; perhaps a dairy-free, tropical tiramisu? My culinary muse has been awakened.