By Special Request!

Following on from yesterday's post, we've received some lovely comments from those who know Jean. I hope she has read them all and sees how much her skills and friendship are valued and admired.

Jean asked me to post a recipe for the chocolate cake I once made from a recipe books she gave me. The actual recipe is dairy free (as well as gluten and wheat free). I'm OK with dairy foods, so here's my version of "Chocolate and Almond Sponge", taken originally from Julia Thomas' Gluten, Wheat and Dairy Free Cake Angel book.

Ingredients:
250g butter
250g sugar
250g beaten eggs (about 4 eggs)
2tbsp milk
1tsp vanilla extract
170g wheat and gluten free self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder
1tsp xanthan gum
11/2tsp gluten-free baking powder
30g ground almonds
little cocoa for dusting

What to do:
Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/Gas 5
Grease and line the base of two 8"/20cm sandwich tins with baking parchment.
Using an electric mixer on a high speed setting, cream the butter and sugar for about 3 mins until light and fluffy.
Beat the eggs, milk and vanilla extract together and gradually add these to the butter and sugar mixture. (Don't worry if it curdles - the addition of flour will sort this out or alternatively turn the mixer to a higher setting)
Fold in the sifted flour, cocoa powder, xanthan gum, baking powder and ground almonds using a large metal spoon so you don't knock the air out.
Spoon the mixture into the two sandwich tins, smoothing to the edge with the back of a dessert spoon.
Bake for 20mins or until the cakes start to come away from the sides of the tins and are firm to touch..
Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 10 mins before turning out

Filling:
I used a basic butter cream filling to sandwich the cakes, but if you want something a bit more chocolatey, Julia Thomas suggests:

A chocolate filling:
Blend 55g butter and 2tbsp milk until smooth
Add this to 55g of good quality (60%) cocoa) dark chocolate which has been carefully melted.
Add to this half a teaspoon of vanilla extract
Beat in 185g icing sugar, until thick and creamy (adding a little more milk if required). The icing will firm up as the chocolate cools so it is better for it to be slightly soft initially.

Sandwich the cakes with your chosen filling and dust with cocoa powder.

Sorry but at the time I didn't take a photo of the finished cake but that's a favourite one of Lulu to compensate!