Gluten and Dairy Free Chocolate Ganache Cake

What can I say.  I love chocolate and I love cake.  I found this awesome recipe that I tweaked just a little to suit my tastes.

For the cake:
2 cups of gluten free all purpose flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar (I don't like my cake overly sweet but if you do, add in 2 cups)
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used rice)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I make my own)
1 cup of hot, strong coffee (to bring out the chocolate)

For the ganache (original recipe here):
3/4 cup non-dairy milk of choice (I used rice)
1/4 cup soy margarine (I used Earth Balance)
1 bag of  62% dark cacao chocolate chunks (or whatever you want to use)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease the 2 loaf pans with non-stick, non-flour spray. 

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Add in the oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Stir in the hot coffee last. Split the batter into the two loaf pans.   You want the cake to be done about an inch or so below the pan so you only want the batter to fill it about halfway. 


Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.


Ganache:
In a small saucepan, heat the milk and margarine until the margarine melts.  Add in half the chocolate and stir until melted.  Add in the rest of the chocolate and stir until melted.  Make sure you stir often so the chocolate doesn't burn. Once melted, turn off burner. 

By this time, you should have about an inch or so of space from the top of the pan to the cake.  If you don't, you can cut some of the top off.  Pour the ganache evenly on top of both cakes.  Refrigerate for at least two hours and serve chilled.

My notes and observations:
The first time I made this, I made some cupcakes and poured the rest of the batter into a loaf pan.  I also bake with my toaster oven.  Yeah.  Don't laugh.  I really do.  My regular oven doesn't work and I have more control with my grown-up "easy bake oven".  I put too much batter into my loaf pan so while the top was baked to perfection, the middle and bottom was not.  The longer it stayed in my GUEBO (Grown Up Easy Bake Oven), the beautiful perfection that was the top layer started to burn.  So, I ended up cutting a good bit of the top off so that the rest of the cake would bake. 

I had "frosted" the cupcakes with ganache and tried it warm and it didn't excite me.  Between the cake and the ganache not being too sweet, it did leave me wishing I added some sugar to the ganache.   But I didn't.

I was already running late for work so I just poured in the rest of the ganache on top of the cake (mostly to hide the uneveness of it) and stuck it in the fridge.  And by golly, this must be what it's like to make things by accident! Not only did the cake turn out delicious served chilled but once cut, I loved how the ganache filled in the dips of the cake.