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Chocolate “Love” Cakes {Gluten-free} and Sweets for Your Sweeties Recipe Round-up

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Gluten-free Chocolate Love Cakes - A decadent chocolate treat to share with your loved ones!

Each Valentine’s Day, I love to bake up a fun treat for my family. We never go out for a date on Valentine’s Day, preferring to go out on a less-crowded night, so I try to make a special meal and dessert at home. I vary it each year, but these little “Love Cakes” have been a part of our Valentine’s Day several times! The cakes have the best texture on the day after baking, so I recommend making them the day before you plan to share them – which is handy if you are a nighttime baker like I am! You can bake them, let them cool, store overnight and frost the next day.

I use one of my favorite gluten-free chocolate cake recipes to make these little heart-shaped cakes. They couldn’t be easier to make either, using this Wilton heart pan that bakes 6 heart shaped cakes at a time. This is definitely a treat that your kids can help make and decorate too!

You are probably thinking right now that you don’t need another pan, but I can attest that I’ve gotten a lot of use out of this pan over the years! Every year for Valentine’s Day, I also use this heart pan to bake my boys’ favorite gluten-free peanut butter banana chocolate chip muffins in! They enjoy coming down for breakfast. I like those little things like that to make the holidays special.

Ingredient Notes:

  • I like to use part Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa and part regular cocoa in both the cake and the fudge frosting. It adds that deep dark color to them both. In the recipe below I note that, but you are welcome to just  use all regular baking cocoa instead of any dark.
  • As always, I only recommend baking with a good quality all-purpose gluten-free flour blend. All flour blends are not created equal! I recommend avoiding flour blends that contain any bean flours or that are primarily rice flour, as you’ll get a more gritty result. This recipe, like pretty much all of my recipes, has been tested with successful results with both Gluten Free Mama’s Almond Flour Blend and gfJules gluten-free flour and I recommend either one. Two other flour blends that I’ve been testing some (but not this recipe yet) with good results are Cup4Cup and Pamela’s.

Before you print off my recipe below, I wanted to share 15 more recipes from my friends for “Sweets for your Sweeties”! Check out all the delicious gluten-free recipes they made:

Sweets for Sweeties - 15 Gluten-free Recipes to make for your loved ones for Valentine's Day or anytime!

15 Sweets for Your Sweeties – Gluten-free recipes to share with your loved ones for Valentine’s Day or anytime. Listed in the order they appear in the photo, left to right, row by row:

 

Gluten-free Chocolate LOVE Cakes - yummy treat for Valentine's Day or anytime!

Without further ado, here’s the recipe for these delicious cakes!

Chocolate "Love" Cakes {Gluten-free}

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Total Time
Yields 21 cakes

These have the best texture the day after baking them. On baking day, they have a more spongy texture, by day 2 they have the perfect moist crumb!

Ingredients

    Cake

    • 2 cups good quality gluten-free all-purpose flour blend*
    • 1 tsp. xanthan gum (omit if using a flour blend that contains xanthan)
    • 2 cups sugar
    • 1 tsp. baking soda
    • 1/4 tsp. salt
    • 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
    • 1/3 cup cocoa powder (for extra dark color, use part or all Hershey's special dark cocoa)
    • 1 cup water
    • 1/2 c. buttermilk
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

    Fudge Frosting

    • 1/2 cup butter
    • 1/2 cup cocoa powder (I do 1/4 cup Hershey's dark cocoa, 1/4 cup regular cocoa)
    • 3 2/3 cup powdered sugar
    • 6-7 Tbsp. milk
    • 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

    Directions

      Cake:

      1. Spray cooking oil in the bottoms and sides of your heart shaped pans or muffin pan and set aside.
      2. In your mixing bowl, combine flour, xanthan gum, sugar, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
      3. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, cocoa, and 1 cup water. Bring just to boiling, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and add to dry ingredients, beat until combined.
      4. Add buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla and beat for one minute on low-medium speed.
      5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
      6. If using the mini heart shaped pan or cupcake pan, pour ¼ cup of batter into each opening.
      7. Bake at 350° for 17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs (no wet batter).
      8. Let cool in pan for 4 minutes, then turn over pan and the little cakes should just fall out.
      9. Wait to frost until completely cool.

      Frosting:

      1. Using a medium glass bowl, melt the stick of butter in microwave.
      2. Whisk in cocoa powder, then return to microwave for 1 minute.
      3. Add powdered sugar and milk alternately, beating with a hand mixer until creamy.
      4. Add vanilla last, beating in until mixed well.
      5. If you use this frosting while still warm, it is easily spreadable and has the glossy finish when dried like you see in the photo but can slide off of whatever you are frosting. If you let it cool completely, then it firms up and can be placed into a pastry bag for piping for decorating cakes or cupcakes. The icing can be refrigerated to use later; just microwave 10 seconds at a time, and stir, until you get to the right consistency for piping or spreading.

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      Recipe Notes

      As always, be sure to double-check your ingredients for gluten. Feel free to try this with your preferred gluten-free flour blend, but I only guarantee a delicious, non-gritty result if you use one of the flours I recommend - gfJules or Gluten Free Mama.

      For the cocoa powder, I like to use about 1/2 of dutch-processed or Saco blend cocoa and 1/2 Hershey's special dark cocoa. That is how I achieve a nice dark brown to my cupcakes and icing.

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      Gluten-free Chocolate Love Cakes for Valentine's Day - Easy and delicious treat to make for your sweeties!

      Related posts:

      Chocolate Cupcakes with Fresh Raspberry Frosting {Gluten-free}
      Gluten-free Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Chip Buttercream
      Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Mini Bundt Cakes (dairy-free)

      Thanks for sharing!

      Comments

      7. Currently my kiddos have been loving a recipe I found in a vegan/GF cookbook called “Death by Chocolate Muffins” I was going to spruce them up for love day, but might just have to give these a try instead.
        And I am not sure which colored mixer I’d like, something fun for sure 😉

        Reply

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