My son will be 8 on Sunday and we will be celebrating his birthday this weekend with my parents and next weekend as a family in a hotel with a pool. Does anyone have ideas for particularly good chocolate cakes, either by mix or recipe? I think I have a couple options but haven't tried any yet and would love to hear what has worked well. We need it to be peanut free as well as gluten free due to an allergy.

Josh has been g/f for around 6 weeks now and it's going better than I thought it would. And he is growing--pants have gone from a size 4/5 to size 7!

marsha

The Bob's Red Mill chocolate cake is the best mix we have tried. It really tastes just like gluten cake. I always doctor it up by adding an extra egg and 2 T of cocoa powder. That makes it really rich. It is also widely available (near me anyway) and not too expensive. Our second favorite is the Namaste chocolate cake mix. I always have to bake it longer than the bag says to, so be aware of that. Happy early birthday to your son! His birthday is the day after mine.

One vote for Pamela's Chocolate Caker Mix. It's better than any Duncan Hines

I've tried the Glutino mix, and have had raves from people who aren't gluten-free.

Ditto the Pamela's Mix. Everyone I've made it for has raved over it.

Believe it or not, the chocolte cake recipe on the back of the Ener-g Rice Flour box is fantastic. As good or better than Duncan Hines--and not heavy the way a lot of gluten-free cakes can be. It mixes up quickly--very straighforward recipe.

(I also love their recipe for banana bread)

We've made both Bob's Red Mill and Pamela's and like them equally as well.

I make this recipe quite a bit. For my son's birthday last year I made round layers - I think I made 3 layers that were not that thick, with icing in-between. After a generous helping of chocolate icing on top, I arranged a ring of plain M&Ms around the top ege. The boys all loved it!

Featherlight Chocolate Cake

1 3/4 cup featherlight flour mix
1/2 tsp Xanthan gum
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1 cup boiling water

beat eggs, add sour cream and vanilla
beat in dry ingredients
slowly add boiling water and mix well

bake at 350 F
9 x 13 pan -- 35-40 minutes
13 x 18 pan -- 17-20 minutes
cupcakes - bake about 20 minutes
8 or 9 inch rounds - about 20 minutes?

Here's the featherlight flour mix
white rice flour 1 cup
tapioca flour 1 cup
corn starch 1 cup
potato flour (not starch) 1 tbsp

Note: flour mix is shelf stable
You can also buy this mix

I made this cake last year, and it was an amazing! The whole family raved about it. Now we are casein free, and just this week I tried to make it w/mayo instead of sour cream, which didn't work. I really miss this cake, lol.

I use the recipe below as a base for most of my cakes. It is really good, turns out consistently, and most people don't suspect it's gluten free! I just add about 1/3 cup of cocoa to it for a chocolate cake.

My son's favorite birthday cake is a black forest cake. You do the recipe below with the cocoa, and bake it in 2 round pans. Then I make chocolate cream cheese frosting (2 blocks of cream cheese, add powered sugar and some cocoa and mix on high until it's fluffy...you may need to add a little milk). The frosting goes on the first layer, and I make a little raised area of frosting around the edges of the cake. Then I dump on a can of cherry pie filling, reserving about 1/3 cup (last I checked Wilders is gluten-free) and top it with the second cake. Cover the whole thing with more frosting, add a little pie filling to the top for decoration...yum! If you have a frosting bag with tips, that works really well to pipe the frosting around the first layer and you can add decorations to the top.

Here's a link to the basic cake recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Gluten-Free-Y...ake/Detail.aspx

Happy birthday to your little guy!

I made the Pamela's mix a few months ago, and all of my gluten-eating roommates loved it, and said you couldn't tell it was gluten-free.

We just tried the gluten-free dreams chocolate cake, and it was great, but the frosting was the best part! They don't come together, both come in boxes, and we loved it! (even my brother who won't touch gluten free food loved it, said it was good, then discovered it was gluten free)

We use the Kinnikinnick Chocolate cake mix. Turns out great every time. Make sure the beat the eggs oil and water for the full time. The extra air in the liquid helps it be fluffy. I make either a homemade buttercream icing or if I am short on time I use Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Chocolate, Vanilla or Cream Cheese icings.

www.123glutenfree.com has the BEST chocolate bundt cake - it does not taste like gluten free cake - taste like regular! No one can tell the difference. I use Earth Balance butter (DF) for the butter needed.

For icing I use the recipe on the back of the Ghiridelli unsweetened cocoa. I substitute almond milk and Earth balance butter for the dairy portion.

Second best is Pamela's brownie mix. You can make cupcakes out of it.

Thank you! We used a Pamela's mix and ended up with the Pillsbury Frosting. It tasted very good.

Marsha

We use Bob's Red Mill Chocolate Cake mix, it makes a great chocolate cake. We also have Kinniknick (sp?) white chocolate cake mix that's gluten free, but it is much more labor intensive.

Hi - I'm going to piggyback on this post because I actually came here to look for some ideas for my son's birthday cake. Is Pillsbury safe? He wants white cake & yellow frosting. I did a test with Namaste cake mix & liked it, but was not pleased w/ the frosting I made from a gluten-free recipe. He's also dairy-free, so I used Earth Balance instead of butter. Although I'm making a lot of things these days for my son, I'd much rather used a store-bought frosting if it's safe.

Thanks for the info.

Lisa

Testing gluten-intolerance for 4 yo son Eli