Cake Diane: Gluten-Free & Chocolate

My biggest peeves in traveling are uncomfortable hotel rooms and the inability to see my friends. So this year, as part of my resolution to reconnect and deepen my relationships with my friends, I’ve decided to start a cake journey as I travel to different cities for speaking engagements.

I am hoping this will open my eyes further when I travel, and to help me learn more about my friends. Life is too short, we work too hard and too much—it’s time I focus on friends and family, and strengthen those bonds. I also knew this would allow me to stay out of hotel rooms and step into the warm homes of friends.

First Stop: Frisco, Texas

Here I visited my friends Brad and Diane Hennings. Di has gluten intolerance, so she’s stayed away from wheat-based products for a few years. Naturally, I had to change the wheat flour portion of my Esteam cake recipe to a gluten-free flour. I have to say, I was very pleased with King Arthur’s Gluten Free All Purpose flour. It was a plug and play situation, and nothing else was needed to replace the wheat flour (of course, I was super impressed by this).

Di also hasn’t had a good Black Forest Cake since she went gluten free. So I decided this cake had to have a chocolate sponge, cherries, Kirsch and fresh cream. Di wanted to call it Cake Diane, an inspiration from Steak Diane. So, I gave it a chocolate fudge cover with a white chocolate cream sauce to serve over each individual slice. We planned this before we hit the grocery store.

Exploring Texas Grocery Stores

While she wanted to get all the ingredients beforehand, I insisted we stopped by a grocery store so that I could check it out. I have a fascination with grocery stores around the world. I believe a community is defined by the food that is sold at their groceries/market, and the best way to learn about a community is to look at the food that they eat.

The in-store bakery at Market Street was stocked full of bakery products, and had a large variety of bread and cake products. I was happy to see such an affordable and delicious offering of baked goods.  We bought dinner at the deli (another favorite thing of mine to do when traveling cause this gives me the opportunity to discover local flavors) and toured the baking aisle. I was very impressed and fascinated at the the gluten-free aisle. An entire aisle dedicated to the gluten-free lifestyle? I was so happy for Di.

Time to bake Cake Diane!

It was 8 pm when we got back to Di’s kitchen, and I started the process of steaming the chocolate cake. I forgot to ask Di to stock alkalized cocoa powder, and realized there was only regular cocoa powder. So I had to add extra cocoa powder to give the sponge the correct color and flavor. I was crossing my fingers that this wouldn’t collapse the cake. Thank goodness it didn’t, and the cake steamed out very nicely. She was impressed with the chocolate Esteam cake. I was amazed by my ability to make the Esteam system work in her kitchen using her tools.

So one piece of this journey surprised me. It wasn’t the cake or Di. It was the environment. When we started steaming the cake, Di started bringing out all her kitchen tools. She had 5X more tools that I would ever accumulate in my entire life!

While we were baking, I learned that Di is part of a FB group that talks about black cats. She loves black cats and had two beautiful ones. One of them, Smokey, died the day before I visited. I was glad I was there cooking with Di to keep her mind preoccupied. I can see that she missed him already and Harper, the other black cat, was meowing in loneliness as well. My journey brought me to her world at this difficult time. I was trying to divert her emotion into Cake Diane.

I was lucky I was making this cake in a well stocked kitchen. She had everything I needed and some more. So much more that she sent me home with a magnet, a set of measuring cups and spoons. I told her this would come in handy as I travelled. They will be my traveling set.

Later, we looked at old cook books and I realized American women in the 60s were called by their husband’s names. I was more fascinated by the names women addressed themselves as than the suet pudding recipe on this page.

The next day after my speaking engagement, I brought an extra guest back for the cake cutting ceremony. Her name was Yuzhu, and she’s a scientist at Kellogg. I wanted her to be part of this adventure, and I am happy that she joined us. Hopefully one day, we will look back on this picture and say: “Co-extrusion is nice, but sitting at the Sweetwater Cafe and chatting is nicer. And Cake Diane is awesome.”

Cake and Memories

I was pleased with Cake Diane. The cake was moist, the chocolate, cherries and cream all tasted great in this combination. Here are the pictures. Remember, I’m not a cake decorator, so my cakes look more like the cakes from ‘Nailed it’ than the ones in ‘cakes’.

After the cake cutting ceremony, we just sat down and talked. This was by far the best part of my journey. We had many deep conversations that night, like the one remembering  our 10 cent wing nights at Tula’s in Manhattan, Kansas. Back then, Di was a buyer for the local JC Penney’s store, and Brad was a co-worker of my husband Dean’s at the Junction City Dillon’s Pharmacy. We missed hanging out with our friends, Janti, Greg, Aaron and Sophia, and Namfone. Namfone, currently an esteem professor at the Thai University, was a poor grad student then. When she would come to wing nights, she would order a water and 10 wings, with her total tab at $1. The group covered that up by buying dozens of wings and jugs of beer.  Looking back, that dollar allowed us to spend time with one of the world’s renown starch scientists.

The creation of Cake Diane was a great start to my tour. I look forward to having deep conversations around kitchen tables as I travel from city to city around the world. Next stop, Chicago.

Esteam Cake Diane

Batter

  • 200g Eggs (separate whites and yolks)
  • 225g Sugar
  • 200g All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
  • 2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 125g Water
  • 25g Cocoa Powder
  • 20g Vegetable Oil

Filling

  • 75g Chocolate
  • 35g Sugar
  • 20g Cream
  • 10g APGF Flour

Directions

  1. Grease the 9” ring baking pan. Get the steamer ready.
  2. Beat egg whites and sugar until firm peaks. Set aside
  3. In another bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Add in the egg yolks, water and oil and mix well. Scrap the sides and bottom of the bowl.
  4. Fold in the egg whites.
  5. Pour into the ring baking pan.
  6. Place half of the batter into steamer and steam for 10 mins.
  7. microwave the cream and chips for 30 secs. Mix the filling ingredients together.
  8. Pipe it on top of the cake, and pour in the remaining batter.
  9. Steam for 20 mins.
  10. Remove the cake from the steamer and drop it onto the counter (5” fall)
  11. Cool the cake for 30 mins before removing it from the pan.

Cherry Filling

  • 454g Cherries (frozen or canned)
  • 168g Juice
  • 3 tsp Cornstarch
  • 100g Sugar

Directions

  1. Mix the cornstarch with the juice
  2. Place the cherries and sugar into a pot.
  3. Stir over medium fire until hot.
  4. Pour in the starch slurry.
  5. Cook until the slurry is clear.
  6. Cool mixture in the fridge
  7. Dissolve gelatin for the Kirsch Cream and the Fudge

Kirsch Cream

  • 150g Powdered Sugar
  • 600g Whipping Cream
  • 1 1/2pk Gelatin
  • 1/4C Cold water
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 2 Tbsp Kirsch

Directions

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in the cold water.
  2. Heat it in the microwave till it dissolves (about 1.5-2min). Set aside.
  3. Place the powdered sugar into the mixing bowl with the whipping cream.
  4. Add the vanilla and kirsch
  5. Whip until firm peaks are obtained.
  6. Pour in the cooled gelatin mixture.

Fudge

  • 150g Chocolate Chips
  • 50g Sugar
  • 1 Tbsp Vanilla
  • 160g Cream
  • 3/4 pk Gelatin
  • 1/4C Water

Directions

  1. Mix the gelatin in the water, add in a third of the cream.
  2. Microwave the mixture for 1.5 mins.
  3. Melt the chocolate in this slurry.
  4. Let it stand for 5 mins
  5. Add in remaining cream
  6. Cool in the fridge till it gets to 90 F.

Building the Esteam Cake

  • 1pk toasted sliced almonds
  1. Place the ring of cake on a plate or cake board.
  2. Pipe a layer of cream in the center
  3. Place in the cherries
  4. Pipe the cream on top of the cherries
  5. Repeat this step until all the cherries are used up.
  6. Cover the entire cake with the cream.
  7. Cool the entire cake for 2 hrs.
  8. Pour the fudge on top of the cake
  9. Place nuts on the sides of the cake.
  10. Cool and set in the fridge.

White Chocolate Sauce

  • 80g White Chocolate
  • 80g Heavy Whipping Cream
  • 1 tsp Vanilla

Directions

  1. Heat the whipping cream in a pot
  2. Melt the white chocolate
  3. Add in the Vanilla
  4. Cool
  5. Drizzle it on top of a slice of Cake Diane

Enjoy!