Mash-Up Monday #3 | Let Us All Eat Cake: Gluten-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Cakes

Hello & happy Monday!

While Mondays are not usually my favorites (especially after coming back from a 2 week vacation), I sincerely look forward to these mash-up Monday posts. This week, especially, lifts my mood because my Monday is a bit sweeter with this particular book review and recipe.

*I received Let Us All Eat Cake by Catherine Ruehl and Sarah Scheffel by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

If you have been following me for a while, you will know that I'm a sucker for most things gluten-free or dairy free - really, anything I can see that will be a benefit for me health-wise without damaging quality and overall flavor. So, naturally, when I saw this book on Netgalley I had to request it. I was dying to test out a recipe find some alternative preparations for classic recipes.

Per usual, my mash-up Monday reviews are short and to the point. Let Us All Eat Cake is fantastic recipe book -whether you are gluten intolerant or otherwise - and will soon be a staple in my kitchen.

Basic info. about this book:

Name: Juice: Let Us All Eat Cake: Gluten-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Cakes

Author(s): Catherine Ruehl and Sarah Scheffel
Review Source: Provided by Publisher in exchange for an honest review

Publishing Company: Random House
Publication Date: September 9, 2014

Genre: Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Rating (out of 5): 4.5

Recommend? Yes!

Where it can be purchased: Book Depository | Amazon

&& here is the recipe I adapted from Let Us All Eat Cake:

Flourless Chocolate Torte Recipe

Ingredient List:

1 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

3/4 cup melted and cooled virgin coconut oil OR unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)

1 cup organic cane sugar

3/4 cup natural (nonalkalized) cocoa powder

4 eggs at room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp fine sea salt (optional)

Yield: Makes (1) 8 inch-diameter cake ; 12-14 servings

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F & grease an 8-inch-diameter cake pan with either cooking spray or coconut oil. *I didn't have a round cake pan available (long story) so I used a 9 x 13 cake pan instead and this worked out, well.

If you do not have a double-boiler, you can create one by placing a few inches of water into a small saucepan or saucepot and then placing a stainless steal bowl over top. The trick here is to not have the top bowl touching the water in the bottom pot. You just want a bit of water in the pot to simply create steam and slowly (and evenly) cook/melt the ingredients in the bowl. I used the bottom of a tea pot :)

With the water simmering (over medium-low heat), add the chocolate chips and the coconut oil into the stainless bowl and gently stir the ingredients together until the chocolate has completely melted. As soon as it is all melted and incorporated into the coconut oil, remove the bowl from the heat (carefully, as it will be hot) and let cool for approximately 5 minutes.

Then you want to add the sugar and cocoa powder and mix until there are no lumps and everything is well-combined. Then add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until just incorporated. DO NOT OVERMIX. At this point, I also add the teaspoon of salt. It is not called for in the original recipe but I find that adding just a dash of salt into most any sweet recipe really brings out all the flavors.

Once mixed, you can pour the batter into your greased cake pan and place in the oven for 40-50 minutes. In my 9x13 cake pan, 40 minutes was the perfect amount of time. When you remove the pan from the oven, the batter might still look wet/loose but it will set after approximately 30 minutes. The authors also recommended not to use the toothpick test to test if the cake is ready.

While there is a berry puree recipe that coincides with the chocolate torte one, I prefer a sprinkle of powdered sugar and some fresh berries with this flourless chocolate torte - yum!

Hope you enjoyed this Mash-Up Monday post & I will be back very soon. Wishing you all a wonderful week!

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Until next time-

❤❤❤

-Jannelle