Transforming a chocolate, all-purpose-flour cake into a gluten-free treat

If you’re like me, often asked to bring the dessert to a party, you might also have noticed that there are more requests for gluten-free desserts. Of course, that could be a flourless cake. Or a terrific fruit salad. Or ice cream.

But the other night I wanted to bring a Bundt cake. In part, that’s because I’d like to get gluten-free baking to be a broader part of my choices. So I took an easy recipe from the food site Food 52. It’s called “Chocolate Bundt Cake,� and it comes from “KelseyTheNaptimeChef,� which might correctly lead you to believe it’s no muss, no fuss.

It’s got cocoa power and a cup of strong black coffee, along with the usual ingredients, including 1 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour. I added an unmeasured scoop of cinnamon (1 or 2 teaspoons, or somewhere in the middle to spark the chocolate flavor a little). And instead of the flour, I used a half cup of ground almonds and 1 1/4 cup of Cup4Cup, an all-purpose flour substitute that has no gluten and comes from the kitchens of chef Thomas Keller.

It cooked in 45 minutes, just like the original. And the diners were … really happy. To my taste, it wasn’t quite as wonderful as I’d like a moist chocolate cake to be, but it was pretty darn good. One test of my baking I often use is whether the host asks me to take it home or wants to keep it. It was helped along by generous dollops of really good, hand-whipped cream. And that’s the time to splurge an extra dollar or two on good cream.

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