Allergy-Free Birthday Cake #2

Not a perfect recipe yet, still working on it, but getting close and the kids scarfed it up, especially drizzled with some non-dairy chocolate syrup.

cooking spray, oil or shortening for greasing pan
alternative flour for flouring pan (I used rice flour)
1 cup superfine sugar (or regular sugar, whirled in a blender)
115 grams Spectrum Organics Shortening (no trans-fats, yay!)
2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Wheat-Free Biscuit and Baking Mix
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup rice milk
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)

Prepare 9 in x 2 in cake pan — grease, then cover bottom with cut-to-fit parchment, then grease again, then flour. Tap off excess flour and keep pan in refrigerator until ready to use. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream sugar and shortening in mixer bowl, about 30 seconds. Add flour, applesauce, vanilla extract, rice milk, and cocoa powder. Continue beating until combined well, about 3 minutes. Bake for about 40-45 minutes in the middle of the oven. Test cake for doneness using a skewer or cake tester — it should come out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack 10 minutes. Take knife and carefully slide it around pan to loosen cake. Turn over gently to release cake then turn over again onto plate and set aside to cool.

Changes I’m thinking of making:

try different kinds / a combination of different flours
try it “marbled” — half of the batter mixed with melted non-dairy dark chocolate, then swirled together in the pan before baking.
we haven’t tried it frosted, so that’s also on the list.

The cake should be moister and denser than a regular cake, but that’s okay, my kids thought it was good, so yours might like it too. It should not be “wet” though. I made this twice in November, but lost the pics when our desktop crashed.