Double Chocolate Clementine Vita-Mix Cake and Cupcake Recipe

Double Chocolate Clementine Vita-mix Cake

Double Chocolate Clementine Vita-mix Cake

In February of 2007 I found out I could not eat gluten ever again.  Not too long after that I found out I couldn’t eat rice or dairy.  For the past 3 years I have learned how to convert my cooking pretty easily to accommodate this. I have finally started to take on baking as the last frontier in the world of making things for myself and my family.  Let me say it’s been a very long time since I’ve had a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

Well the wait is over!  Let me tell you, I think I’m in love.  This chocolate cake with chocolate glaze is the most moist, delicious cake I’ve ever eaten.  It doesn’t have that strange texture you can sometimes get from gluten free baking.  My whole family is so excited.  They are begging me to make this cake again.  I had to search but I found one last bag of Clementines so we’ll be having cake again this weekend, but then not for some time.  Not because I couldn’t try it with oranges or another fruit, because we would over eat.

So if I were you I would stop reading this right now, run to the grocery store and grab any clementines left you can find.  If you are out of luck, well give it a try with some oranges.

I can thank Shirley from gluten free easily for helping to make this happen.  Back in December last year she shared her recipe for Double-Chocolate Clementine Cake on her blog and also through Friday Foodie Fix when the Secret Ingredient was Clementine.  As soon as I saw it I knew I was going to have to give it a try.  I had already decided 2010 was going to be my year to learn about baking gluten and dairy free.

With my husband’s birthday coming I thought this would be a great cake to make.  Now I happen to have a bad habit of not reading the entire recipe when baking before I start and it often gets me into trouble.

For instance I didn’t realize she had baked it in an 8 inch springform pan.  I only had a small one, around 5 1/2 inches.  So I quickly grabbed my cupcake pan.

OK, ready to go.  First thing it said was to cook the clementines for 2 hours.  What, we had to leave the house in 1 hour.  Well I was not going to finish my day with no cake.  Luckily I had just purchased a Vita-Mix Professional 500.  I’m still learning all about this wonderful machine but let me say, I don’t know why I waited so long to get one.  Yeah, it costs a lot of money but not like buying a car.  Save up a little at a time and get  yourself one of these gems.  Amazing smoothies, sherbets right from the container in 5 minutes and even hot soup!  Deep breaths Diane, deep breaths.  I’m so in love with this.  I really wish I had purchased it at the beginning of my gluten free journey.  Eating those amazing green smoothies is so good for your body.

But back to my cake dilemma.  So I thought with the soup setting on the Vita-Mix I am able to make steaming hot creamy soups in 5 minutes so why not clementines for this cake.  So I scrubbed them, tossed them in with a splash of OJ, set it to hot soup and pushed start.  I even Skyped Shirley to ask if this would work.  She had not tried it before but was anxious to hear.

When the Vita-Mix turned off, yes it automaticly turns off at the end of the pre-programmed cycles, I had a hot velvelty creamy mixture of clementines that looked divine.  It looked so good I had to taste it.  Wow, talk about tart.  Suggestion, don’t taste it until it’s baked into the cake.

So I baked the cake and cupcakes and set them out to cool.  The glaze also called to be made in a sauce pan so I thought, why not.  I tossed all of the ingredients into the Vita-Mix and hit hot soup.  The most amazing hot chocolate glaze came out of that pitcher I could have shrunk myself and jumped in.

So here is Shirley’s recipe with my adaptations.  As a serving suggestion that made this cake even better if you can imagine that, I served it with my Easy Gluten and Dairy Free Whipped Cream that I make from coconut milk.

One more thing that makes this cake even more special to me.  After I had made the cake and it sat out a day or two we decided to wait until the following weekend to eat it.  I wrapped it and tossed it into the freezer.  When we were ready to eat I took it out that morning so it could thaw.  It tasted like I had just made it.  So are you thinking what I’m thinking.  Move over shrimp and fruit, make room for a little more cake in the freezer!


Clementines creamed ready for chocolate cake

This was so effective that I had to take a taste, but don’t.  Wait until it’s baked into the cake with a little sweetness.

Dry ingredients for cake

Now if for some reason you already have this mixed together it would be like having your own cake mix that tastes better and costs less.

Chocolate Clementine Cupcakes hot from the oven

I got almost an entire pan of these cupcakes in addition to the cake.

Cooled cake waiting for glaze

When I took the cake out of the oven it was a little higher and then it settled.  After it cooled I took it out of this pan to pour the glaze over the top.

Chocolate glaze waiting to be tasted

UPDATE:  Made this again with Brad and he added chocolate chips from Enjoy Life.  Now it’s a Triple Chocolate Clementine Cake and man was it good.

Cake Ingredients:

5 clementines

1/4 cup orange juice

6 eggs

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 1/3 cups Honeyville blanched almond flour (or finely ground raw almonds using your Vita-Mix)  I tried jk gourmet almond flour and it worked great.

1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder- I like Scharffen-Berger

Directions:

Scrub your clementines and cut into quarters.  Check for seeds and remove if you find any.  Add your orange juice and clementines to the Vita-Mix, secure the lid and select the Soup setting.  If you have an older version check the directions for the setting used to make hot soup.  This setting takes 5 minutes.  You may need to tamper the clementines a little at first but the quickly incorporate.

During that time I mixed together the remaining ingredients, greased and lined my spring-form pan with parchment paper, put cupcake papers in that pan and cleaned my knife and cutting board.  When the clementines were done I put them into a bowl so they could cool a little.  I was afraid if I mixed them right in with the eggs I would end up with scrambled orange eggs.

Mix everything together and pour it into your prepared spring-form pan or cupcake pan or both like I did.  Bake at a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes to 1 hour.  With my pan being smaller than the size Shirley used, it took closer to 40 minutes to bake and so did the cupcakes.  Make sure you test it with a toothpick that after inserted comes out clean.  Shirley’s tip is to cover the cake with foil after 40 minutes so the top doesn’t get too brown.

Now is the time to be patient.  Let this cake cool before you spring it loose.  But of course the cupcakes are ready a little faster.

Glaze Ingredients:

4 TB of water

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 TB Olive Oil

2 pinches of Salt

This is a double version of Shirley’s glaze recipe.  If you are making cupcakes you need more since you are covering more surface area.  If you are making just one cake you can go back to a single recipe and cut this in half.  But, nothing wrong with a little extra glaze!

Glaze Directions:

Put all of the ingredients into the Vita-Mix and use the hot soup setting.  When it’s done just pour it over your cake and cupcakes.  Of course don’t forget to put some wax paper under your cooling rack to catch any glaze that might drip off.  After it cooled we pulled the paper out and peeled off the chocolate drips.   It was like eating Dots.  Remember that candy that comes on a long sheet of paper.  Not sure if it’s still around but that chocolate glaze was not to be missed.

This is one terrific cake and I hope if you make it you will send us your photos too.
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This was also shared on Gluten Free Wednesdays and Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.

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28 Responses to Double Chocolate Clementine Vita-Mix Cake and Cupcake Recipe

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