I’ll be the first to admit that white chocolate mud cake is not my go to dessert. In fact white chocolate in general is normally too sweet for me and I don’t eat a lot of it. What I’ve discovered though is that mud cakes make the perfect celebration cake and there really is nothing better than a moist but delicate cake that is so adaptable! My true goal though? Was to not only make a gluten free white chocolate mud cake but to make it not too sweet either. So if you’re looking for the perfect cake that will suit any occasion and any taste bud? You need to try my Gluten Free White Chocolate Mud Cake!
I’m not the only one that thinks white chocolate can get a bit much, right? My sister on the other hand absolutely loves the stuff and a white chocolate Easter bunny is my go to gift for her at that time of year. I suppose it should really come as no surprise. I don’t even particularly like milk chocolate as it can be a bit too sweet. Though you may have figured that out by now, I swear every recipe on here contains dark chocolate only!!
How sweet is too sweet?!
Dark chocolate in a mud cake though can be waaaaay too overpowering. That’s the beauty of this cake! It’s got those gorgeous flavours of white chocolate and vanilla but not in a BAM! hit you in the face kind of way. Mud cake also makes for a great cake to serve up at any get together or event as it’s so moist. It will also last for days without drying out and freezes beautifully. This is why you see so many wedding cakes made of white chocolate mud cake!!
The other thing I wanted to do here was create a gluten free white chocolate mud cake that tasted amazing to even the “normals” among us. But then again that’s literally my entire goal in life right. That it really is so good you’ll never know it’s gluten free! The key of course is fairly simple, lots of butter and the good quality kind not unsalted rubbish. But beautiful salted butter and of course lots of chocolate. The rest is fairly simple.
What’s in a gluten free flour
Ahh yes the age old topic when it comes to gluten free baking in general. What flour should you use? When it comes to cakes, the light and fluffy kind I opt for a high in rice flour blend. There’s lots of reasons for this some of which you can find out here in this blog post. But when it comes to a beautiful gluten free white chocolate mud cake you don’t have to stress too much about what flour to use. Why? Because mud cakes are designed to be well, muddy!
They’re not so reliant on the flour, the moistness comes from the butter and chocolate ingredients. So you can use any good ole gluten free flour blend here. My favourite of course has got to be Well and Good. You can find it across most IGAs and specialty stores but you can also find it from places like Happy Tummies and other online allergen stores.
Oh and if you’re sitting here like “what on earth is she on about, gluten free flour blends and choices huh?”. Then I recommend you check out my new blog post A Beginner’s Guide to Gluten Free Baking. It really is a great jumping off point before you get baking.
Hold the chocolate… Wait, Really?!
Now in a bid to keep this cake from being overly sweet I’ve also vetoed your normal white chocolate ganache topping. Not that I have anything against ganache, as we all know! But in this case I went for a less sweet buttercream frosting for the filling and outsides. I also make a point of making buttercream with ever so slightly less icing sugar so it’s not quite so sickly sweet. And just to round it off and make it cute and fun I added little bit of ombre colour and some sprinkles. I mean hey, you are NEVER too old for sprinkles!
So in honour of celebrations of all kinds, whether they be big or little, or just because! Celebrate in style with my Gluten Free White Chocolate Mud Cake!
Gluten Free White Chocolate Mud Cake
Ingredients
- 250 grams White Chocolate buttons Nestle brand are Gluten Free!
- 200 grams Salted Butter cubed
- 1 cup Full Fat Milk
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 cup Caster Sugar
- 2 (280grams) cups Gluten Free Plain Flour
- 1 1/2 tsp Gluten Free Baking Powder
Buttercream Frosting
- 340 grams Unsalted Butter room temperature, cubed
- 4 cups Icing Sugar
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tbsp Full Fat Milk
- Gel food colouring of choice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 150° Celsius and grease and flour two 22cm round cake tins. Now you can absolutely make this a smaller but taller cake by using an (18cm or 7inch) cake tin if you like but note that your bake time will change slightly, so keep an eye on it!
- In a large bowl saucepan over a low- medium heat stove add your cubed butter and white chocolate pieces. Stir constantly and allow to fully melt together.
- Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in your milk, whisking continually. Set aside to cook for a minute or two slightly.
- In a small bowl crack and whisk the eggs with the vanilla extract.
- Once your melted chocolate mix has cooled enough you can rub some on the back of your hand without burning, you can mix the egg mixture slowly into it. If your chocolate mix is still too hot you may end up scrambling your eggs!! So be sure to check. Add in the caster sugar and whisk to combine.
- Now add 1 cup of the flour and slowly mix together. Once completely incorporated add the second cup of flour and the baking powder. Whisk thoroughly, you can't over beat this recipe.
- Divide your batter in two and pour into your prepared cake tins. Bake in a low oven for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean and the middle of your cake springs back when pressed.
- Allow cakes to cool in their tins for 5 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack and allowing to cool fully. Now you can prepare the frosting!
Buttercream Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or using hand held beaters) place your cubed butter. Turn it up to high speed and whip the butter until it is very light in colour and beautifully creamy. Ideally about 5 minutes.
- Add 2 cups of Icing Sugar and turn your stand mixer back on, only a low setting to start. Once the sugar has started to incorporate turn it back up to high for a minute. Add in the vanilla extract and whip again for 30 seconds.
- Add your remaining 2 cups of icing sugar and follow the same process. Start on low until well mixed, then up to high speed again for 3 minutes.
- Add in the milk and slowly mix together. Then pop back onto a high setting and beat for another 3 minutes.
- Now it's time to add your colour! If you'd like to do an ombre` effect like I have here simply add a small amount of dye to start with. Once happy with your first (lightest) colour scoop a good 2-3 heaped tablespoons of frosting out into a piping bag and set aside.
- Pop a few more drops of the same colour into the frosting again, (repeat the step above) mix to combine. Once happy with the colour scoop a few tablespoons out into another piping bag and set aside.
- Finish with a larger quantity of frosting which will not only be your top ring colour, but the top and middle of the cake. Add a few more drops of dye and beat. Transfer a few tablespoons to a final piping bag and set aside.
- To assemble the cake place a little dob of frosting in the middle of your serving plate and place your first cake upside down on top of it. This will act as glue and hold your cake in place!
- Dollop on and smooth out frosting (as much or as little as you like). This will sandwich between your two layers of cake. Place the second cake on top right away,
- To create the ombre` effect: Pipe one solid line of your first icing colour around the base of the cakes. Follow this with a second line in your second colour and finish with your third.
- Using an offset spatula or straight knife (being sure to keep it the same way up the entire time) start scraping the frosting lines in a continuous motion. Scrape off any extra as you go and back into the bowl. This will blur your lines of colour and give you that gorgeous ombre` look.
- Finish off the cake by piling the remaining frosting on top and smoothing off!
Notes
- You'll also find the outer edges tend to brown quite quickly (just another mud cake symptom!) you can if you like carve it off with a bread knife if you like. I like it though, adds a nice little bit at the end of my slice.
- Remember when using Gel food colours to only use a tiny drop at a time before beating well. Colours will also intensify over time so you may find the depth of colour will increase by the time you serve your cake!
- This cake freezes beautifully. Simply wrap in wax paper then cling wrap and into a tupperware container. Then just pull out and let it come to room temp when you need it... or are just feeling like cake... at 10pm at night!
- You can create a tall layer cake by doubling the recipe and baking between 4 tins!
- You can make this recipe as cupcakes too. Simply use a large ice cream scoop to scoop batter into a cupcake/muffin tray lined with patty cases. This recipe makes approx 18 cupcakes. Bake for 30 minutes.
What will you be celebrating with my Gluten Free White Chocolate Mud Cake let me know in the comments below?!
Oh and don’t forget to pin this baby for later!!
This cake is so cute! I haven’t used much white chocolate in my baking before so I’m keen to give this a try – my sister in law in gluten free so would appreciate it!
Oh definitely give it a try Cassie and let me know what she thinks! Like you, I don’t normally bake with it either due it being too sweet, but that’s why this cake works so well! Enjoy and thanks for stopping by! xx
I love white chocolate! It looks like that I found an awesome cake for my mom’s birthday celebration!
Fantastic Magdalena! I hope she loves it as much as I do!! Wish her a Happy Birthday for me! Thanks for stopping by xx
Oh yum…Im so excited to be coming accross all these delicious gluten free receipies. I need to be very careful as Im a sweet tooth!
Oh I know it’s bad isn’t it Abby! I have one hell of a sweet tooth too so I often trial recipes and send the results to work with my hubby so they don’t sit at home with me! 😛 I’m so glad you’re loving the desserts!
Looks beautiful! My daughter would love the pink icing!
Haha me too! I really just wanted to do something extra girly this time 😉
You had me at white chocolate! I love white chocolate and in a cake, even better! Love that this is gluten free! I bet it tastes amazing! I’ll be making some cakes here in the next month for my son’s birthday! I’ll definitely have to save this for some ideas later!
Oh fantastic!! Definitely whip it up for your son’s birthday! Being a solid cake it’ll make a great one for shaping/molding too, so go nuts with it if you want to turn it into something extra cute! 😀
This sounds really good! I love how detailed your instructions are too btw 😉 pinning!
Thanks Susanne! You know I do tend to go a bit crazy with details huh lol but I always find when reading a recipe that it’s lacking, like what do I need to look out for to know it’s done/right?! Hence my extra details! I figure there must be more people out there like me 😛
I love chocolate mud cake but I can’t say that I’ve had a white chocolate mud cake or a gluten free one either, but this cake looks yummy. I want a piece..
Oh my goodness Vicki, you need to try it!! Especially, this one is just lightly sweet unlike a lot of plain white chocolate (which can be almost sickly sweet!). Definitely give it a try, I’ll guarantee you’ll love it 😉
Ohhh! White Chocolate! I think me and husband would love this! Can’t wait to try this recipe in the future.
Oooh you definitely need to whip this up for yourselves then!! I hope you enjoy it! xx
Yum, that looks so delicious! I think the buttercream icing is a nice touch with the cake too. The ombre effect is stunning! 🙂
Thanks Mica! Yeah I just got a bit sick of seeing mud cakes only covered in ganache, so thought I’d change it up. It was also my first try at the ombre effect. SO thank you so much!! I can’t wait to try it again on a bigger scale 😉
Hice, thanks for the recipe. I wonder whether it can be made into cupcakes?
Hi Yael,
Thanks so much for stopping by!
They certainly can be done in cupcake form and are particularly fabulous! Simply reduce the cooking time to 30 minutes. I believe they make between 12-18 cupcakes.
Thanks!
Stacey