Gluten free Microwave Chocolate Cake

A festive chocolate cake that is gluten free can be a very welcome addition to a special occasion, especially where something is needed in a hurry for a celebration that crops up unexpectedly.

This festive chocolate cake can be made in a comparatively short time as it can be prepared quite quickly and then cooked in only about three minutes in a microwave oven. It is easy and fun to make and the ingredients are readily available in most larders, apart from the rice flour, although if there are people in the house who need gluten free food you will most likely have that, too.

• This recipe is an adaptation of my Giant Cupcake, which can also be found on HubPages. The quantities here are larger and rice flour, cornflour and baking powder are substituted for the self-raising flour in that recipe.
• Although this festive chocolate cake is gluten free it is delicious and can be enjoyed by all the family, whether or not they need gluten free food.
• This cake is moist and will keep for a day or two - if it is not eaten immediately!

Some words of warning:

• I have researched, but am still not sure if nonpareils are gluten free. They are composed of sugar, starch and food colouring. I suspect that the starch may contain gluten; it would not be much as the main ingredient is sugar, but a different decoration may be a better choice.
• Once the dry ingredients and the liquids are being mixed together, it is best to work as quickly as possible so that the Baking Powder does not begin to rise before the mixture is placed in the oven, otherwise the cake may not rise as well as expected.

While the cake cools on a wire stand, prepare the icing.

• Place a knob of butter and two tablespoons milk in basin and heat in microwave until butter is melted.
• Sift together 1 cup of icing sugar, ¼ cup cocoa and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
• Add the dry ingredients to the liquids and stir until smooth.
• Place cake on plate and pour icing our over cake.

While the icing is still warm, simple decorations may be added. There are many creative ideas that could be used, but I did the following:

• I sprinkled the top with nonpareils (hundred and thousands)
• Placed chocolate-coated nuts in the centre
• Made twice the quantity of icing, stirred in desiccated coconut, shaped spoonfuls into balls, making them into chocolate roughs. I placed the roughs on a tray to cool, and then arranged a dozen of them around the edge of the plate (see the photo of the finished cake at the top).
• Guess what happened to the rest of the chocolate roughs?!

I'm sure you will have your own ideas of quick and easy decorations to add.