Gluten free, Wheat free, Yeast free, Dairy free - Dark chocolate and Butter-cream cake

My cousin turned 30 last week. Sssh! Don't tell anyone.

As a gift to her I offered to bake her a birthday cake.

Simple enough you would think.

The thing about this lady is that her diet HAS to be Gluten, wheat, yeast and dairy FREE.

After a bit of research and help from the lovely ladies over at the Irish Parenting Bloggers group I decided to go for this.

A chocolate sponge with buttercream filling covered with melted dark chocolate.

What you'll need:

125g/5oz sugar

6tbsp Sunflower oil

1tbsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 Ripe Banana

150g/6oz Gluten free self raising flour

1tsp of cocoa powder

4tbsp Water

1. Lightly oil or grease proof line a 7" round cake tin.

2. In a bowl, beat together the sugar oil and vanilla.

3. Peel and mash half a ripe banana. Beat it into the sugar mixture.

4. Add the flour, cocoa powder and water and mix well.

5. Pour into you prepared tin and smooth the top.

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 190c/fan170C for 35 minutes.

7. Coll on a wire rack.

The above ingredients are enough to make one sponge. The recipe told me to cut the sponge in half but it didn't rise enough. I baked another one and sandwiched them together with butter cream.

Butter cream recipe.

125g margarine

3tbsp vanilla extract

650g icing sugar

3 tbsp milk (opt)

1. beat the margarine for about 5 minutes. Don't cut on this. You really need to beat the margarine until it's pale and creamy.

2. Add half of the icing sugar and mix.

3. Add the Vanilla. Mix until it is absorbed into the mixture.

4. Add the milk if you are using it now. Mix until it is absorbed.

5. Add the remaining icing sugar and mix for a further 5 minutes. The longer you mix it the better you results will be.

And here is the finished product.

She loved it and it tasted fantastic. 

Her boyfriend didn't even know it was made for her special diet.

Not bad for my first special diet bake.