Gluten-Free Goodness

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cake

This is a delicious way to satisfy your sweet tooth even if you cannot eat gluten or dairy products.

Ingredients:
1 cup corn meal
1 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup peanut butter
¼ cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Mix together the corn meal, brown sugar, and baking soda.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, and mix in the peanut butter, canola oil, and vanilla.
4. Pour the dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture and mix well.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips if desired.
6. Pour the batter into a greased or parchment paper lined cake pan. A 9x13” pan works well but a slightly smaller pan or two 8” round pans would be fine as well.
7. Bake the cake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Hints:
• If you use unsalted peanut butter, you may want to add ¼ teaspoon of salt to the dry ingredients before mixing in the peanut butter.
• Using crunchy peanut butter adds tiny peanut pieces to the cake, which I quite enjoy. If you don’t want the nut pieces, however, go for creamy peanut butter.
• If you or someone you are serving this to have celiac disease or some other gluten intolerance, make sure you use gluten-free vanilla and wash out all cooking utensils to avoid wheat contamination.
• If you wish to frost the cake, I would recommend making either a peanut butter or a chocolate cream cheese frosting. For peanut butter, just mix cream cheese, peanut butter, and powdered sugar until smooth and creamy. For chocolate you could melt chocolate chips and then mix in the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Alternatively, you could use cocoa powder instead. For any of these methods, using electric beaters is the best way to avoid cream cheese clumps and get a smooth and creamy result.