Rick Bayless’s Rustic Amaranth Chocolate Cake
“When we don’t have the words chocolate can speak volumes.”
Joan Bauer
Rick Bayless’s Rustic Amaranth Chocolate Cake was divine. Earthy, fudgy, deeply chocolaty and gluten free, just perfect for to satisfy the sweet tooth in the ‘attempting to go wheat free‘ better half. He does give in to the occasional temptations … read keema stuffed naan at Purani Dilli’s Al-Karam Kebab House or then my recent addictive from scratch baklava.
Still, I continue to look for alternatives that fit in to wheat free stuff. Found the cake recipe while googling for an amaranth chocolate cake since my amaranth brownies turned out really nice. I was surprised though at the lack of baking online solely with amaranth. Amaranth offered great texture to the gluten free dark chocolate recipe I was trying to develop.
Rick Bayless’s cake was the only simple amaranth cake I found. It was as rustic beautiful as the name suggested. Beautifully moist too. If you want to pretty it up for a birthday, you might consider topping it with mascarpone or pastry cream, some balsamic reduced fruit, maybe a chocolate lace collar like I’ve done on this Bittersweet Dark Chocolate Fallen Cake.
The fallen chocolate cake is often referred to as the ugly duckling chocolate cake, a gateau that collapses somewhat on cooling. For me, it’s what makes this cake special, the moorish appearance it takes on. Just a sifting of sugar or cocoa, or maybe a touch of grated chocolate adds oodles to it’s character!
The verdict was reason enough for me to bake it again very soon. Using good quality dark chocolate makes this cake shine. It went rather fast. Amaranth or no amaranth, the kids loved it too! You really can’t tell that it’s an amaranth cake. It slices neatly once cool, and tastes quite like a flourless chocolate cake, indulgent in every bite!
Summary: Gluten free, deep, earthy and divine, Rick Bayless’s Rustic Amaranth Chocolate Cake impresses. A fudgy and chocolaty cake, which serves up rustic goodness to please the chocolate lover in you. Serves 6-8.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 100g good quality dark chocolate (60-65% cacao), coarsely chopped
- 100g butter, softened
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup amaranth flour
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease an 8-inch springform pan.
- In a medium sized, microwave-safe bowl, melt together dark chocolate and butter, stirring every few seconds until mixture is smooth.
- Allow to cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, combine sugar and eggs and beat at medium-high speed until mixture is fluffy and has doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla and salt.
- Stir in the chocolate mixture, then sift in the amaranth flour and stir it in until no streaks of flour remain visible and batter is uniform.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, until cake is set and jiggles only slightly when the pan is gently shaken. Allow to cool completely before slicing. Cake may fall as it cools.
[/print_this]
Don’t miss a post 
Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
16 Comments
sangeeta khanna
lovely lovely cake this is. I am so glad to see you baking with these flours 🙂
Yes Amaranth flour behaves like nut flours in a cake, especially if there is enough fat in the batter. You made the cake soo sooo good..
bakingflavours
Your beautiful creations always inspire.
Rosa
Wow, this cake is terrific! I love its looks and addictive texture. Something I will definitely try soon.
Cheers,
Rosa
Suby
wow !!!! NICELY DONE CAKE ……….
Lizzy (Good Things)
How absolutely divine! I need to get some amaranth flour asap!
My Unfinished Life
yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!
Trishnanta
This cake looks terrific. Going to try soon. Do you have the measurement in grams for all ingredients by any chance?
ruchira
So beautiful. You no get amaranth in ze isloo. I wants to eat
Coco in the Kitchen
Simply gorgeous.
Just the idea I needed for what to take to my sister’s
tomorrow night for Thanksgiving.
Thanks, Deeba! xoxo
Safa
I live in Kozhikode, Kerala and have a tough time finding a LOT of the ingredients (whipping cream, almond flour, cream cheese etc) required for baking some of the gorgeous stuff I see on the internet. Could you tell me where you got your amaranth flour from? I LOVE your blog!
Deeba @ PAB
Thank you Safa. You are very sweet. I got my amaranth from Fab India. I sometimes make my own almond meal, at other times some kind soul from abroad gets me some. I make my own quark so dont use cream cheese. You are lucky you live in ‘vanilla bean’ country!
carla jones-harris
I have made this cake several times, following the recipe to the letter. Any ideas on why it comes out less than 1 inch high? TIA
Deeba @ PAB
I haven’t made this in years Carla. Perhaps try a smaller tin? I’ve gone eggless in my baking now else I would have given it a go.
Machine Cut Cubic Zirconia
Awesome post, thanks for sharing this post..
Ventair Modular kitchen
Wonderful post and the recipe looks amazing.
Thanks for sharing such valuable post… 🙂
T Jac
Dear Deeba
I love your blog and have tried several recipes on it with success and have bookmarked even more for later (next on the list is to try making mascarpone!). I love your writing style and of course, the photographs!
I have been meaning to try amaranth in my baking for ages and just haven’t gotten around to it. Where I live I haven’t seen amaranth available off the shelf, so I ordered some online. I just saw the reply to the comment above and must look in FabIndia!!
I must say the smell of the stuff when I opened it made me skeptical but the end product was truly amazing. For my own taste I would use less sugar next time but the family deemed it just perfect.
The end product was very brownie-like (no complaints there, but I was wondering if that’s what was meant to happen or if I got something wrong). Looking at the lack of leavening agent in the ingredients I’m guessing that’s what it was set up to be.
Overall verdict- yum and will definitely make again!
Thanks a lot for the recipe and your lovely blog.