Gluten free chocolate brakes???

I say 'brake' because I want to call it a brownie but it was in fact supposed to be cake. It does actually taste like something in between the two and very nice but I'm no Mary Berry, well not yet anyway.

It all started with me looking at my breadmaker and thinking that I hadn't used it in a long while so I wondered what I could create. I felt a bit in need of something chocolatey and found a recipe for chocolate cake in the breadmaker's instruction book which came with the machine. I've not done a lot of baking in this as you can tell but practice makes perfect eh?

Here are the ingredients I used or was meant to use (no wonder it didn't turn out right).......

150g unsalted butter (I used salted)
3 medium eggs ( I used 3 large ones)
1 tsp vanilla extract (got that right)
2tsp lemon juice (used jif lemon - could have been in the fridge a while)
60ml tepid water (what exact temperature is tepid?)
125g caster sugar (looked liked I'd robbed a sugar factory)
250g gluten free plain white flour
3 level tsp gluten free baking powder (got a spirit level out to make sure it was level)
3 level tbsp gluten free cocoa powder (again always use a spirit level)

So I melted the butter in the microwave because I cannot fanny about with a pan and left it to cool slightly.

I beat the eggs in a jug and added the vanilla extract, lemon juice and water.

I placed the flour in a mixing bowl and sieved in the baking powder and cocoa powder. I made a well in the centre and poured in the egg mixture followed by the cooled down butter and I mixed well with a wooden spoon just like the instructions told me to do.

I then poured this mixture into the breadmaker baking pan, selected the cake programme and let it do it's thing.

When it had finished baking I left it to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes ( I'm not making this up, the book told me to do that). Sounding like a professional though am I not? My creation eventually made it out onto a wire cooling rack and I waited patiently for it to cool.

It passed the test of the chef and two teenagers, one that would probably eat a plate of asbestos if put in front of him, not that I would because that's just cruel and very unhealthy. It was a bit dense in texture, the cake not the asbestos, but I'm thinking there may have been too much egg mixture and I did use my flour straight from the freezer instead of letting it to warm to room temperature.

With all that though it tasted ok and nobody has been ill so that's a good sign. I'll give it another go and see what happens. I am more used to oven baking but I don't want my breadmaker to be one of these gadgets that sits in the kitchen unused, unloved and forlorn.

Gluten free cake and bread can be a bit dense as it needs stuff to keep it together and prevent it from being a crumbly mess. With no gluten to keep it together it is sometimes difficult to get the right texture but I'll work on it. The thing is there was no picture in the book to see what it should look like. I hate that.....I need a photo of the masterpiece it should be so that I can compare. It is only the instruction manual so it maybe a good idea to look for other recipes elsewhere.

If you have a bread machine give this a go and then put me to shame because yours came out a lot better. I hope you've enjoyed my cooking lesson for this week. Tune in next week as I also made a sun dried tomato loaf, I bet you can't wait for that.

For now though you take care and I will return tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday. Be good and......

​keeeeeeeeep baking.