Gluten-free Dark Chocolate Caramel Pecan (“Turtle”) Cake
Posted January 2017
This really dresses up the dark cocoa cake. Someday I would like to make this cake with homemade caramel but for now, I just buy the candies. Although cutting the warm cake is a bit gooey, it is best to cut the cake into squares before the caramel completely cools and hardens. The type caramel I used fought back when I tried to cut it after it had cooled.
Have ready:
Pour half of the batter into a greased 9” X 13” baking pan.
Melt 25 soft chewy caramel candies and drizzle across the top of the batter in the pan. Sprinkle 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans on top of the caramel. Then spread the rest of the cake batter on top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean (if it just has caramel but no cake batter on it, the cake is probably done but you could test another spot to be sure).
Melt the remaining caramel candies and drizzle on top of the cake. You could also wait and put the melted caramel on top of each piece of cake as you serve it. If you want to make the cake even richer, you can sprinkle more chopped pecans on top the cake and drizzle some chocolate sauce over the top of each piece of cake as you serve it.
Posted January 2017
This really dresses up the dark cocoa cake. Someday I would like to make this cake with homemade caramel but for now, I just buy the candies. Although cutting the warm cake is a bit gooey, it is best to cut the cake into squares before the caramel completely cools and hardens. The type caramel I used fought back when I tried to cut it after it had cooled.
Have ready:
- Soft, chewy caramel candies (The candies I used are a soft, chewy, individually-wrapped caramel candy that comes packaged with about 38 pieces in an 11-oz bag.)
- 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
- 1 cup cooking oil
- 1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt (not Greek yogurt; if you use plain yogurt add 3 Tbsp sugar and 1 extra tsp vanilla extract)
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup brown or white rice flour
- 1/2 cup potato starch
- 1/2 cup quinoa flour
- 1 cup teff flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 3 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp salt
Pour half of the batter into a greased 9” X 13” baking pan.
Melt 25 soft chewy caramel candies and drizzle across the top of the batter in the pan. Sprinkle 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans on top of the caramel. Then spread the rest of the cake batter on top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean (if it just has caramel but no cake batter on it, the cake is probably done but you could test another spot to be sure).
Melt the remaining caramel candies and drizzle on top of the cake. You could also wait and put the melted caramel on top of each piece of cake as you serve it. If you want to make the cake even richer, you can sprinkle more chopped pecans on top the cake and drizzle some chocolate sauce over the top of each piece of cake as you serve it.