There’s nothing like a sweet treat to top off a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner. And in my opinion, it better have some chocolate in it! Enter these cute little individual chocolate cakes with strawberry whipped cream, topped with a celebratory strawberry heart. And better yet, they’re gluten free and dairy free, although if you don’t have allergies, you could substitute cake flour and real whipped cream.
The individual chocolate cake recipe is adapted from a Cooking Light recipe for 5 ingredient chocolate cakes. I’ve made it gluten free, and added the strawberry for a little pink and red Valentine’s Day touch.
My first attempt at dairy free strawberry whipped cream failed. I incorporated pureed fresh strawberries into the coconut cream and there was just too much water in the strawberries. It made the whipped cream runny. Next I tried strawberry preserves and that not only gives a thicker cream, but also a more intense strawberry flavor.
These individual chocolate cakes with strawberry cream fit the bill any time you’re looking for something festive and just a bit decadent to top off a meal!
- For the cake:
- ½ cup sugar, divided
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 ½ Tbsp dairy free margarine, melted and cooled
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 large egg whites
- ⅓ cup Bette Hagman’s 3 flour gluten free blend from The Gluten Free Gourmet cookbook (see notes for how to make blend)
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- Pinch of salt
- For the chocolate sauce:
- ¼ cup water
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 Tbsp dairy free margarine
- ½ tsp sweet rice flour (also called glutinous rice flour, found in Asian markets)
- For the Strawberry Cream
- One 14 oz can full fat coconut milk or coconut cream (see notes on what to buy)
- ⅓ cup strawberry preserves
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- A few fresh strawberries, sliced
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease 4 ramekins with margarine and sprinkle with 2 Tbsp sugar. Invert ramekins and tap out excess sugar.
- Mix 3 Tbsp sugar, ⅓ cup water, 1 ½ Tbsp margarine and 2 egg yolks in a large bowl.
- Mix ⅓ cup gluten free flour mix, ¼ cup cocoa and pinch of salt in a bowl.
- Add flour mixture to egg yolk mixture and stir to combine.
- Place egg whites in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until foamy.
- Gradually add 3 Tbsp sugar, beating and continue beating just until peaks form that do not collapse.
- Stir ¼ of egg white mixture in yolk mixture.
- Then fold in remaining egg white mixture.
- Pour batter into ramekins and place on a sheet pan.
- Bake in center of oven at 350 degrees F about 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- Mix all ingredients: water through sweet rice flour in a small sauce pan over medium heat.
- Heat whisking until mixture thickens. Keep warm.
- Open can of coconut milk/cream from the bottom (the water usually settles on the bottom) and drain out the water.
- Spoon out hard cream into a large bowl.
- Add ½ tsp vanilla and strawberry preserves.
- Beat with an electric mixture on high until it forms a nice fluffy cream.
- Run a knife around the edges of the ramekins.
- Invert each onto a small plate to release cake.
- Drizzle chocolate sauce over cakes.
- Cover top of cakes with a few strawberry slices and then a dollop of strawberry cream.
- Trim one strawberry slice for each cake into the shape of a heart and insert standing up into the cream and between the strawberry slices underneath (they’ll help hold it in place).
- Serve immediately.
Making the coconut cream depends on allowing the fat and water to separate while the can of coconut milk sits in the fridge overnight. Unfortunately most producers have added emulsifiers that can interfere with the settling out. One brand, which still seems to work well is Native Forest. Trader Joe’s sells a coconut cream (higher fat content than coconut milk), which works well. Asian groceries may have brands without the emulsifiers (xanthun gum or guar gum). You may want to buy a couple different brands and try them out. The key thing is you want a thick hard layer of “cream” that you use and a layer of water, which you discard.
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