Birthdays can be tough when you have celiac disease. You crave the cakes, pies and cupcakes you’ve always had, and most commercially made gluten-free cakes from a bakery or specialty store just don’t cut it. They’re dry and gritty, or way too gummy, and just not very celebratory.

Growing up, birthday cakes were a big tradition in our family. My Uncle Don was a baker and owned a pastry shop across the street from my elementary school. So when birthdays rolled around, there’d always be two: one from the bakery for the big celebration, and then a homemade one for a quiet birthday dinner at home with just my parents and my brother. My mom would try out different cakes each year, but the one I kept requesting — and the one that is still my favorite to this day — is Hershey’s Black Magic Cake. Developed in the 1960s to promote Hershey’s signature products, the cake is suggested served with chocolate icing, but to me that’s overkill. Here’s the secret: My mom’s peanut butter icing. It will rock your world.

My mom tweaked the original Hershey’s recipe ever so slightly, and I’ve done it a bit more to accommodate for gluten-free flour. This cake made me happy to have birthdays again. I hope it does the same for you!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing


1 cup strong brewed coffee (Confession: I love Maxwell House for this.)

1 cup smooth peanut butter (Another confession: JIF creamy, all the way!)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Sift dry ingredients together in large mixing bowl.
• Stir in coffee, milk, oil, vanilla extract and eggs. Stir until batter is smooth (it will be very thin).
• Pour batter into 2 well-greased 8-inch-round cake pans.
• Bake 35 minutes on the middle rack of your oven.
• Let cake pans cool on a baking rack on the countertop.
• To make the frosting, beat together sugar and Crisco using a stand mixer until well combined and creamy.
• Add peanut butter, vanilla extract and whole milk, then beat until fluffy.
• Frost and layer the cake when it has cooled completely.
• Dust top of cake with powdered sugar (optional).
• Layer and frost the cake after both layers have cooled completely (about 30 to 45 minutes).