Cookbook Confidential: Eric Lanlard's Afternoon Tea and gluten-free chocolate cake recipe

Julia Platt Leonard reviews Eric Lanlard's Afternoon Tea which offers cake lovers alike gluten free options, in the next instalment of our Cookbook Confidential series. Chocoholics rejoice in the ultimate wheat-free masterpiece

Eric’s Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

At first glance, afternoon tea should be up there with the dodo and dinosaur in the list of things that were but no longer are. Who has time for afternoon tea? Who is willing to put phone on silent and resist checking for texts and emails in order to sip a perfectly brewed cup of Lapsang Souchong and nibble on a cucumber sandwich (crusts removed, please)?

The answer is quite a lot of us, thank you very much. Far from being a moribund relic, afternoon tea is alive and well. Simply try booking afternoon tea at a top restaurant and you’ll see what I mean. While this may come as a surprise to some, it doesn’t to Eric Lanlard, Master Pâtissier, cake purveyor to the stars, and author of Afternoon Tea.

Think of Afternoon Tea as an extended love letter from Eric to this quintessential British institution – one that French-born Eric first encountered at ripe old age of seven while on a trip to England with his Anglophile mother. The seeds were sown that day as they savoured a traditional cream tea in Portsmouth. Today, Eric creates afternoon tea experiences at 5-star hotels, cruise ships and at his own pâtisserie, Cake Boy in London.

What I noticed immediately about Afternoon Tea, is what an expert Eric is with combining flavours in subtle and unexpected ways. So, for example, his savoury Lemon and pepper macarons with smoked salmon get an extra zing thanks to thin segments of white grapefruit. Beef fillet is rubbed with cacao – raw roasted cocoa beans – and vanilla, cooked rare then sliced thinly and served on squares of moreish brioche pain perdu.

He’s also a whizz when it comes to creating his own takes on the classics, like his riff on an egg salad sandwich with its fluffy spinach roulade instead of traditional white bread. Scones – the classic British teatime treat – take on a Middle Eastern flavour in both Orange Blossom and bee pollen scones as well as his Pistachio and rose scones.

If you’re gluten-free, you won’t feel left out. (Eric says that many of his customers request gluten-free desserts and you can see that he’s listened.) What sets these wheat-free creations apart –Gluten-and sugar-free carrot and coconut cake, Gluten-free chocolate cake, Gluten-free tahini cookies to name a few – is they’re so delicious there is no sense of anything being left out.

It’s all a welcome treat for confirmed tea lovers and a gentle nudge for the rest of us to put our phones away, relax and enjoy a well deserved afternoon treat.

Gluten-free chocolate cake

Chocolate has always been my ingredient of choice, and you don’t have to be on a gluten-free diet to enjoy this rich, dark creation – all my customers love it!

Serves 12
Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus cooling
Cooking time: 35-45 minutes

115g (4 oz) butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
350g (12 oz) ground almonds
25g (1 oz) desiccated coconut
100g (3½ oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
70g (2½ oz) stevia granules
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
225ml (8fl oz) milk
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 tbsp clear honey 
Cacao nibs, to decorate

For the ganache

350g (12 oz) dark chocolate (80% cocoa solids), roughly chopped
125ml (4fl oz) double cream
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
Preheat the oven to 170°C (fan 140°C)/325°F/gas mark 3
Grease two 20cm (8in) diameter sandwich cake tins and line with baking paper

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, combine all the wet ingredients, then fold into the dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To make the ganache, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the surface of the water does not touch the bowl.

Meanwhile, put the cream into a saucepan and heat to just below boiling point. Remove the melted chocolate from the heat and slowly pour in the cream, stirring gently with a balloon whisk until smooth and glossy. Fold in the vanilla paste. Leave to cool and thicken to a spreadable, glossy ganache.

When thickened, spread a good layer of ganache on to one of the cakes, then sandwich together with the remaining cake. Spread the remaining ganache over the top of the cake and decorate with cacao nibs.

Eric Lanlard's Afternoon Tea, by Eric Lanlard, published by Mitchell Beazley, £20.00, www.octopusbooks.co.uk