Somtimes … you really surprise me. You were really excited about the idea of a gluten free earthquake cake when I pinned a version to my Must Make Gluten Free Pinterest Board, and I pinned it and everything so I guess I thought there was a chance. But I just didn’t see that level of enthusiasm coming. I guess that’s what keeps our relationship fresh and exciting. Oh, and of course you were so very right. Moist and tender, rich and deeply chocolatey sort of right. I never even realized that earthquake cake was a “thing,” but then I did some Internet sleuthing and see that it’s most definitely a thing. Where have I been?

If you have any experience with earthquake cake, or if you merely click through to the recipe from which I adapted this or do some Internet sleuthing of your own, you’ll notice quite a few differences between my version and others. The “traditional” version boasts a layer of butter and cream cheese beaten with quite a lot of confectioners’ sugar placed on top of the cake batter, then swirled in. I tried that, multiple times, and every time I just couldn’t get the cake to bake properly on top without burning on the bottom—and sometimes bubbling over into my poor oven. Was that ever unpleasant—but not altogether unexpected since butter has a fair amount of liquid in it and adding a whole bunch of it on top of an otherwise-already-complete chocolate cake doesn’t even sound like a Very Good Idea. So I left it out, and cut back on the confectioners’ sugar, too. Muuuuuuch better.

You can serve this cake while it’s still warm, but just expect to serve it like a “dump cake” or a pudding of sorts. If you’re looking for a clean slice like shown here, all you have to do is cool the cake completely and then chill it briefly before slicing. It’s so moist, and frankly the richness is a bit more mellow when the cake is at cool room temperature, which I like. And of course you can double the ingredients and make it in a 9-inch x 13-inch baking pan, but an 8-inch cake was plenty for me, rich temptress that it is.