Drop Strings, Ruffles, and a Gluten-Free Birthday Cake

Upon request of a co-worker, I ventured into the world of gluten-free cake baking. It was high time I learned how to make a gluten-free cake, especially since my sister had recently found out that she was sensitive to gluten. Thankfully, Bob's Redmill is within driving distance. There I can buy gluten free baking flour in bulk for a bargain price rather than paying the high prices for a little bag at the grocery store. Honestly, all I did was to substitute the gluten free flour for the regular flour in my favorite chocolate cake recipe. What recipe is that? The one on the back of the Hershey's cocoa can. It's the best recipe for chocolate cake that I have ever made. If done right, the cake turns out moist (as long as you do not over bake it). I read a lot of posts on the web that say to use xanthum gum...well, I skipped it and really didn't miss it. As far as the best tasting chocolate frosting goes, it's the one on the back of the Hershey's cocoa can again. However, it does not make a good decorator icing. So, I mix up some buttercream for little decorations as well as the chocolate for taste.

In my second cake decorating course, we were learning how to make ruffles and drop strings. So, I practiced my technique on my co-worker's cake. Here's how it turned out:

Unfortunately, most of the drop strings broke while I was driving the cake to work. In class we had learned a trick of tacking the string down by placing our finger in cornstarch, then lightly pressing the string to the cake. I must have not done that enough since I had so much breakage. My co-workers still loved the cake anyways. My only complaint about the gluten free flour is that it has a slight bitter "off" taste to it, at least to me. I'm not sure what flour in the mix is creating the off taste (rice, soy, potato?). If anyone knows, leave me a comment.