Gluten-Free Schmoo Torte
Gluten-Free Schmoo Torte is a pecan angel food cake, torted and filled with sweetened whipped cream, served up with a buttery caramel sauce.
Note: This recipe was first posted on my original blog, Celebration Generation, on June 1, 2017. It was transferred over to this blog - existing comments and all - on 3/3/2021
Schmoo torte is very much a Winnipeg thing, though locals don’t tend to *know* how exclusively Winnipeg it is, til they move away!
What is Schmoo Torte?
Schmoo - or “Shmoo”, depending on who’s writing it - is a soft, pecan-laced angel food cake that is torted and filled with sweetened whipped cream, before being served up with a buttery caramel sauce.
This decadent cake is served at various bakeries and dessert restaurants around the city, and apparently it’s very common at Winnipeg Bar Mitzvahs- but you don't really see it anywhere else.
While it’s not generally something that people tend to make at home, it’s not actually all that difficult to make.
As a bonus, it's not something that has much pressure to look pretty, either! Slather some whipped cream on, messily drizzle that caramel over it... it's all good.
Gluten-Free Schmoo Torte
When it comes to doing a gluten-free cake, Schmoo adapts beautifully.
Where there is such a reliance on the egg whites for structure - and the fact that it includes nut meal, a staple in gluten-free baking - much of the concerns with GF baking don't even apply.
Choosing flours and starches purely for flavour and texture, this recipe produces a Schmoo torte that is virtually indistinguishable from the full-gluten source material.
Schmoo Torte is one of the over 80 recipes featured in my book, More Than Poutine.
More Canadian Recipes!
Looking for more recipes from the ‘great white north’? Look no further!
Chow Chow Relish
Gluten-Free Bacon Poutine Pizza
Gluten-Free Beaver Tail Recipe
Gluten Free Butter Tart Bars
Gluten-Free Butter Tarts
Gluten-Free Cod Au Gratin
Gluten-Free Cod Cheeks & Dressing
Gluten-Free Chicken Mushroom Tourtiere
Gluten-Free Imperial Cookies Recipe
Gluten-Free Nanaimo Bar Brownies
Gluten-Free Puffed Rice Bars
Gluten-Free Tourtiere
Looking for even more Canadian recipes? Check out our full Gluten-Free Canadian Recipes list!
This recipe is one of many fantastic Canadian recipes in my cookbook, "More Than Poutine: Favourite Foods from My Home and Native Land”. "More than Poutine" is a Canadian cookbook like no other - written by a Canadian living away, it includes both traditional home cooking recipes, as well as accurate homemade versions of many of the snacks, sauces, convenience foods, and other food items that are hard to come by outside of Canada! Order your copy here on this site, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller!
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Now, on to that Gluten-Free Schmoo Torte recipe!
Gluten Free Schmoo Torte
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake:
- 12 Large Egg Whites
- 1 cup Pecan Meal / Flour
- ⅓ cup Light Buckwheat Flour
- ¼ cup Coconut Flour
- ¼ cup Corn Starch
- 2 tablespoon Tapioca Starch/Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- Pinch Salt
- 1 ⅓ cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Frosting:
- 2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
- 3 tablespoon Confectioners / Icing / Powdered Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Caramel:
- ½ cup butter
- 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Garnish:
- Chopped Pecans, Pecan Halves, etc
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Line the bottom of a tube / angel food cake pan with parchment paper, set aside. (Do not grease the pan)
- Separate egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer, allow to stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the pecan meal, flours, starches, baking powder, and xanthan gum; set aside.
- Add cream of tartar and salt to the egg whites, use a whisk attachment to bear on low until combined. Turn speed up to high, beat until stiff peaks form. Turn speed down to medium, and slowly add the sugar, a little at a time, until combined. Turn speed to low, add vanilla, mix just until combined.
- Remove bowl from stand mixer, gently fold in the flour mixture – about ½ cup at a time – JUST until combined. Be gentle- you don’t want to deflate the eggs!
- Gently spoon mixture into tube pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Invert cake onto a cooling rack – leaving it in the pan – and allow to cool for about an hour. Remove pan, slice cake into 3 equally thick layers.
- Whisk 2 cups of the heavy whipping cream together with the icing sugar and vanilla until very thick. Spread as filling between the 3 cake layers, stacking as you go. Use remaining whipped cream to frost the sides and center of the cake, decorate with more pecans as garnish if desired. Chill for at least two hours.
- Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add brown sugar and heavy cream, whisking until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat. Stir in vanilla, allow to cool.
- To serve, warm the sauce, drizzle over whole torte, and/or individual slices.
Can this be made a day ahead?
Definitely!
Hi Marie. I just stumbled across your blog and I am soo thrilled I did. I am sooo impressed with your Bio, everything you have accomplished is just outstanding!! I have already saved several of your gluten free recipes. I do have a question. I'm not only intolerant to wheat but I am also intolerant to corn. For your recipes that call for corn starch or corn syrup, would you be able to give me an alternative? I thank you for your time. I really appreciate it!!
Linda (Montreal, Qc)
Hi Linda,
It really depends on the recipe. Corn syrup can be swapped for maple syrup, usually... but it you'll want to make sure that's a flavour that'll work for what you're making. As for corn starch, depending on how it's actually being used, you can generally use potato starch or arrowroot flour, but sometimes it needs some tweaking.
My 3 granddaughters are allergic to anything of all kinds. Could I grind up sunflower seeds in place of the pecan meal?
Maybe? It's hard to say. Definitely worth trying, though!
That should have read nuts of all kinds.