Today it is difficult to have your cake and eat it to. This is because many people are trying to eat more healthfully then they have before. Many diets that are popular right now prohibit the consumption, or restrict the consumption of wheat products like flour. If you know what ingredients are found in most cakes, then you know that baking a cake while on low carb or gluten free diets is nearly impossible. That is, unless you know how to replace the starch from wheat flour with a non-wheat starch.
Your first option is to replace wheat flour with a combination of non-wheat flours. Rice flour is a great option to start with. It comes in several varieties including brown rice flour, which has a nutty flavor, white rice flour, which has a more subtle flavor, and sticky rice flour, which can be used as a gluten replacement. Soy flour can also be used in cake recipes, however, soy flour has a strong flavor that you need to temper with rice or tampica flour.
Pureed black beans can also be used for chocolate cakes. I like to use pureed black beans to creat a flourless brownie recipe. This recipe includes one can of black beans, sugar, three eggs, chocolate and
oil. Black beans also work well as a wheat alternative in carob cake desserts. Generally you will only want to use black bean puree in dark cakes, other wise your cake is going to have a strange look from the dark pigmentation from the beans.
When working without wheat flour you need to experiment to find a wheatless flour mixture that you like the taste of. Each type of flour that is on the market has a slightly different taste and texture. To get the best results you need to mix a variety of flours and vegetable starches to find a mixture that will work for your recipes. This can be a lot of fun, especially when trying to create new Jewish recipes.