Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

How about a gluten-free chocolate cake that's so good no one can tell it's gluten-free? Welcome to your new favorite chocolate cake! This beauty is moist and fork-tender, swathed in delicious chocolate buttercream or your favorite frosting, keeps well, and makes an amazing birthday cake! (Although, if you're a fan of the classic vanilla cake-chocolate frosting combo, my gluten free birthday cake recipe is stellar.)

Like my oat flour chocolate cake and my gluten free chocolate layer cake recipes, this easy, delectable cake is made without a mixer and relies mostly on pantry ingredients. I love adding buttermilk and coffee here; they play so nicely against the cocoa powder and brown sugar, bringing a depth of flavor that takes this cake beyond an ordinary chocolate cake. Get the sprinkles ready and whip this up for the next birthday on the calendar!

What Makes This Cake Special?

I'm so glad you asked! It's:

• Easy! To make the cake itself, a whisk and a spoon are all that's needed. My 12-year-old put this one together recently without a hitch.
• Undetectably gluten-free. I love serving gluten-free cakes and then after everyone has enjoyed their last bite, casually mention that it was a gluten-free. My goal, as always, is to create recipes that no one can tell are made without wheat flour!
• Versatile. You can use whatever frosting you love here, no need to stick with chocolate if you want to mix it up. Use this recipe as a solid base for anytime you want to make a chocolate cake.

Ingredients Needed

Here's a look at the ingredients that go into this cake, plus some notes. Make sure to scroll down to my recipe card at the bottom of this post for the full ingredient amounts and instructions.

• Gluten free flour - I used my homemade gluten free flour blend here and I highly reccomend it! You could also use a single-origin gluten free flour like oat flour or brown rice flour, or your favorite 1:1 gf blend.
• Sugars - A combo of brown sugar (light or dark) and granulated sugar.
• Cocoa powder - Make sure to use unsweetened cocoa powder! I like Dutch process, but any unsweetened cocoa powder is fine.
• Leavening - Baking soda and baking powder.
• Salt - Fine sea salt or table salt is fine.
• Oil - Any oil works, from canola or vegetable oil, to coconut oil and olive oil.
• Eggs - Use large or medium sized eggs.
• Buttermilk - I love using real buttermilk here for a lovely, tender crumb. Sometimes I switch in plain whole milk yogurt, which works wonderfully as well.
• Vanilla - Use pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
• Coffee - Freshly brewed, hot coffee adds a depth of flavor to the chocolate. If you don't drink coffee, water or tea is fine, too.
• Frosting - I used my chocolate buttercream frosting recipe here, as I love the chocolate-chocolate pairing, but you could use any frosting you like!

Tips & Recipe Notes

• Do a crumb coat. This is a softer cake, and crumbs will inevitably flake off when you add the frosting to the assembled cake. To avoid a crumby frosting, spread a thin layer of frosting to the exterior of an assembled cake, then place in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes. Once the crumb coat is set, go ahead and finish frosting the cake with a thicker layer of frosting. See the photo above for an example of how the crumb coat will look.
• Rest the batter. Let the batter rest while the oven heats. All gluten-free flours need time to hydrate before baking, so make sure to let the batter rest for 10-15 minutes before baking it.
• Refrigerate before frosting. As noted, this cake is quite tender. I like to bake it well in advance of when I plan to frost it. If you can, let the cake rest overnight, wrapped or covered, in the fridge. This makes it a lot easier to frost when you're ready. Make sure the cake is fully cooled before frosting it, even if it's at room temperature!
• Refined sugar-free. Use coconut sugar or maple sugar in place of the granulated sugar and brown sugar.
• Dairy-free.  Swap non-dairy yogurt for the buttermilk.

Proper Storage

I prefer letting the cake come to room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving it because it softens up both the cake crumb and the buttercream, but it's also delicious cold.

• Fridge - Store cake, tightly covered, in the fridge for up to 5 days.
• Freezer - Wrap the chilled, frosted cake in foil and store it in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw the cake thoroughly in the fridge before serving.
• Individual layers - Wrap each cooled layer in plastic, then foil, then freeze them for up to 3 months. Defrost the cake in the fridge before filling and frosting it.