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Gluten-Free Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake

Who doesn’t love a Gluten-Free Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe? This one-bowl beauty has the advantage of being gluten-free, vegan, and refined sugar-free.

Gluten-free vegan chocolate cake

Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Cake

This tender, dark, very chocolatey cake is enriched by coconut milk which deepens its flavor and brings an almost buttery quality though it’s entirely dairy-free. It’s perfect as-is but would also be nice with a scoop of raspberry or lemon sorbet.

For the flours in this recipe, I used white rice flour in the flour mix because I happened to have a large bag of it on hand. I tend to lean on whole grains for the most part, but white rice flour does have its place. It’s a great neutral flour with a bit of starch to help hold things together, which is appreciated here because there are no eggs in this recipe. The white rice flour is balanced by almond flour in an equal amount.

I love the flavor of this cake — it’s deep, rich, not too sweet, and very very chocolatey. A favorite aspect is that it’s a one bowl cake, making preparation a breeze.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

It’s so easy. I love a one-bowl cake, and this one is no exception.

Delicious fudgy texture. The white rice and almond flours melt together to create a dense, moist cake that nonetheless retains a cake-y crumb (meaning it’s not like a flourless chocolate cake which has a tendency to be a chocolate brick).

Vegan! Coconut milk in this recipe brings flavor and richness, while keeping the recipe totally suitable for vegans and those who need to eat dairy-free.

Gluten-free vegan chocolate cake

Gluten-Free Flours Needed

White rice flour. While I don’t use white rice flour too often because I prefer the nutritional hit whole grain gluten-free flours bring, this flour works perfectly in this recipe.

Almond flour. Almond flour is a staple in gluten-free baking for good reason: it’s versatile, great for structure because of its high protein content, and plays well with other gluten-free flours.

More about gluten-free flours.

Ingredients in Gluten-Free Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake

  • White rice flour
  • Almond flour
  • Coconut sugar
  • Unsweetened cocoa powder
  • Baking powder
  • Coconut milk: I like the gum-free coconut milk cans, but you could use any coconut milk here.
  • Fine sea salt
  • Water

How to Make Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Cake

For the full instructions, see the recipe card at the end of this post.

  1. Combine dry ingredients. Sift or whisk together the flours, coconut sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, and salt.
  2. Add coconut milk and water. Stir well to combine.
  3. Bake. Pour batter into prepared 8-inch cake pan and bake for 45 minutes. Cool before serving.

Substitutions

White rice flour – swap sorghum flour or oat flour.

Almond flour – try tiger nut flour or another nut flour.

Coconut sugar – use brown sugar.

Coconut milk – use your favorite non-dairy milk of choice.

Storage

Store the cake in the fridge, well-covered, for 3 days. Eat straight from the fridge or bring to bring temperature before serving.

Tip

If you would like an even richer cake, replace the 1/2 cup of water with coconut milk.

FAQ

How do you keep a gluten-free cake moist?

In this case, the answer is easy! The combination of almond flour and coconut flour keeps this cake rich and never dry.

Does a gluten-free cake take longer to bake through?

As with many things gluten-free, it depends. But, it often takes a gluten-free cake a little longer to bake. In this recipe, you’ll need about 40-45 minutes of bake time.

Can you overmix gluten-free cake batter?

Because gluten-free flours perform differently than wheat flour, “over-mixing” gluten free flour can actually give the cake better structure! This helps the cake layers rise better as they bake and gives the cake a more tender crumb. One caveat is that when you use buckwheat flour you need a more delicate hand. It’s better folded into the batter at the end of mixing.

Easy Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Cake

Nicole Spiridakis
Just two gluten-free flours in this super simple cake.
5 from 4 votes
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 10 servings
Calories 187 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup/100 g white rice flour
  • 1 cup/100 g almond flour
  • ¾ cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
  • 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¼ tsp fine sea salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • ½ cup water

Instructions
 

  • Heat oven to 350° F and lightly grease an 8-inch cake round with coconut oil. Line with a round of parchment paper.
  • In large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the coconut milk and water and stir well to combine.
  • Pour batter into pan, place in oven, and bake for about 40-45 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven, place on a rack, and cool in pan 15 minutes. Turn out onto rack to cool completely.
  • Serve cake plain, with whipped cream, or ice cream. Cake will keep, well covered in the fridge, for 3 days.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 sliceCalories: 187kcalCarbohydrates: 20gProtein: 2gFat: 12gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gSodium: 148mgPotassium: 183mgFiber: 3gSugar: 0.1gVitamin C: 0.2mgCalcium: 90mgIron: 2mg
Did you make this recipe?Let me know in the comments how it went!

2 Comments

  1. Love to hear that! I haven’t baked with monk fruit, but the google tells me it should work if you use half as much as the recipe calls for. I don’t know if I’d skip the sweetener altogether because it might make the cake too dry.

  2. 5 stars
    Hey!! Thank you for the recipe :)

    So easy to make and everyone was a fan !!

    Was wondering if I could do it sugar free or using sweeteners such as monk fruit instead of brown sugar or coconut sugar ?

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