Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake -

5 from 1 vote

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

My gluten-free chocolate cake is a deeply dark chocolate cake with a soft and tender crumb that's perfect with fluffy chocolate buttercream.

Prep Time10

Cook Time45

Total Time55

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Servings: servings

Calories: 376kcal

Lightly grease two 8-inch pans with at least 2-inch sides with olive oil and line them with parchment paper rounds. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the 2 ⅓ cups gluten free flour, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup sugar, ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon fine sea salt.
In a large bowl, whisk together the ½ cup oil, 3 eggs at room temperature, 1 cup buttermilk, and 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract. Stir and whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and stir very well to combine. Stir in the 1 cup fresh brewed hot coffee and stir until the batter is smooth and combined.
Pour batter evenly into the prepared pans and preheat oven to 350°F. Let batter rest while the oven heats, about 15 minutes.
Place pans in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes, checking at 45 minutes, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean and the edges are starting to pull away from the sides of the pans. Remove from oven and let cake cool in the pans on a wire rack for 30 minutes, then turn out onto the rack to cool fully. The cake will be quite tender and soft - yum! - so it's a good idea to refrigerate it before frosting or do a crumb coat.
Frost cake with or your frosting of choice, either as a layer cake or frost one layer and freeze the other for another time. Cake will keep well wrapped in the fridge for up to 5 days.

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.