Rich, chocolatey, moist and spongey, this almond flour chocolate cake is bound to impress! You’ll never guess it’s paleo, grain free, or refined sugar free when you take your first bite.
If you know me, you’ll know I always, always choose vanilla cake over chocolate (especially vanilla funfetti). But ohmygosh I am in love with this almond flour chocolate cake!
It’s moist, fluffy, spongey and everything a chocolate cake should be but without any of the refined sugar, grains or oil you usually get. Just simple ingredients, fluffy layers and a rich paleo buttercream. It’s perfect. I am biased, I know, but it’s perfect!
Since you definitely don’t want to use almond flour in place of cake flour or all purpose flour in a recipe, you need to find a recipe that already uses almond flour as the base, like this one!
The almond flour adds a lot of natural moisture to the cake, but I promise it tastes just like any other chocolate cake, despite being grain free, paleo and refined sugar free!
Before we get into the nitty gritty, please make sure you are using almond flour from blanched almonds and NOT almond meal from whole ground almonds. They are different and will yield different results!
Almond flour is light and reacts well with the eggs and baking soda, giving this cake a beautiful rise and fluffy texture. Almond meal will prevent the cake from rising and can yield a very dense texture. Try my almond flour vanilla cake or flourless chocolate cake next!
Key ingredients
ALMOND FLOUR. This cake of course has a base of almond flour! It will make it super moist and fluffy thanks to the high fat content and is naturally gluten free and paleo. I love buying things like this from Thrive Market to save money!
EGGS. You need four eggs for this recipe. Unfortunately, they are essential for both binding the ingredients as well as helping everything rise, so please don’t swap with a vegan egg replacer.
TAPIOCA FLOUR. The tapioca will help absorb some of the excess moisture and give this a more traditional cake texture.
COCONUT FLOUR. Coconut flour also helps absorb excess moisture. Because it is so absorbent and works differently than other flours, you cannot sub with more almond flour.
SWEETENER. We’ll use a mix of honey and coconut sugar to give this the perfect sweetness but keep it refined sugar free!
COCOA. Cocoa powder gives this cake a rich chocolate flavor. To enhance it, you can add in two teaspoons of espresso powder.
OIL. Oil adds moisture to this cake. I generally use refined avocado oil which has a neutral flavor, but any oil should work.
MILK. Full fat canned coconut milk will add to the richness of this cake. You can sub for light, but I do not recommend subbing with any other type of cartoned milk.
How to make almond flour chocolate cake
Line 3 round 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.
It’s easiest to lightly grease the sides and bottoms, then cut out round pieces of parchment and place them in each pan so they stick easily.
You can also use 2 9 inch round pans, but see notes for adjustments in baking time etc.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients. Be sure to shake the can of coconut milk before opening so that the creamy white part is well combined with the more watery part. You need 1 1/2 cups total, which is just shy of 1 can. Reserve the rest for the frosting!
In a second bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Be sure to spoon and level all flours, do not scoop right from the bag!
Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk well until a batter forms.
Transfer to the prepared pans and fill each as evenly as possible. If you have a kitchen scale you can use it to get accurate measurements. Otherwise, just eyeball it!
Bake for 30-38 minutes. My oven was exactly 35 minutes, but all ovens are different. Check with a toothpick for doneness. If using 2 nine inch pans, bake time will be around 35-42 minutes, but check with a toothpick.
Once done, remove from the oven and let cool in the pans for about 15 minutes or until easy to handle.
Once cool enough, flip over onto a cooling rack, they should slide right out, but if not, just lightly tap the bottom.
Let cool completely before frosting. A little bit of internal heat will cause the frosting to melt, so be sure they are completely cool. You can stick them in the fridge if you need to speed things up.
While cooling, make the buttercream by beating together the palm shortening or butter with the coconut milk until creamy. Beat in the sifted sugar, sifted cocoa and all remaining ingredients until your desired consistency is reached. If it’s too thin, add more sugar, if it’s too thick add some regular non-dairy milk.
Once the cake is cool, frost between each layer and then frost the outside. Enjoy!
Pan Size Conversions
I made this cake into a 3 layer 8 inch round cake. However, you can definitely make this into a two layer 9 inch round cake.
You only want to fill a cake pan about 2/3 of the way up, which leaves room for rising. Sally from Sally’s Baking Addiction explains cake pan adjustments really well, but here’s a summary for this recipe!
An 8 inch round pan holds about 6 cups of batter, so 18 cups for 3 pans. A 9 inch round pan holds about 8 cups of batter, so 16 cups for 2 pans.
This recipe makes about 9 cups of batter, so the 8 inch pans are filled halfway, which about 3 cups in each. If making this into a 2 layer 9 inch round cake, your pans will be filled a little more than halfway, with about 4 1/2 cups each.
This means slightly thicker layers and a slightly longer baking time, but it’s very easy to use different pans than what I used! Make sense? Don’t worry, baking times will be explained in the recipe card itself so you’re not lost!
OR, if you want to cut this recipe in half, you can just halve it, then bake it in ONE 9 inch round cake pan. Easy! If you aren’t feeling a whole cake, try my almond flour cupcakes instead!
How to store cake
Once prepared, this almond flour chocolate cake will store for about 3-5 days. Be sure to keep it covered so it does not dry out.
To help it keep fresh for longer, you can store it in the fridge, but I generally keep it at room temperature. Totally up to you depending on how quickly you think you’ll eat it!
If you want to prepare it in advance, you can bake the cake, let it cool completely, then wrap each layer tightly in plastic wrap and freeze until you’re ready to frost.
Once it’s frosted, I recommend serving within 24 hours.
Pro tips to make it perfectly!
Use room temperature ingredients. Room temperature eggs will prevent the coconut milk from hardening in the batter. You can run your eggs until warm water if they’ve come straight out of the fridge. Otherwise, let them sit at room temperature for about an hour.
Spoon & level to measure the flour. You’re probably sick of me saying this if you come here often, but please do not scoop the flour right from the bag!
You will end up with too much flour accidentally. Spoon the flour into your dry measuring cups, then level off the top with a knife. Almond flour bakes differently than other flours, so measuring properly is very important.
Use regular cocoa powder, not dutch-processed. Regular cocoa powder is slightly acidic which reacts with the baking soda to create a nice fluffy texture. Dutch processed cocoa can result in a flat cake.
Can I use a different sweetener? This almond flour cake uses both coconut sugar and honey to help sweeten and moisten the sponge.
I do not recommend swapping the coconut sugar for a liquid sweetener, but you are welcome to swap it for another granulated sugar. Using too much liquid sweetener would result in a dense cake, which we don’t want! For best results, stick to the recipe as is!
More recipes you’ll love…
- Paleo Brownies
- Almond Flour Blondies
- Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Coconut Flour Pancakes
- Almond Flour Sugar Cookies
- Best Gluten Free Cake Recipes
- Almond Flour Chocolate Cupcakes
Lastly, if you want more recipes straight to your inbox, be sure to subscribe to my email list. As always, tag me on instagram if you make this recipe so I can see your creation!
Almond Flour Chocolate Cake
by: claire cary
Ingredients
Wet:
- 4 large eggs
- ⅔ cup + 1 tbsp oil I used avocado
- 1 ¾ cup coconut sugar
- ½ cup honey
- 1 ½ cup full fat coconut milk, well shaken
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Dry:
- 3 cups almond flour
- 1 cup tapioca or arrowroot starch
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp coconut flour
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp salt
Paleo Buttercream:
- ¾ cup palm oil shortening or dairy free butter (if not paleo), softened
- ¼ cup coconut milk remaining from the cake
- ½ cup cocoa or cacao powder more for a richer chocolate flavor
- 6 cups powered coconut sugar or regular powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line 3 round 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.
- It's easiest to lightly grease the sides and bottoms, then cut out round pieces of parchment and place them in each pan so they stick easily. You can also use 2 9 inch round pans, but see notes for adjustments in baking time etc.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients. Be sure to shake the can of coconut milk before opening so that the creamy white part is well combined with the more watery part. You need 1 1/2 cups total, which is just shy of 1 can. Reserve the rest for the frosting!
- In a second bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Be sure to spoon and level all flours, do not scoop right from the bag!
- Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk well until a batter forms.
- Transfer to the prepared pans and fill each as evenly as possible. If you have a kitchen scale you can use it to get accurate measurements. Otherwise, just eyeball it!
- Bake for 30-38 minutes. My oven was exactly 35 minutes, but all ovens are different. Check with a toothpick for doneness. If using 2 nine inch pans, bake time will be around 35-42 minutes, but check with a toothpick.
- Once done, remove from the oven, and let cool in the pans for about 15 minutes or until easy to handle.
- Once cool enough, flip over onto a cooling rack, they should slide right out, but if not, just lightly tap the bottom.
- Let cool completely before frosting. A little bit of internal heat will cause the frosting to melt, so be sure they are completely cool. You can stick them in the fridge if you need to speed things up.
- While cooling, make the buttercream by beating together the palm shortening or butter with the coconut milk until creamy.
- Beat in the sifted sugar, sifted cocoa and all remaining ingredients until your desired consistency is reached. If it's too thin, add more sugar, if it's too thick add some regular non-dairy milk.
- Once the cake is cool, frost between each layer and then frost the outside. Enjoy!
Molly says
This was SO good! I made this for my family–who could not believe this was dairy/gluten free. Great flavor, very moist, and the texture was perfect! Thank you! (I never write reviews)
Claire Cary says
Thank you Molly, so glad your family enjoyed it!
Keri says
I am deathly allergic to honey. Can I use agave or Splenda syrup as a substitute?
Claire Cary says
Agave or maple syrup should work just fine!
Brooke says
Would love to make this! It looks so amazing! Any ideas for an egg substitute? Would bob’s red mill egg replacement or a flax egg work in place of the eggs?
Claire Cary says
Unfortunately, this cake needs the eggs, there aren’t any good egg subs here!
Taymi says
Is there a substitute for the vinegar?
Claire Cary says
You can try lemon juice. You just need something acidic to activate the baking soda.
Patricia says
Make this to share with a friend who is starting to show a gluten intolerance. It was delicious and moist. I didn’t make the frosting. I just used sugar-free chocolate frosting. Can this be made with baking Stevia or Splenda to make it low sugar? How do you think it would affect the texture of the cake?
Claire Cary says
I would recommend a 1:1 sugar substitute, I like one from the brand In The Raw.
Sandy s says
Made for my fiancé’s 75th and it was
Awesome! No changes except I ran out of vanilla (thought I had another bottle)
so I used part coffee flavoring in cake and scraped a vanilla bean in icing. ( I have used coffee in chocolate cake before with no real obvious taste result, so…) Everyone young and old loves it!!❤️
Claire Cary says
Amazing, thanks so much Sandy! Happy 75th to your fiance 🙂
Tori says
Made for my sweethearts 60th birthday and a real hit. Everything you say it is…very moist and spongy. I reduced granulated sugar by 1/2c and made a thin chocolate grande marnier glaze. Topped with toasted pecans and hazelnuts. THANK YOU! Such a great recipe.
Claire Cary says
Thank you Tori! So happy it was a hit
Janice Murray says
This recipe is WONDERFUL; the cake is moist and delicious!!! I made it for Thanksgiving, and everyone was impressed. Thank you so much!
Claire Cary says
Thank you so much, Janice! So happy it was a hit.
Michelle says
Wish I could post a picture of how great this cake came out! I did a two layer cake… I didn’t realize how much butter was need so I cut the frosting in half and did peanut butter in the center! You would never know this cake is made with almond flour! SO GOOD!!!
Thank you 🙂
Claire Cary says
That sounds amazing! Love the addition of the peanut butter.
Another Baking Queen says
FANTASTIC CAKE!!! I needed a gluten-free, dairy-free cake for a guest. I bake almost as much as Mrs. Fields, but never gluten free. I studied recipes…studied the pictures; many are obviously rubbery from their pictures. This recipe’s picture and the normal ingredients used made me think it would be a winner. I baked it. Holy cow!! I am super patting myself on the back for trying it. It is absolutely delicious!! I made the cake EXACTLY as the recipe is written. I was 1/2 cup short of almond flour, so I made some of my own from almonds, then I had enough. Cake is moist and absolutely delicious.
I have had dairy-free butter before, and didn’t care for it, and I didn’t have palm oil. So I used a traditional seven-minute vanilla frosting. The cake was a big hit. (Only bad part: my guests ate it all. How thoughtless of them! LOL)
Thank you for developing and sharing this yummy cake recipe.
Claire Cary says
Thank you for such a kind review! So happy it was a hit 🙂
nikita goyal says
Hi love the recipe but do u gave any egg free version of it as well ? please suggest as I dont consume egg
Claire Cary says
I do not, the eggs are key for this recipe!
Lena says
Five stars, for sure!
Lena says
Hi, I made this cake for a party and received a lot of praise. I’m now planning on making it for a wedding.
My question is: when you say coconut milk do yo mean the coconut milk I can buy in cans and boxes, or do you mean coconut cream?
Claire Cary says
You need coconut milk from a can, but not coconut cream, those are different!
Marti Ann says
I’m so excited to try this! Can I use granulated sugar instead of the coconut sugar?
Claire Cary says
Yes, that’ll be fine!
Rebecca Heath says
Hello Claire – was just about to make this yummy cake and thought I bought all of the correct ingredients until I just learned I didn’t buy the correct kind of almond flour. However, I do have 1.5 cups of super fine almond flour already on hand and wondered what other flour could I use to add to it to total the 3 cups of flour? Any suggestions? Thank you!!
Claire Cary says
Unfortunately, there isn’t really a good substitute for the almond flour. If you have almond meal you can try that, but almond flour is really essential here!
Stephanie says
Hey! I tried the recipe today, and it is so good! But I have pretty hard bits throughout from the tapioca. I just bought & used the minute tapioca. Was I supposed to make the tapioca like the box says or just pour it in as is? It’s quite grainy as is.
Claire Cary says
Minute tapioca is used for instant tapioca pudding, which is very different! You want just pure tapioca starch which will have a similar texture to cornstarch.
Michelle says
Hi Claire, this chocolate cake looks really good and I want to make it. But I don’t have full fat coconut milk in hand. Is there anything I can sub the coconut milk with?
Claire Cary says
Unfortunately, the full fat coconut milk is key here! You can try subbing for just a regular non-dairy milk, but the cake may not be quite as moist.
Shev says
Hi Claire,
I love the dessert recipes on your website. I have a sweet tooth but prefer eating healthier so I avoid refined wheat flour and refined sugar recipes. Recently discovered your website and your recipes come in handy. I have tried quite a few and they all have turned out great. Thank you for sharing.
And one request, if you can please mention the ingredients by weight too for your recipes.
In this cake recipe you have used Honey, I don’t like the flavour of it, so was wondering if I can replace it with equal amount of Maple Syrup?
Claire Cary says
If you click on metric, you will be able to get the ingredients by weight. You should be able to use maple syrup, but this cake has no honey flavor to it at all, promise!
Gay Lilly says
I like the ingredients in this cake but would like to make it into cupcakes. How long do you think they’d need to bake?
Claire Cary says
I would recommend my almond flour cupcakes instead!
Princess D says
I agree with all the above comments, this cake is one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve made. Becoz my fly is not paleo or keto, I altered a few thgs but used most of your ingredients.
Like used 2.5cups almond flour & 1/2cup reg flour. Also used reg butter. Went with almond milk thruout as didn’t have coconut milk & lastly added 2-3tbsp of instant coffee to the dry ingredients, all blended together added excellent flavor and the cake was moist. Lastly b4 layering I made coconut sugar syrup & sprayed it on each layer & that gave d cake excellent level of moistness. 2.
Tansy says
Thank you- This recipe is amazing! I did use a different icing recipe because of wanting a different icing style, but the cake itself was fabulous! I was wondering if I could decrease the amount of sugar I put into it? Would that throw off the wet/dry ratio?
Claire Cary says
You should be able to decrease the coconut sugar by about 1/2 cup with no major issues. I’d keep the honey the same though!
Melody says
Is there anything that can be substituted for the arrowroot and tapioca starch? None of the stores around us carry either one.
Claire Cary says
Your best bet is corn starch! The only thing is that it is slightly more absorbent than tapioca or arrowroot so I would probably use 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup and keep an eye on the bake time.
Deborah Aarenau says
Looking forward to making it more keto friendly. So. Can I sub erythritol or xylitol for the coconut sugar? If so, what would be the new carb count? Not sure tapioca or arrowroot starch are keto friendly. If not, what is a good substitute? It looks and sounds delicious – can’t wait to make it!
Claire Cary says
Hi Deborah! This cake is designed to be paleo friendly, not keto friendly. There unfortunately isn’t a good sub for the tapioca or arrowroot, as these are needed for structure, but you can definitely swap the coconut sugar for a keto friendly granulated sweetener!
o says
This cake is AMAZING!! But half our family is more vanilla-leaning than chocolate. Do you have a modification to make it into a yellow cake? Would it get too soggy if I just leave out the cocoa?
Claire Cary says
So happy you enjoyed it! If you omit the cocoa powder, you would need to replace it with something else to balance out the wet/dry ingredients. I haven’t tested anything, but plan on working on a vanilla version in the near future, so stay tuned 🙂
Sushmitha says
Can I use flax egg/ chia egg instead of eggs for this recipe ??
Claire Cary says
Unfortunately, that won’t work in this recipe! You really need the eggs for the structure and texture. I do have a gluten free vegan chocolate cake you can try instead!
Seerita says
It’s amazing!!!! Please do try it. It’s officially saved a one of my favorite chocolate cakes
Linda says
May I use a 9 x 13 pan to bake the cake in?
Claire Cary says
Yes, but I would recommend leaving out about 1 cup of batter and you’ll probably need to bake for 45 minutes or so (maybe a bit longer). I haven’t tested this in a 9×13, so keep an eye on the timer and test with a toothpick as it gets closer to the end.
Galactic Dome says
This is hands down the best chocolate cake I have eaten and make myself!!!! Every time I take a bite, I cannot believe they are made with the best ingredients without white flour, refined sugar, and bad oil! I am completely taken away too by the sheer fact that there is no slightest hint of coconut smell from the coconut cream used – making it completely diary free.
This chocolate cake is what dreams are made of. I just learnt about this recipe and have made three cakes to date! I genuinely opine it tastes better than regular chocolate cake and cannot go back to anything else anymore!!!
Claire Cary says
What a nice review! So glad you love this recipe as much as I do! Hopefully lots more for you to try out soon 🙂
Addie F says
Can I substitute something else for the coconut flour?
Claire Cary says
You can try equal parts tapioca starch instead, but I haven’t tried that myself so can’t guarantee the result. let me know if you try!
Pearl Ruiz says
At what temperature to set my oven?
Claire Cary says
350! All of the answers to your questions can be found in the recipe card 🙂
Kathleen says
Very disappointing that you use palm oil products in this recipe. Basically contributing to the destruction of orangutan habitats for chocolate cake. Awesome.
Claire Cary says
I did not actually use palm oil, I use vegan butter. I only list palm oil as an option for people who follow a paleo diet. Thanks for your sweet comment though!
Sandra S Liapis says
Hi I just realized that I have Dutch pressed cocoa. can I make any alterations to the acidity or should I just bake with what I have? Thanks for your feedback!
Claire Cary says
I haven’t tried this recipe with dutch processed cocoa, but my best guess would be to just keep everything as is and just use the dutch cocoa. I think it’ll be ok! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Meagan says
Hi! If I wanted to make this as a mini cake with 6” pans, how long would you recommend baking them for, at what temp, and how full should the pans be? Thank you so much!!
Claire Cary says
Hi Meagan! Since one 8 inch layer can become two 6 inch layers, this recipe as written would make a 6 layer cake with 6 inch pans. Assuming you don’t need that much cake, I would suggest halving the recipe and baking in three 6 inch pans. I’d fill no more than 2/3 of the way up, but 1/2 is generally best. If you hover your mouse over the 16 in the servings in the recipe card, you can scroll down to 8 and it will automatically halve the recipe for you. As far as time goes, I would check them around 22 minutes, but I can’t say for sure how long they’ll take. Just keep an eye on them!
Maddie says
I don’t understand this: dairy free butter (if not paleo)
Claire Cary says
Some dairy free butters like earth balance have ingredients that would not be considered paleo. If you are worried about keeping the buttercream strictly paleo, you’ll want to go with the palm shortening option. Otherwise, butter is fine!
Veda says
i couldn’t believe how GOOD this turned out. I’ve tried at least 5 chocolate cake recipes recently and this one blew me away. the cake was so moist. this will go in my “keepers” box! thank you for sharing!
Claire Cary says
I’m so happy to hear that, Veda! Thank you for the feedback!
Dina says
What a great recipe! Best cake ever! It’s exactly as you said it: Rich, chocolatey, moist and spongey! Loved it!
Claire Cary says
Thank you, Dina! So happy you enjoyed it and thank you for the feedback!
Rebecca says
Do you know if subbing flax eggs would work? If it was just one egg I’d think so, but I’m hesitant with four.
Claire Cary says
I don’t recommend it! This recipe needs the structure from the real eggs and it helps the cake rise considerably.
Luisa says
This is literally the best chocolate cake I have ever made
The texture is perfect and the flavor fabulous