Rich, chocolatey, moist and spongey, this almond flour 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 over chocolate (especially vanilla funfetti). But ohmygosh I am in actual love with this almond flour 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.
How to make this recipe
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 ½ 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!
Different Pan Sizes
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 ⅔ 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 ½ 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!
Storage tips
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. Up to you!
Pro Tips
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.
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!
You’ll also love…
- Paleo Brownies
- Almond Flour Blondies
- Coconut Flour Pancakes
- 9 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
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 ½ 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!
o
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
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
Can I use flax egg/ chia egg instead of eggs for this recipe ??
Claire Cary
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
It’s amazing!!!! Please do try it. It’s officially saved a one of my favorite chocolate cakes
Linda
May I use a 9 x 13 pan to bake the cake in?
Claire Cary
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
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
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
Can I substitute something else for the coconut flour?
Claire Cary
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
At what temperature to set my oven?
Claire Cary
350! All of the answers to your questions can be found in the recipe card 🙂
Kathleen
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
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
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
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
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
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
I don’t understand this: dairy free butter (if not paleo)
Claire Cary
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
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
I’m so happy to hear that, Veda! Thank you for the feedback!
Dina
What a great recipe! Best cake ever! It’s exactly as you said it: Rich, chocolatey, moist and spongey! Loved it!
Claire Cary
Thank you, Dina! So happy you enjoyed it and thank you for the feedback!
Rebecca
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
I don’t recommend it! This recipe needs the structure from the real eggs and it helps the cake rise considerably.
Luisa
This is literally the best chocolate cake I have ever made
The texture is perfect and the flavor fabulous