Almond Flour Vanilla Cake
This almond flour cake has a rich vanilla flavor, moist texture and is both gluten free and grain free. It can easily be made refined sugar free, dairy free and is topped with a simple vanilla frosting. Perfect for a healthy birthday cake!
This almond flour cake took so much trial and error, but it is truly the perfect healthy vanilla cake! It’s made in one bowl and so easy to make. It’s adapted from my almond flour chocolate cake, but with a few essential tweaks since we obviously aren’t using any cocoa powder.
You can give it a rich almond flavor by adding in some almond extract like my honey soaked almond cake, or keep it simple and just use the vanilla. You’ll notice this recipe calls for 1 1/2 tablespoons of vanilla, which is a lot, but it’s key to getting that rich flavor to shine through!
This recipe is completely gluten free, dairy free optional and even paleo and keto friendly which makes it a great baking option for diabetics. If you love this recipe, try my almond flour cupcakes, gluten free cheesecake or gluten free bundt cake next!
Tips before we bake!
- No xanthan gum is needed in this almond flour cake. That is an ingredient that is typically added to help bind gluten free recipes together, but I found that using enough eggs gets the job done. The tapioca starch also works as an effective binder as well.
- The key is to help an almond flour cake rise is to use enough eggs and baking powder to get that fluffy texture. This recipe calls for 6 eggs, which might seem like a lot, but it’s essential for a light and fluffy texture and binding everything together.
How to make vanilla almond flour cake
Whisk wet. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients until smooth.
Whisk dry. Whisk in the dry ingredients until a smooth batter forms. Be sure to spoon and level all flours, don’t scoop from the bag! Transfer evenly to your prepared pans. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Bake. Bake for 28-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The tops of the cakes will brown much more than a traditional vanilla cake, don’t worry, this is just the nature of almond flour and is to be expected!
Cool. Let cool in the pans for 10-15 minutes, then slice around the edge of the cake to make sure nothing is stuck to the sides, then flip onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
Make frosting. Meanwhile, cream the butter for the frosting with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes. Beat in the powdered sugar, followed by the milk, vanilla and salt. Start with 4 cups of the sugar and add more if you need it thicker.
Frost & serve! When the cakes have cooled completely, add a layer of frosting to the top, then add an optional layer of jam, followed by the next cake layer and finish it off with more frosting. Top with berries or serve as is!
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Key ingredients
Eggs. You need six whole eggs for this almond flour cake, which provides a lot of the structure. The eggs will bind everything together, help the cake rise and add moisture.
Almond Flour. The key ingredient! Be sure to use almond flour from blanched almonds and not almond meal. Almond flour has a finer texture than almond meal and will give a lighter texture.
Tapioca & coconut flour. These both allow the cake to have a soft texture without the grittiness that almond flour can sometimes have.
Sugar & honey. I opted to use white sugar to keep the cake a more traditional color, but you can swap for coconut sugar or a keto granulated sugar instead. I do not recommend any substitutes for the honey.
Butter. You only need 1/3 cup of melted butter since the almond flour adds so much fat and moisture on its own! Dairy free or regular butter will work!
Canned coconut milk. This helps add more moisture without the need for too much butter. You can sub for whole milk if you are not dairy free. We use this in my gluten free coconut cake as well!
Decorating tips
There are so many ways to decorate a vanilla cake, I opted for a basic buttercream frosting with berries on top! You can add sprinkles, swirl some jam on the frosting, use a chocolate frosting, or just some simple whipped cream and berries between layers for a lighter option that’s perfect for summer. My strawberry buttercream or orange buttercream would also be delicious here!
Can I make it vegan?
Unfortunately, no. The eggs are such an important ingredient for both binding and rising, and omitting or subbing for an egg substitute will not go over well! You can, however, make this cake dairy free. Just use dairy free butter for both the cake itself and the frosting.
Can you substitute almond flour for regular flour?
Generally, no, which is why I suggest making a recipe that already calls for almond flour.
A small portion of all purpose flour can sometimes be replaced with almond flour, but it depends on the recipe. This recipe calls for almond, tapioca and coconut flours and no all purpose flour.
More almond flour recipes you’ll love!
- Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins
- Fluffy Almond Flour Waffles
- Gluten Free Almond Flour Pancakes
- Almond Flour Sugar Cookies
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Almond Flour Vanilla Cake
by: claire cary
Ingredients
Wet
- 6 large eggs
- ⅓ cup butter melted
- 1 cup white sugar see notes
- ½ cup honey
- ⅓ cup full fat coconut milk
- 1 ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract optional
Dry
- 2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
- 1 cup tapioca starch
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Frosting
- 1 cup butter room temperature
- ¼ cup full fat canned coconut milk
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Grease and line two 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper. Be sure to grease AND line because the cake will stick otherwise!
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients. Be sure to shake up the can of coconut milk before measuring so it’s not lumpy and pours out smooth. If you have a hard time with this (certain brands can be tricky) blitz it in the blender for a few seconds!
- Whisk until smooth.
- Whisk in the dry ingredients until a smooth batter forms. Be sure to spoon and level all flours, don’t scoop from the bag!
- Transfer evenly to your prepared pans. Let sit for 5 minutes.
- Bake for 28-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- The tops of the cakes will brown much more than a traditional vanilla cake, don’t worry, this is just the nature of almond flour and is to be expected!
- Let cool in the pans for 10-15 minutes, then slice around the edge of the cake to make sure nothing is stuck to the sides, then flip onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Meanwhile, cream the butter for the frosting with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes.
- Beat in the powdered sugar, followed by the milk, vanilla and salt. Start with 4 cups of the sugar and add more if you need it thicker.
- When the cakes have cooled completely, add a layer of frosting to the top, then add an optional layer of jam, followed by the next cake layer and finish it off with more frosting.
- Top with berries or serve as is!
Notes
Comments
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Hi! This looks delicious! I want to use your recipe to adapt into a strawberry cake for my husband’s birthday. I’m using the tips from Sally’s Baking Addiction homemade strawberry cake recipe – but hers isn’t grain-free which is why I went looking for a grain-free vanilla cake recipe that I could use instead. She mentions that she reduced the liquid in her vanilla cake recipe in order to be able to add 1/2 cup of reduced strawberry puree in her strawberry cake version. Do you have any advice on the best way for me to reduce the liquid by about 1/2 cup in your recipe to try this? I was thinking maybe a little bit from every liquid ingredient (except eggs) or maybe just swapping out the honey entirely? I would love any suggestions before I try this next week. I’ll let you know how it goes! Thank you!
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I think swapping anything in this recipe is a bit tricky as grain free baking needs to be very precise. However, if you want to try it, I would probably do 1/4 cup honey instead of 1/2, and then maybe just 1/4 cup of butter and 1/4 cup of coconut milk instead of 1/3 for each of those. Let me know how it goes!
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Thank you for the adaptation suggestions! I used those and it turned out really well. The flavor was fantastic. I followed the rest of the recipe as written except that for the sugar I used maple sugar, and since I had only small/medium eggs I went by weight. It took 9 of my sm/med eggs to equal the approximate weight, according to Google, of 6 large eggs. The cake rose well but was maybe a smidge dry, and kind of… I’m not sure how to describe it, maybe “tough”, because of the changes I made. So next time I make it I will probably keep in a bit more of the liquid ingredients, and I will be sure to add the 1/2 cup reduced strawberry puree with the rest of the wet ingredients. I think adding it after mixing the dry and wet together as I did led to the batter being overmixed, if that can happen with grain free baking. Thank you so much again for your help! The cake was a hit and the gamble of changing up your tried and true recipe to make a strawberry version really paid off.
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Amazing, so glad that worked out!
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I have made this cake twice this month and love it. I’ve been looking a long time for a vanilla cake recipe with these ingredients and I am so pleased with the results. I do not use as much sugar as this recipe calls for, though. I use 3/4 cup granulated sugar in the cake, and only two cups of powdered sugar for the frosting, and the cake is luscious all the same.
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Amazing, so glad it’s still great even with less sugar!
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Hello! Are both the granulated sugar and honey needed? Or can I just use one?
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You need both here!
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This recipe tastes amazing! However both times I made it, it was sunken in the middle. I made the recipe following the instructions exactly to the letter. I made sure I had fresh baking powder. I haven’t seen any other reviews with this problem. What am I doing wrong? This cake is so good, but I can’t serve a sunken birthday cake!
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You may want to try to increase the bake time by about 5 minutes or decrease the baking powder to 2 teaspoons.
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I substituted flax seed for eggs and the cake was a huge hit! People couldn’t get enough. Thanks!
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So glad that sub worked out!
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I plan to make this for a friend’s birthday. She cannot have sugar. Have you tried substituting Allulose for sugar in this recipe?
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I have not. I’d suggest the 1:1 sugar sub from In The Raw.
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That filling looks amazing in the case. Am I missing the filling recipe somewhere?
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There’s no recipe, it’s just any berry jam and the buttercream! Totally optional, but delicious.
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Any chance you can sub the butter in the batter for applesauce?
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I don’t recommend doing that for all of the butter, but you can try for half of it! Just a 1:1 sub.
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Hi there, I am baking this for my stepmom’s birthday! Can i take out the tapioca starch and just add more coconut flour? The only tapioca flour I could find was a 6 pack for $98 and I will likely only use this to bake once or twice.
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You can definitely try, but the final texture and flavor will be a bit different!
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I made this cake for a luncheon with friends and it was a huge hit! I made the cake as written (except that I was out of honey! Substituted maple syrup and it worked fine). I didn’t make the frosting. I used Greek yogurt with very little sugar and in the middle I put an apple peach compote (sugar free, homemade) and on top decorated the yogurt with fresh fruit and berries. I will absolutely make this again and looking forward to trying more of these beautiful recipes.
I’m a bit frustrated trying to open your web page on my computer ( I’m using my phone now and it works but the computer is bigger and easier except that it won’t let me accept the cookies and enter your page. The page that shows the consent for data use doesn’t move and there is a grey strip at the bottom over the Manage Settings and Accept All buttons. So I can’t accept or move it or do anything. Maybe it’s made for a larger screen? Can you fix this please? Thanks in advance. Love your recipes!-
So happy this recipe was a hit! If you could send me an email with a screenshot of the problem you’re having, I’d be happy to have my developers look into it!
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I also had a problem with the silver line but a tiny bit of green (accept all)
could just be clicked on and this solved the problem.
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This recipe is amazing! Followed instructions to the T and came out beautifully for my daughter’s 20th birthday 🥳 🍰 ❤️. Received many compliments. Thank you for sharing xx
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Thank you, Gail! So happy you enjoyed this one.
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Can I replace the tapioca starch and coconut flour with cornstarch and gluten free flour?
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That would create a totally different recipe! If you don’t want to use theses flours, I’d suggest my traditional gluten free vanilla cake.
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Made this cake for my mom and sister for Mother’s Day! It did not disappoint. I followed the recipe exactly as it was written. The texture, the flavor- it was all perfect. Zero complaints, zero adjustments needed. Thank you so much for this recipe. I will be making this again soon!
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Thank you, Stephanie! Just made my day 🙂
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I made this cake turned out good. It is dark at the top, hard to get out of pan. Need to grease baking pan and use was waxed paper.
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The cake will be a bit darker on the top than a regular cake, this is just the nature of almond flour. Definitely follow the instructions and use parchment paper in the pan- not wax paper!
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This recipe sounds delicious. Please tell if there is anyway possible to make this recipe vegan
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Unfortunately, the eggs are a key ingredient here and there isn’t a way to make it without them. May work on a vegan version soon!
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