Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
This vegan gluten free chocolate cake is rich, made in one bowl, moist and loved by all types of eaters! This is my go-to recipe to impress a crowd or for any special occasion.
Why you’ll love this recipe
Like many other gluten free and vegan recipes on the blog (hi vegan brownies), this vegan chocolate cake was a true labor of love! It took quite a few trials, with many, many different flour combinations before landing on the perfect recipe.
And when I say perfect, I mean it! This recipe is incredibly easy to make, vegan, gluten free, perfectly chocolatey and a favorite among all types of eaters.
With chocolate cake, you want to strike a balance between light, fluffy, rich and dense. Unlike a vanilla cake, a chocolate cake should have some degree of density to it. But not so much that it overwhelms your palate.
That’s a hard balance to strike, especially with a vegan gluten free cake, but we did it! This recipe is perfect for any celebration, or just a delicious dessert that’ll impress your friends! If you love this recipe, try my vegan chocolate donuts, vegan gluten free cinnamon rolls or mini chocolate cake next!
How to make vegan gluten free cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two round 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper and set aside. See notes about using 9 inch pans.
Combine the room temperature milk with the vinegar and mix together in a glass. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl (mixing is easier if the bowl is extra large!), sift together the almond flour, all purpose flour and cocoa powder.
Whisk in the remaining dry ingredients. The espresso powder is optional, but it really enhances the chocolate flavor. I promise it won’t taste like coffee at all!
Add in all remaining wet ingredients aside from the boiling water and whisk together. Whisk in the boiling water. This will help “activate” the cocoa powder.
Add the batter to the prepared cake pans, trying to keep them as even as possible to ensure even baking. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Add to the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out with a few crumbs. You don’t want to underbake since the cake will sink in the middle or end up dense, but over-baking will lead to a dry cake, so start your timer at 35 minutes, and add just a couple of minutes at a time until the toothpick has a few crumbs but isn’t wet.
Remove from the oven and let cool in the cake pans for about 20 minutes. Carefully flip onto a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting. I usually stick them in the fridge to cool, which takes about 90 minutes.
Prepare the buttercream, (just be sure to use vegan butter and milk) then frost the top of one layer, add on the second layer, then frost the top and sides of the cake. Try my raspberry chocolate cake next!
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Enhancing the chocolate flavor
A lot of chocolate cake recipes call for coffee. I prefer using boiling hot water as I find it helps “activate” the cocoa a bit more and give the cake a really rich flavor.
However, with water you miss out on the richness that coffee gives to a cake. To make up for that, I always suggest using espresso powder!
Just 1-2 teaspoons in the batter will bring out the rich chocolate flavor but won’t give off any coffee flavor. It’s optional, but I recommend it if you can!
Pan sizes
I baked this cake in two 8 inch round cake pans, but you are welcome to use two 9 inch pans OR one 9×13 pan. If using two 9 inch pans, the layers will be thinner than what’s pictured and the bake time will be about 10 minutes shorter.
If making a sheet cake, the bake time will be about 10 minutes longer. Sally’s Baking Addiction has a great all about cake pan conversions!
A note about flour
For this recipe, you’ll need gluten free all purpose baking flour and blanched almond flour.
Whenever I bake cakes/cupcakes that are gluten free and vegan (like my vegan gluten free vanilla cupcakes), I often include almond flour because it adds a lot of moisture and airiness that you miss out on when you don’t include eggs. I don’t recommend any swaps for the almond flour here, it’s key for the texture!
For the all purpose flour, I used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour, which I recommend. You can use other GF blends, just make sure it has xanthan gum. If you aren’t gluten free, regular all purpose will work too!
How should I store cake?
This vegan gluten free chocolate cake is very moist and will stay that way with proper storage! You can easily make this ahead of time and wrap the (cooled) layers in plastic wrap before frosting for 24 hours.
However, once frosted, the cake will keep for 3 days at room temperature. I usually keep it covered on a cake stand, but you can also wrap it tightly in aluminum foil with good results.
Can I make it refined sugar free?
Yes! This recipe calls for both maple syrup and white granulated sugar to sweeten. You can sub the white sugar for coconut sugar if you prefer. The flavor and texture may be slightly different, but still delicious!
Try these vegan desserts next!
- Chocolate Mug Cake
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
- Almond Flour Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Brownies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Mousse
Lastly, if you want more recipes straight to your inbox, be sure to subscribe to my email list. As always, if you make this recipe, leave a comment below so I can see your creation!
Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
by: claire cary
Equipment
Ingredients
Wet:
- 1 cup room temperature non-dairy milk
- ¾ cup oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon apple cider or white vinegar
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 1 cup boiling hot water
Dry:
- 2 ½ cups gluten free all purpose baking flour
- 2 cups fine blanched almond flour
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1-2 teaspoon espresso powder optional
Buttercream:
- 1 batch chocolate buttercream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line two round 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper and set aside. See notes about using 9 inch pans.
- Combine the room temperature milk with the vinegar and mix together in a glass. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl (mixing is easier if the bowl is extra large!), sift together the almond flour, all purpose flour and cocoa powder.
- Whisk in the remaining dry ingredients. The espresso powder is optional, but it really enhances the chocolate flavor. I promise it won’t taste like coffee at all!
- Add in all remaining wet ingredients aside from the boiling water and whisk together.
- Whisk in the boiling water. This will help “activate” the cocoa powder.
- Add the batter to the prepared cake pans, trying to keep them as even as possible to ensure even baking.
- Let sit for 5 minutes.
- Add to the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out with a few crumbs. You don’t want to underbake since the cake will sink in the middle or end up dense, but over-baking will lead to a dry cake, so start your timer at 35 minutes, and add just a couple of minutes at a time until the toothpick has a few crumbs but isn’t wet.
- Remove from the oven and let cool in the cake pans for about 20 minutes.
- Carefully flip onto a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting. I usually stick them in the fridge to cool, which takes about 90 minutes.
- Prepare the buttercream, (just be sure to use vegan butter and milk) then frost the top of one layer, add on the second layer, then frost the top and sides of the cake.
Notes
Comments
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For a gluten free, dairy free, vegan person, this cake makes life worth living. I cannot believe it. No one could tell it did not have all the regular ingredients. Incredible.
I am technically not supposed to have chocolate either but ate it anyway and paid later.
Thank you for this recipe!!
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Thanks so much Sue, so glad you loved it!
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Made this for my son’s birthday and everyone loved it! Cake was moist and the buttercream frosting was delicious! No one could believe it was vegan and gluten free. Thanks for the recipe💕
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Thank you, Kerry!
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Hello! Is it possible to make cupcakes with this cake recipe?
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Yes! Should make about 24, start with about 18 minutes of bake time and go from there.
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heyy, can I use oats flour instead of the gluten free almond flour and almond flour??
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No, I don’t recommend any flour swaps here!
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I’m making this for some vegan friends this weekend. What takes the place of egg in this recipe to bind things together?
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You honestly don’t need a replacement here! The xanthan gum in the flour will do a lot of the binding.
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So yummy! My kids kept asking for more. I can’t do xanthem gum it I put 2 tablespoons of arrowroot powder in mine. Mine turns out as a dense cake. I don’t know if that’s due to the arrowroot powder. But still so yummy!
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It was probably dense because of the arrowroot! I would try half that amount if you cant do the xanthan. It could also be the flour you used in place of the GF all purpose.
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First gluten free and vegan cake I have ever made. Made for company who needed a gluten and dairy free meal. Plus guest of honor was a professional gluten free baker!!! (Yes I am brave and gutsy!) anyway, cake and frosting out of this world. Instructions spot on. Thank you.
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Amazing! Very brave and gutsy but so glad it worked out 🙂
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Actually was the best gluten free vegan chocolate cake!!! Everyone who had it thought it was incredible. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!!
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Thank you, love to hear that!
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I am going to attempt to make this cake for the first time today, so excited! What type of toppings/decoration would you recommend to give the presentation that “WOW” factor?
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I love making flowers with buttercream, some sprinkles, or using a textured cake scraper!
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This cake had a beautiful fluffy & moist texture and depth of chocolate flavor! Very impressive crumb for a gf cake and makes a lovely birthday cake.
I used coconut sugar and decreased the quantity as suggested in the notes and it was still perfectly sweet.
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Amazing, thank you!
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Something is really off with the measurements, my batter turned out super dry. Could it be because of the added xanthan gum? Had to add over 1 cup of water and milk
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Definitely shouldn’t happen. The measurements are correct so I’d make sure you’re measuring the flours properly (spoon and level) and don’t forget the boiling water.
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My 3 years old is intolerant to protein. So, besides dairy and gluten free she also has a vegan diet with no nuts and grains. I was wondering if I could sub the almond flour with the all purpose GF flour? I am very excited to try a new recipe because she is already tired of my old chocolate cake recipe hehe. Your recipe looks amazing but I can’t use the almond flour and I would also have to use about half of the amount of cocoa powder (both are very high in protein). Normally I use some coconut milk powder to help complete the dry ingredients.
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You can try, I would omit the almond flour and just add another 1 cup of AP flour.
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Are you sure measurements are right? My battery was super thick, almost couldn’t scoop it out of the bowl.. and then once in the tin, didn’t really spread with the heat..
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Yes, everything is right! The batter definitely shouldn’t be that thick, be sure you’re spooning and leveling the flour, don’t scoop from the bag or you’ll end up with more than you need!
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Hi,
I’m looking forward to making this cake (vegan version) for my daughter for her birthday (she can’t have eggs and myself eggs and dairy). I’m so excited!
I was just wondering if I should use natural cocoa ro dutch? Or does it not matter?
Thanks-
It really shouldn’t matter, I usually use dutch though, I like the 365 cocoa powder from whole foods!
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We made this for my sister’s 50th Anniversary. My niece is also allergic to potatoes, so we made our own gluten free flour with white rice flour, chickpea flour, arrowroot starch and tapioca starch with a little xanthan gum. We used cacao powder and 1 tsp of espresso powder. It came out great! We split the two layers into 4, spread two with chocolate ganache and one with raspberry filling. Frosted it with almond butter cream. It was a huge favorite for everyone! 🙂 No one could believe it was gluten and egg free!
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Wow that sounds amazing with those frostings/fillings! So glad you enjoyed it!
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Can I use self raising gluten free flour as its the only one I found containing xantham gum? If so, do I skip the baking soda? Thanks x
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I have never used self raising GF flour, so my suggestion is to use a regular GF all purpose flour, then add 1 1/2 teaspoons of xanthan gum.
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