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!
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email below & we’ll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great new recipes from us every week!
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
-
Would you recommend doing 1 and 1/2 recipe for a 3 layer 8″ cake?
-
Yes! Or you can just do 3 layers that are thinner and shorten the bake time.
-
-
Hi! Can I use Bob’s Red Mill GF All purpose Baking Flour instead of GF 1 to 1 Baking Flour?
-
You need the one in the blue bag not in the red bag!
-
-
This cake is so chocolatey and has such a rich flavor! Mine did come out more like a fudge brownie texture but I did use 3, 6-inch pans so it could have been that! I’ve made this cake multiple times and it’s always a delicious treat!
-
Made this cake for a birthday for a person with gluten, egg, soya, dairy allergies, and it is the best cake they’ve ever had. Texture and taste were both spot on. Will definitely be making this again!
-
Thank you for this, it is will be a regular in my baking arsenal.
I was dubious about the ‘it can pass for gluten cake’ but yes it really does. I made it as the GF option for a birthday party and it got a lot of love and a request for the recipe.-
Thank you, Tracey!
-
-
This was such a great recipe, my family loved it and eyes went to wide when I said it was vegan and GF. They couldn’t believe it!!
-
Music to my ears! Thanks, Kel!
-
-
I thought the moisture in this cake was great, but the texture did come out a bit gritty despite sifting all dry ingredients. I used Red Mill almond flour and Robin Hood GF flour. If there is something I might have done to cause grittiness I would love to know so I can re-test this recipe! Loved that it wasn’t too sweet.
-
There should be no gritty texture here! I suggest sticking with Bobs flour for the all purpose or king arthur. I have the best results with those. Make sure you’re using almond flour and not almond meal.
-
-
Made it and it came out very well.
Can I freeze it without the frosting?-
Yes! Just let cool completely, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 1 month.
-
-
So happy to have found this recipe. It’s so delish and no one even knew it was GF. Another time i also made it into cupcakes, with less cooking time and was perfect. I used soy milk and coconut sugar. Looking forward to trying the vanilla recipe. Thankyou x
-
Love it! Thank you, Aimee!
-
-
This was delicious! Rose beautifully, and was moist and tender. I added some fall spices (cardamom, cinnamon, ginger) and served with a vegan cream cheese frosting.
-
This cake is great! It would be really helpful to add the weight for the flour. I had to use extra water to make the batter anything like the consistency of most cake batters, even after spooning the flour into the measuring cup. Thanks!
-
What flour did you use?
-
-
Hi, I want to make this for my daughters birthday but there are lots of kids coming. Anyone have any suggestions for how to make it bigger?
-
How many do you need to serve?
-
-
Absolutely delicious!
-
This cake is amazing, as is the linked buttercream recipe! My daughter sent me the link last night while we were celebrating my uncle’s 80th birthday. She is vegan and gf, so she was watching everyone else eat cake. I made it for her today, omitting the espresso powder and substituting a cup of prepared coffee for the boiling water. We were all blown away!
-
Makes me so happy! Thanks, Beth!
-
-
Hi! Question! I hope to make this for a large group of people, and am considering making a flat cake or cupcakes instead of the layers. Any suggestions in that regard?
-
You can make one 9×13 cake with the same ingredients listed!
-
leave a comment and rating