This gluten free vegan chocolate cake will blow you away – with how it looks, how it tastes and how incredibly easy it is to prepare. No fuss, no weird fancy ingredients, only an hour of your time… and you’ve got yourself a decadent, gorgeous gluten free vegan cake. And the best thing: nobody could possibly guess that it contains no gluten, no eggs, no butter and no milk. Yes, it’s that good.
When it comes to vegan and/or gluten free baking, there’s this persistent belief that it’s the most complicated, difficult thing on the planet – borderline rocket science.
The thing is: people like to complicate… pretty much everything… pretty much all the time. (And please note that this is coming from the – self-proclaimed – queen of over-complicating things.) Yes, baking without gluten, eggs, butter and milk can be daunting. But once you step over that initial hurdle (that’s only in your head anyway), it’s a piece of cake. Really. Really really. Pinky promise.
So let’s jump into it, shall we? Because we’re totally badass and nothing scares us (not even egg-less baking) – and because CHOCOLATE IS THE BEST THING EVER, we’ll start with a *drumroll* gluten free vegan chocolate cake.
Deep breaths now. We got this. You got this. Mmkay?
Just look how pretty it is. So pretty.
Now, you might think a vegan chocolate cake recipe will be difficult to master. There’s no egg to hold things together and to give the cake it’s lift, no gluten to prevent the cake from going crumbly, no butter to keep it rich and moist… It’s okay, I thought so to. Initially.
But then, I remembered that quirky recipe that’s been around since the WWII: the wacky cake. You see, due to the shortage of just about everything during WWII, clever people have come up with a chocolate cake recipe that contains no eggs and no dairy. Does this ring a bell?
It sure did for me. If they could do it, surely a simple substitution of normal flour for gluten free flour should result in a gluten free AND vegan chocolate cake with no major problems. Aaaaand… I was right. (It’s a brilliant feeling, that.)
I didn’t follow a specific wacky cake recipe or anything similar. (Simply because I really don’t like following recipes. Go figure. And I have a food blog. With recipes. Don’t try to understand, I know I don’t.) I just threw the ingredients together in a way that felt right (<— yep, 100% accurate scientific procedure right there) and the cake that came out of the oven was… perfect.
Chocolatey.
Moist.
Sweet.
Rich.
So darn good.
(And easy to make. SUPER easy to make, actually.)
It also has the prefect balance between being dense and fluffy – I know that may sound contradictory, but it’s so true. It has the fluffiness of a good sponge, so that when you press it with your finger it has that bounce of a perfect sponge.
But like any good chocolate cake, it’s not too dry or airy – because everyone knows a good chocolate cake is moist and has a certain weight to it. Does that make sense? Tell me it makes sense.
The vegan chocolate frosting is another example where simplicity and effectiveness go hand in hand. Two ingredients, little to no fuss, and you’ve got yourself some amazing chocolate frosting.
Coconut cream and melted chocolate. That’s all you need.
Now, you’ll notice that the instructions for making the vegan chocolate frosting are a bit… odd. But there’s a reason for that. Because we’re essentially making a “naked cake” with very generous amounts of frosting, I wanted a chocolate frosting that has the airy body/volume of a whipped buttercream and the smooth texture of a chocolate ganache.
You with me so far?
So what I did is make a super concentrated ganache, by pouring a relatively small amount of boiling hot coconut cream over a whole lot of chocolate. This makes an intense, very dark ganache, that may appear slightly grainy (depending on the water content of your coconut cream). That’s okay though. No stress.
Then, I mixed the chocolate ganache gradually into more coconut cream. Which is weird, I know. But it works. It really really works.
I mean… just look at it. It’s all silky and velvety and just… gorgeous.
Have I convinced you yet? That gluten free and/or vegan baking can be (and is) simple?
I suppose the ultimate proof is in making and eating (obviously) the cake. All I can say is that this vegan chocolate cake recipe is probably one of the easiest on TLW, and when I brought the cake with me to work, people were impressed both with how it looked and how it tasted. Nobody could tell that it’s gluten free and vegan. Nobody could tell it took only about an hour to make.
What they saw and tasted was an amazing chocolate cake that delivered on all fronts. What more could you possible want?
Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Cake (Gluten, Dairy & Egg Free)
This gluten free vegan chocolate cake will blow you away – with how it looks, how it tastes and how incredibly easy it is to prepare. No fuss, no weird fancy ingredients, only an hour of your time… and you’ve got yourself a decadent, gorgeous gluten free vegan cake. And the best thing: nobody could possibly guess that it contains no gluten, no eggs, no butter and no milk. Yes, it’s that good.
Ingredients
For gluten free vegan chocolate sponge:
DRY:
- 2 cups (240 g) gluten free flour
- 1 1/3 cup (260 g) caster sugar (Note 1)
- 1/2 cup (60 g) cocoa powder
- pinch of salt
- 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
WET:
- 1 cup (240 mL) vegetable oil
- 2 cup (480 mL) non-dairy milk (for instance coconut milk, rice milk or almond milk if not sensitive to nuts)
For vegan chocolate frosting:
- 1 cup (200 g) coconut cream, divided (Note 2)
- 7 oz (200 g) dark chocolate, chopped
Optional:
- chocolate shavings for decorating
- raspberries for decorating
Instructions
For gluten free vegan chocolate sponge:
Pre-heat the oven to 355 ºF (180 ºC) and grease two 6 inch (15 cm) round cake tins with vegetable oil. You can also line the bottoms with greaseproof/baking paper.
Mix all dry ingredients together.
Mix the wet ingredients together, and add them to the dry ingredients. Stir well, until you get a smooth cake batter.
Divide the batter evenly between the two greased cake tins, smooth out the tops, and bake in the pre-heated oven at 355 ºF (180 ºC) for about 40 minutes or until the tops are springy/bouncy to the touch and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Allow to cool.
For vegan chocolate frosting:
In a saucepan, heat 1/2 cup of the coconut cream until boiling hot.
Place the chopped dark chocolate in a heat-proof bowl, and pour over the boiling hot coconut cream. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, then stir it well until you get a glossy, dark, intense chocolate ganache. Allow to cool until only slightly warm.
In a separate bowl, place the other 1/2 cup of coconut cream. This should be at room temperature or only very slightly cold. Slowly (a tablespoon at a time), stir the chocolate ganache into the coconut cream. At the end, you should be left with a smooth, easily spreadable frosting ideal for decorating.
(If you want a more intensely chocolatey frosting, decrease the amount of coconut cream.)
Assembly:
Layer the sponges together with the frosting, like in the pictures above.
NOTE: Be sure to work relatively quickly – use the frosting as soon as possible after preparing it, as it tends to firm up slightly on standing, which makes it difficult to spread.
Decorate with raspberries and chocolate shavings, or other decorations of choice.
Enjoy!
Storage:
The gluten free vegan chocolate cake keeps well in a closed container in a cool dry place (the fridge is fine, too) for 3 - 4 days.
Recipe Notes
Note 1: If you’re a vegan who’s concerned about bone char used in refining sugar, you can see a list of companies that don’t use bone-char filters on the PETA website.
Note 2: You can get coconut cream by putting coconut milk (with a high coconut content and without too many stabilisers/preservatives) into the fridge for a few hours – without shaking! The coconut milk will separate into coconut cream (that you'll need in this recipe) and coconut water (which is great in smoothies).
Looking for more sweet vegan goodness? You’ve come to the right place!
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60 thoughts on “Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Cake”
This cake! I will 110% be making this for valentines day! The crumb looks fudgy and moist and the frosting looks so fluffy and decadent!
Yay! Hope you made it for Valentine’s Day and that you absolutely LOVED it! 😉
Do you have any experience with how this cake freezes? I was hoping to make 2 layers a week before I needed it, and freeze it until the day before.
Hi Jamie, I haven’t tried freezing the cake. I would try it once (with only 1 layer) as a trial run before you actually need it. I’m pretty certain it should be OK, but better safe than sorry.
Is it self raising flour or plain flour you used.?
Hi Angela! It’s plain (gluten free) flour. I never use self-raising flour, as I want to control the amount of raising agent that goes into my bakes, and I find self-raising flour somewhat unreliable in that regard… 🙂
Thankyou. Is this recipe only suited to 6inch tins?
You can use pretty much any tin size (and shape) you want, but you might need to scale the quantities of the ingredients and adjust the baking time. The cake batter recipe should scale with no major problems, and you can easily check whether the cake is baked properly by inserting a toothpick and checking whether it comes out clean. 🙂
What non dairy milk do you use?
If almond milk was used, wluld ypu use sweetened or unsweetened?
Hi Angela! I mostly use almond milk, as I don’t have any sensitivities to nuts, but pretty much any non-dairy milk should work. I always use the unsweetened variety, as it allows me better control over how much sugar I put into my bakes. 🙂
what milk do you use?
I mostly use almond milk, as I don’t have any sensitivities to nuts, but pretty much any non-dairy milk should work. I recommend using the unsweetened variety, as it allows you better control over how sweet your cake will be.
Could you make this with regular flour if the xanthan gum wasn’t added??
When you say “regular flour”, I assume you mean white wheat flour? If that’s the case then yes, leave out the xanthan and add in the “regular flour”. 🙂 You might need a slightly larger amount of flour, as GF flour blends absorb more moisture than wheat flour, but other than that it should work with no problems. 🙂
What blend of gluten free flour do you use?
Hi Michelle! I usually stick to the simpler gluten free flour blends – the one I’m currently using only contains rice, potato and maize flour, with no added xanthan gum (it a blend from Lidl, in UK). I prefer to add my own xanthan, as it gives more control over how the bake turns out.
Do you have a favorite gluten free flour? I’m new to this scene and am spending lots of $ trying to find what’s best for baking.
Hi Donna! I usually stick to the simpler gluten free flour blends – the one I’m currently using only contains rice, potato and maize flour, with no added xanthan gum (it a blend from Lidl, in UK). I prefer to add my own xanthan, as it gives more control over how the bake turns out.
Hope this is helpful, if you have any more questions just let me know! 🙂
Did mine and it rose great then went completely flat!! Going to have another go
Hi Jo! This might mean that you under-baked your cake slightly: make sure to check whether your cake is baked perfectly, using the “toothpick test”: if you insert a toothpick or a skewer into the cake, leave it in for ~2 seconds and take it out, the cake is done if there are only a few/no crumbs on the toothpick/skewer. Also, if you press onto the cake with your finger, it should bounce back. Hope this helps! 🙂
Can I use guar gum instead of xanthgum.
Hi Kesha! In general, xanthan gum is better for baked goods (here’s a good article on this topic). But if you do decide to give guar gum a try, let me know how it goes!
Hi there wondering what oil you use? Would coconut work?
Hi Sarah! I’ve made the cake with vegetable oil, but coconut oil should work perfectly 🙂
I used sunflower oil but it tasted a bit oil, would coconut oil be nicer?
Hi Debbie! You can try coconut oil and see if you prefer that – but the oiliness might be because you use a specific type of gluten free flour that doesn’t absorb fats well. You can also try to decrease the amount of oil you use. 🙂
Made this cake. It came out about 1/2 inch high(each one) and the icing looked nothing like the one in the photo! Did you use a mixer to make yours or just double the mixture? I’m pretty good at making cakes and can usually get a good result but sorry, not this time! I daresay it will taste okay if it does ever stay together (can’t get the icing to thicken either). And yes, I did use just coconut cream and no fluid. Thanks.
Hi Lyn, terribly sorry you’re having problems with the recipe. I didn’t use a mixer and I’ve used the same amount as stated in the recipe. What size baking tins are you using? I’ve used 6 inch ones, which are rather small. Also, check whether your baking powder and baking soda are past their expiry date, they lose they activity over time. As for the frosting, I know that some coconut creams contain many stabilisers, and once you’ve mixed them with other ingredients they become super runny. Maybe try refrigerating it, and see if it thickens. Or try whipping it longer with a mixer, sometimes it helps. 🙂 Hope this helped, and let me know if you have any other questions!
Just to let those know who were interested- I froze this cake and defrosted it the day before I iced it and it was honestly even better than the first time round! Perfect recipe to do in advance, very very impressed. I do think you have to double the recipe to get a proper sized cake though, I did 4 x the recipe for a full 9 inch cake!
Thank you so much for letting me know, Amy! I don’t tend to freeze my bakes, so such information is always appreciated 🙂 I did make my cake rather small (6 inch), but I think it scales nicely. Super happy you enjoyed it!
Hi there!
This cake looks amazing. I am going to try using coconut sugar instead of castor sugar for a client who is refined sugar free.. do you think this will work ok? Thanks! Amy
Hey Amy! Really glad you like the cake 🙂 It should definitely work with coconut sugar – and if you give it a try, let me know how it goes.
Hello I was wondering if this recipe can be interchanged from vegan and vegan/gluten-free just with the flour? If so does that mean that if I were to use all purpose flour as a cheaper alternative would I need the anthem gum?
You can definitely use a plain wheat all purpose flour and omit the xanthan gum if the cake doesn’t have to be gluten free. 🙂
Will goats milk work?
I’m pretty sure it should work. Let me know how it turns out!
Hi Kat,
It looks amazing! It can be so hard with so many allergies.. I’m also allergic to rice and nut free.. What flour can I substitute the “gluten free” mix? Coconut? Buckwheat? Quinoa? Thanks!
Hi Zoe! I feel you with the allergies’.. I typically use a shop-bought GF flour blend, which consists of rice, potato and maize flour. I haven’t experimented with other flours, but I think buckwheat flour should work. *fingers crossed* I would first try it on a smaller quantity (for instance just one cake layer) and then scale up. If you can eat eggs/aren’t vegan, I recommend my paleo chocolate cake. Hope this helps!
Hi Kat!
This looks AMAZING. It can be a real challenge with so many allergies..
Can I switch to another flour? (Im allergic to rice/almond/soy also)
What would you suggest? Coconut? Buckwheat? I noticed you used coconut flour for you Paleo Cake?
Thanks!
Hi Zoe, see my answer below on your other comment 🙂
If I have a gf flour blend with xantham gum in it…. in theory I just omit the xantham gum from the recipe, correct? It doesn’t need “extra” to work, right?
Also, for the frosting, I’m sensitive to coconut. Is there a substitute for the coconut cream I can use? Could I use regular dairy whipping cream? I mostly needed a gf/egg free recipe. Or if there is another non-dairy substitute I’d love to try it!
Thanks in advance!
Hi Jen! If your GF flour already contains xanthan, you can omit it from the recipe. As for the frosting, you can definitely use the dairy whipping cream – I’ve used the coconut cream because I wanted to keep the recipe vegan, plus I love the flavour. 🙂 If you’re sensitive to coconut, just use dairy cream.
Yay!!!! A vegan recipe for cake which actually works every time you make it, and which the non-vegans enjoy as much as the one vegan in the family! Thank you so much! Birthday cake problem solved forever.
Ohmygosh Sal I’m SO GLAD you and your family enjoyed the recipe! Your comment totally made my day!
I made this cake today and it turned out amazing! I used my own homemade gluten-free flour, and as for the milk of choice I chose almond milk. I’ll be icing the cake using my vanilla icing recipe that we’ve had in my family for years. Since I’m the only gluten-free member in my family, I’ll have it all to myself haha! Thanks so much for this recipe! It’s so hard to find easy gluten-free cake recipes and this one is just great!
Yay! SO glad you enjoyed the cake, Giselle!!! 🙂
Hello.
Just made this and its super yummy. Abit thin cos my tins are too big but out tomorrow to get smaller ones haha. Little problem with the frosting though, it came out very runny. Any tips would be very much appreciated. New to this baking fun. I used blue dragon coconut cream, just off the shelf so not cold. Thanks alot. Great recipe! Will make again defo.
Hi Becky! I’m really glad you liked the cake! Regarding the frosting: I like to put my coconut cream/milk in the fridge overnight and allow it to separate. Even if it’s sold as “coconut cream”, it can still contain quite a bit of water, which will make it super runny. If you leave it in the fridge overnight, most of the water should separate out from the cream, and the results should be much better. 🙂
Hi there, could I use sunflower oil instead of vegetable oil.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Helen, sunflower oil should work with no problems. 🙂
Recipe looks awesome!! Can you please tell me if I can substitute psyllium husk powder for xanthan gum in my how cake recipe? (don’t have access to any) The internet says to try to double the amount of psyllium for xanthan in bread recipes. I’m reposting this question as my first post has not appeared yet. Thanks so much. Linda
Hi Linda,
I’ve never tried this substitution, so unfortunately can’t be very helpful in this case. I would try it on a smaller scale (e.g. only one layer), and if it works, up the quantities. Let me know how it goes! 🙂
This cake was delicious! I substituted the caster sugar for coconut sugar and it turned out great! However the frosting turned out quite runny and I couldn’t get it to thicken. I tried whipping it but it made no difference. Do you have any suggestions? It’s definitely a recipe I will make again though!
Thanks
Hi Steph, so glad you enjoyed the cake! Regarding the frosting, it’s likely that your coconut cream contained too much water. When making frosting, I always choose a coconut milk with a high coconut percentage and as few additives/stabilisers as possible. Then, place it in the fridge overnight for the coconut cream to separate out – this produces perfectly stiff frosting. 🙂
Delicious! This was a hit for my baby’s 1st birthday. Able to accommodate my new dabble into veganism and my sister’s GF diet. Some people thought it was a bit too sweet which is probably due to the can of coconut cream I used. Unfortunately, did not see handy note 2 about coconut milk. I also used dark chocolate chips instead of a chocolate bar. Next time I’d like to try with stevia, as well. As is, this recipe was delicious and easy to make!
I’m SO HAPPY to hear that Bonnie! 😀 It’s one of my favourite cakes (ever), so I’m super glad you and your family enjoyed it.
What is a heat-proof boil? I’ve Googled without illumination.
It’s a typo 😀 It’s meant to say “heat-proof bowl”! Sorry about that 🙂
Would I have to adjust the oven temp, and baking time, or just the baking time if I were to use bigger pans? I am not the greatest at switching up things in recipes, but I currently do not own 6in cake pans. Alternatively if I go buy 6in cake pans, how tall should each layer of cake be approximately? I would be okay just doubling the recipe, and doing 4 layers instead of two. I am basically a mess when it comes to baking, but I want to attempt this cake for my best friend’s birthday since we live in a town that doesn’t have a lot of bakeries, and none of the ones we have will do gluten free/vegan.
Hi Kimberly!
If you’re using larger pans, keep the oven temp the same, but the baking time will probably change. If you’re using the same quantities of ingredients, the sponges will be thinner and will therefore bake quicker.
The 6 inch baking pans I use are the ones from Wilton, about 2 inches tall – these are quite tall sponge layers.
The recipe is very flexible in terms of scaling up or down.
Hope this helps, and let me know if you have any more questions! 🙂