DessertsVegan Mint & Chocolate "Cheesecake"
GLUTEN-FREE CHOCOLATE & ALMOND CAKE
A rich, moist and fluffy chocolate cake was in order and this one ticks all the boxes! It is delicious, 100% plant-based, naturally sweetened and gluten-free.
Hello folks! This is Rita here. We had planned to have this recipe published it a few days ago but life seems to have caught us off guard and messed up all of our plans. At last, here it is! We're specially excited to share this cake with you guys because this was one tough recipe to nail. Creating recipes for cakes was the one thing I was most nervous about when we first started planning our blog. Being both a perfectionist and a sweet-tooth turns recipe developing into a very challenging task. I must have baked about 6 different versions of this cake until I finally got it right, but boy was the final product worth the challenge! Don't get me wrong though, this is super quick and easy to make. It has been tried, tested and approved by friends and family members.
The winning version of this delicious dessert turned out rich, moist and incredibly fluffy. It's as perfect for special occasions and dinner parties as it is for breakfast. It's also gluten free thanks to the combination of almond flour and buckwheat flour. The almond flour makes it rich and filling without becoming too dense while the buckwheat provides the perfect crumb and texture. You will find that this is not an overly sweet dessert, which is just how we like them. However, you can substitute the dark chocolate for a (vegan) milk chocolate if you're into some sweeter goodies.
This is a great example of how you don't need to deprive yourself from eating desserts when you go vegan nor do you need to include animal products in them. Eggs and dairy are nothing but the cause of harm to the animals and the planet and the cause of disease and sickness to humans. Let's embrace this compassionate lifestyle and amp up our chocolate cake consumption because folks — believe me; this cake is as healthy and good for you as it is delicious (LOADS!). It holds up really well both in and out of the fridge but our guess is it'll be gone before you know it! Go ahead guys, give this a go and let us know how it turns out!
Gluten-free Chocolate & Almond Cake
12–16 slices
1h 10 minutes
Ingredients
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 95 g almond flour
- 185 g buckwheat flour
- 20 g raw cacao powder
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp fine Himalayan salt
WET INGREDIENTS
- 60 ml sunflower oil
- 50 g vegan chocolate 70% cacao, chopped
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 375 ml almond milk
- 150 g jaggery
- 2 flax eggs (combine 2 tbsp ground flax seeds with 6 tbsp water and allow to rest for 5 minutes)
Topping
- 25 g almond flakes
Instructions
Start by gathering, preparing and measuring all of the ingredients. This will improve your dynamic in the kitchen.
- Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC (350ºF).
- Line an 20 cm (8-inch) spring-form pan with parchment paper in the bottom and the sides.
- Sift together all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
- Combine the sunflower oil and the chopped chocolate in a double-boiler on medium heat and stir until molten and combined.
- Add the vanilla extract and the jaggery to the double boiler and mix thoroughly.
- Remove from heat and stir in the almond milk and the flax eggs.
- Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients and fold until perfectly combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
- Scatter the almond flakes evenly over the batter.
- Place in the oven and bake for 35 minutes.
- After the 35 minutes, place a sheet of aluminum foil over the pan and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool completely in the pan before cutting into it.
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26 CommentsHello Rita, i am so eager to make this recipe but need to know if I can substitute buckwheat with sorghum flour? If not then else can I use except buckwheat or brown rice flour..?
Thank you, NidhiI made this tonight and it was DELICIOUS! I had to make some substitutions since I was out of some of the ingredients and didn’t want to go to the store. I substituted brown rice flour for buckwheat flour, avocado oil for sunflower, coconut sugar for jiggery, eggs for flax. It is very low on the sweet taste, which is perfect for me. Thanks for sharing this recipe. Do you think I could use a different flour in place of buckwheat? I wonder whether plain might even make it fluffier?I used brown rice flour and found it to have a nice fluffy texture.Hi, I made this yesterday and we all loved it. I was out of plant milk, so had to substitute whole fat milk for almond. I also used coconut oil instead of sunflower. Used cornstarch (custard powder actually) in place of potato starch. The texture was lovely. 1 question, to make it more chocolaty, can I bump up cocoa powder to 1/2 cup and make buckwheat flour 1 cup? Thank youI love it! I made it yesterday. I had to replace some ingredients: The arrowroot flour for corn starch, the sunflower oil for canola oil, the jaggery for coconut sugar, and the almond milk for cashe milk. also, I added 1 tsp of Amaretto. The cake is not so sweet but it's delicious, and the texture is perfect.
Thnaks for ths vegan, gluten-free recipe :)Hi! I really want to make this but I do not have access to jaggery. Do you think I can substitute for agave nectar? Thank you! :)Hi Rita, I don’t have tapioca starch or potato starch what can I substitute it with? Also I plan to use gluten free flour as I don’t have buckwheat and almond. How many eggs would I require if have to use?
Hi Pooja, thank you so much for stopping by! Gluten free flour mixes usually have added starch, so you won't need to add any extra (just substitute for an extra tablespoon of flour). In theory, 2 flax eggs would be equivalent to 2 regular eggs, but I can't guarantee if it'll work, because I haven't baked with eggs in many years. Be mindful that this recipe was tested and created specifically for the almond and buckwheat flour mix. It sounds like you're headed towards a totally different recipe, and you may need to make some more changes in order for it to work. :) xoHi Rita, I was so waiting to try your recipe. So I did but unfortunately, it didn't taste as expected. I checked the doses and noticed that the cups and grams are not the same with the almond flour and buckwheat. You say 1 cup of almond flour and 1 1/4 cup of buckwheat. But when you translate into grams you double the buckwheat compared to almond! Of course I noticed after because it tasted ... not good at all! I can't wait to try it again with the good ratio.Hello Steph, thank you so much for stopping by! The doses and ratios are actually correct, as the volume of buckwheat flour is much heavier than the same volume in almond flour. What exactly did you not enjoy about the taste? Buckwheat flour does have slight mineral taste to it and we like our cakes to be not too sweet. So perhaps you should try a different flour entirely or increase the amount of sugar? Let me know! :) xoCurrently trying this recipe. Had to adapt a little bit because I didn't have flax or arrowroot. I left out the arrowroot and I used a small banana instead of flax egg :)Woop! Now there's an adaptation I've never tried before. I hope it turns out delicious! :D xoHi Rita! Charlotte from Denmark here😉 What is jaggery? I have tried google translate with no result...can you explain what it is? Thanks😊Hi Charlotte! Thanks for stopping by 😄✨ Jaggery is called 'rapadura' here in Portugal, and it's a natural sugar made from the sap of plants like sugar cane or date palm! It's very rich in mineral and it ranks low on the glycemic index. It's typical from India but it's widely spread in Europe as well. If you can't find it anywhere, just replace it with equal parts coconut sugar, the flavours are slightly different, but it's pretty much the same! 😘Can I use coconut milk instead of almond?Hi Yasmin! If it's the beverage kind (from a carton), sure! Not the one from a can though, it's much too thick. :) xoIs this cake supposed to be a little wet when it comes out after cooking?? I think I may have messed up somewhere along the lines lolHeh, not really! :D Ours come out always nice and fluffly from top to bottom. Might you have used too little flour? Hope it works out next time! Thanks for sharing :) xops. in case it helps anyone, you can grind whole buckwheat and almonds in a thermomix, if you have one. works perfectly. don't combine as you need to be careful with grinding almonds...Brilliant! worked beautifully! Best egg free, dairy free, gluten free cake I've tried so far. Made as cupcakes and had to eat several in a row straight away, they were so good...Thanks for the feedback Rosie :D We always had the feeling this recipe would make some pretty good cupcakes, but never actually tried it ourselves. Sounds like we'll have to! :) xoHey there! Absolutely in love with your work, the recipes and the design & layout of your site as well! I was wondering, what would work as a substitute for buckwheat here? I read the comment about using brown rice flour, but would oat/ quinoa flour work? Or have you ever tried it entirely with almond flour? Was looking to experiment so I'd love your opinion!Hi Nikita! I've baked this cake a few times with oat flour instead of buckwheat but I find buckwheat is the one to go. The cake turns out perfectly fluffy and crumbly. The one thing I wouldn't recommend is using entirely almond flour, it might become too dense! Let me know how this works out for you. :) xoHello ! So I really want to try and make this cake i just have two questions. Do you think it's possible to use regular brown sugar instead of the jaggery, and for the buckwheat flour what can I use instead ? Just a simple ingredient please maybe brown rice flour because i really have no access to those kind of ingredients in my country. Thank you in advanceHi Mimi! Brown sugar and brown rice flour sound perfect to me! Let me know how it works out for you. Merry Christmas! :) xoHi, I am from India and jaggery here is a raw sugar that we get in powder form or in chunks. I notice that it is listed as a wet ingredient and was confused. Pls advise so I can bake this yummy cake! Thks.Hello Ritu! Thanks for dropping by. Indeed, we use jaggery in its powdered form. I included in the wet ingredients because it ends up being added to the wet ingredients before adding the whole mixture to the dry ones. :) I'm glad to hear you're giving this a go, let me know how it turns out! xoYour cake is so drool worthy! I definitely must try it!Thanks Rita! Let us know how it turns out when you try it. :) xoI have to bake this! Thanks for sharing this recipe! What's special about arrowrout flower or potatoe starch? Would corn starch also work?Hello Frauke! Thanks for stopping by. Arrowroot flour or potato starch act as a binder for the gluten free flours in this recipe. They allow the perfect texture. I've never used cornstarch in baking because I've always had the idea that it is more adequate in making sauces and puddings. However, it could work! Give it a go and let me know how it turned out. :) xoLooks delicious!Thank you sweetheart! :) xoGreat looking website! Pics are awesome and your logs is really neat. The cartoons of the ingredients are adorable :) I can't wait to try the cake!Hi Beth, thank you so much for stopping by and for your kind words! :) Let me know how your rendition of this recipe turns out. xoThank you Rhonda! I have never seen this word before either. Rita, where do you live? I'm curious to know where this "jaggery" word comes from. BTW this cake reminds me of the chocolate financier cake I found in Bon Appétit 10 years ago. That one had two layers with apricot jam in the middle. Words cannot describe how happy I am to have this precious vegan version! I can't wait to try it!! Thank you very much!Hi Dolores! :D We're from Portugal, so our word for jaggery is actually "rapadura". It's not the most common of the ingredients, but it is super worth the search. That Bon Appetit cake sounds delicious! Let me know if you give our version a try :) xoLooks delicious! Your pictures are phenomenal! XxThank you so much Meira! :D Stay close xoCould you tell me what jaggery is? never heard of it. RhondaHi Rhonda! Jaggery is a natural, whole sugar typical made from either date and coconut palms or sugar cane. It's largely consumed in Asia and Africa. If you can't find jaggery, the closest things to it are raw cane sugar and coconut sugar! :) xoIt looks like all your trial and error paid off, this cake looks amazing!! I love the combination of almond and chocolate :)Some recipes are trickier than others, but this one totally paid off! Thanks for stopping by sweetie :) xoxoI totally have to try this for my boyfriend!Hi Valentina! Let us know how it turns out in case you do try it! :D Stay close xo
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https://www.cocooncooks.com/en/recipes/gluten-free-chocolate-and-almond-cake
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