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The perfect vegan paleo chocolate layer cake for any occasion – fluffy, fudgy, layered with rich ganache frosting, and made without grains, eggs, or dairy!
SPONSORED BY HU
This cake was definitely one of those labor of love recipes. And by that I mean it’s been a week of testing, five (six?) trial runs, tiny tweaks for texture of flavor or crumb, so many notes I can’t remember which batch is which, drowning in leftover cake, I WILL GET IT RIGHT sort of situation. There were moments where I was truly chocolate-ed out. Yes, it is possible. Yes I’m shocked too.
Even though I don’t want another bite of chocolate cake until March, it was all worth it to be able to share this fudgy, fluffy, stacked, and frosted Vegan Paleo Chocolate Cake recipe with you.
Ingredients
Creating a chocolate cake without eggs, gluten, grains, or dairy that is fluffy and moist was trickier than I expected. You will need:
- Hu Gems. My favorite dark chocolate for snacking and baking, they melt down to the most luxurious rich chocolate and give this cake it’s moisture and deep chocolatey flavor.
- Coconut sugar. Or granulated sweetener of choice, but I prefer the flavor and richness of coconut or brown sugar to cane sugar.
- Almond milk. Or nondairy milk of choice (but not canned coconut).
- Brewed coffee. This intensifies the chocolate flavor, but you can use water instead.
- Apple cider vinegar. To help it rise.
- Cassava flour. One of my favorite flours lately, it’s grain free but bakes to be fluffy and soft almost like wheat.
- Coconut flour. Just a little bit really helps with texture I found, so the cake isn’t TOO moist.
- Cocoa powder. Or cacao powder.
- Vanilla, baking soda, salt. The usuals.
Frosting
The frosting is so simple, made with just two ingredients. Melt coconut cream with our delish little Hu Gems, stir until smooth, then chill so it hardens and thickens (a.k.a. make vegan chocolate ganache). After a couple hours in the freezer when it’s just almost set, remove and whip with a hand mixer. As you incorporate air, the color will get lighter and the texture will become something in between chocolate buttercream and whipped cream.
You may need to double the frosting recipe if you really like to pile it on thick. Or leave the sides bare and just frost the middle and top, the cake is very rich as is!
It’s birthday perfect but any day appropriate – dress it down to one layer, or stack it up and add sprinkles on top for party purposes.
It also happens to be National Chocolate Cake Day, so cheers (and cut yourself an extra big slice) to that!
Vegan Paleo Chocolate Cake
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes
- Yield: 12 slices 1x
- Category: cake
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: american
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Description
The perfect vegan paleo chocolate layer cake for any occasion – fluffy, fudgy, layered with rich ganache frosting, and made without grains, eggs, or dairy!
Ingredients
Scale
Cake
- 3/4 cup (135g) Hu Gems
- 1 1/2 cup (210g) coconut sugar
- 1 cup (240g) almond milk
- 1 cup (240g) brewed coffee*
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups (325g) cassava flour**
- 2 tbsp (15g) coconut flour
- 3/4 cup (75g) cocoa powder
- 2 tsps baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Ganache Frosting
- 1 cup (180g) Hu Gems
- Cream from 13.5oz can full-fat coconut milk (about 200g)***
Instructions
- Melt the Gems.
- Stir in the coconut sugar, almond milk, brewed coffee, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla (all at room temp or slightly warmed).
- In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients.
- Add wet to dry, and mix to combine.
- Divide into 2 greased 6” cake pans.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes at 350ºF.
- Cool for 10 minutes. Then remove from pans and cool on a cooling rack completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, melt the Gems with the coconut cream. Stir until smooth.
- Refrigerate for 2-3 hours, then whip with a hand mixer until fluffy and lighter in color.
- Cut off the domed top of each cake. Stack with frosting in between, then frost the top and sides.
- Slice and eat! Keep leftovers in the fridge, well covered so it doesn’t dry out.
Notes
*Or water, but the coffee make the chocolate flavor richer (doesn’t taste like coffee).
**Or all purpose flour will work too if not paleo/gluten-free
***Refrigerate overnight and scoop out just the thick solid part
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 465
- Sugar: 33g
- Sodium: 344mg
- Fat: 21g
- Saturated Fat: 13g
- Carbohydrates: 68g
- Fiber: 7g
- Protein: 5g
Keywords: gluten free, paleo, layer cake, birthday, frosting, healthy, baking, egg free, dairy free
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