Almond Flour Chocolate Cake has a fudgy texture and is packed with chocolate flavor. Almond flour adds mild nuttiness, and makes this recipe completely gluten-free!
A deep, dark chocolate cake is definitely a desert island food for me. Despite the fact that I trained as a pastry chef, I will choose a simple chocolate cake over much more complicated desserts every.single.time. But—it has to be perfect. Moist and fudgy, and never ever dry.
Ever since I started experimenting with using almond flour instead of regular flour in cookies, I’ve been wanting to try an Almond Flour Chocolate Cake recipe. After a few rounds of testing, I came up with a version that is very easy to make, and has a perfectly tender texture. Super delicious too, and no frosting required!
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Why Make This Recipe
- So Fast: This easy almond flour cake recipe has a short list of ingredients, and doesn't require a stand mixer or even an electric mixer.
- Dark and Delicious: Rich chocolate flavor that needs only a sprinkle of powdered sugar to serve. Fresh berries take it over the top.
- Gluten-Free: This cake uses almond flour instead of regular wheat flour, making it gluten-free. But all you'll taste is your new favorite chocolate cake.
- Great Shelf Life: Using almond flour in your recipe adds fat, which adds richness and also extends the shelf life of your baked goods.
🥗 Ingredients for Almond Flour Chocolate Cake
- Almond Flour: Almond meal and almond flour are terms used for the same thing—both mean finely ground almonds. The majority of almond flour products are made by finely grinding blanched almonds (almonds where the skins have been removed). Almond meal can mean finely ground blanched or unblanched almonds, and almond meal may be a coarser grind than almond flour. As a result, I always prefer to bake with fine-ground almond flour.
- Cocoa Powder: This moist chocolate cake shines with a very high-quality cocoa powder. I love cocoa powder with deep chocolate flavor, like my favorite Valrhona Cocoa Powder. But you can use whatever unsweetened cocoa powder you like best, and both regular cocoa powder and dutch-processed cocoa powder work just fine.
- Sugar: My recipe calls for regular sugar, but several people have made this cake with sugar substitutes such as coconut sugar and have reported back that it works quite well! Try replacing with maple syrup as well.
- Vegetable Oil: A neutral oil is best for this recipe. As a substitute, try coconut oil or a mild olive oil.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
First, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Pour a small amount of cocoa powder into your buttered pan, and tap and turn the pan until the cocoa powder coats the sides. This will help the cake unmold easily.
Whisk together your dry ingredients: 1.5 cups almond flour, ⅓ cup cocoa powder, 1 cup sugar, ¾ teaspoon baking powder, and ½ teaspoon salt in a large mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together 3 large eggs, 3 ounces of vegetable oil, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
Stir egg mixture into almond flour mixture until well-combined, then stir in ½ cup of chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Use a rubber spatula to scrape into the prepared pan.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until top is springy when touched, and cake tester comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes, then cover with a cutting board or plate and flip over. Remove pan, then parchment paper, and cover with serving platter. Then flip over again.
Dust your Chocolate Almond Flour Cake with powdered sugar to serve, if desired.
🧐 FAQs
Yes, almond flour cakes freeze quite well. They also keep well for a few days covered or in a plastic container at room temperature. To freeze, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Yes! You can easily make your own almond flour with the help of a food processor. Just take a quantity of blanched almonds (you can often find these as blanched, slivered almonds in the grocery store) and blitz in a food processor until they are finely ground. For best results, make sure you stop as soon as you see the texture you want. If you grind for too long, your almond flour will turn into almond butter.
Yes! And since almond flour is expensive both to buy and to make, you should definitely freeze any leftovers for your next batch. According to Bob’s Red Mill, you can even freeze almond flour for 4-5 months after its sell by date, as long as you keep it in an airtight container.
You can also keep it in the fridge if you prefer, and in fact, if you are planning to store almond flour for over a few weeks, you should keep it in the refrigerator or freezer. Almond flour (and other nut flours) can turn rancid more quickly than traditional flour.
Though this is a gluten-free chocolate cake, it is not a keto chocolate cake. Using almond flour does reduce the carbs in this cake, compared to making it with regular all-purpose flour. But it still contains more carbs and sugar than you'd like if you were practicing a strict keto diet.
Yes! Easily done. Just replace the butter you would use for greasing the pan with a non-dairy baking spray or margarine. And, make sure the chocolate chips you use are also dairy-free. Many brands are, though some are not. The cake itself is totally dairy-free!
👩🍳 Expert Tips for Almond Flour Chocolate Cake
The easiest way to line your pan with parchment paper is to put your cake pan down on the parchment paper, then trace around it. Remove pan and cut out the circle, then press it onto the buttered bottom of the pan.
As an alternative, you could bake this in a 9-inch springform pan as well.
Sometimes a whole cake is too much, and you want a single serving size. In that case, check out this great recipe for Chocolate Almond Flour Mug Cake. Same fudgy flavor, but made in 60 seconds in the microwave!
Want more ideas about how to top this fudgy almond flour chocolate cake? You can top it with sweetened whipped cream and berries or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or double down on the chocolate by making a ganache to pour or spread over the top.
To make a ganache, just heat cream and chopped up dark chocolate in a 1:1 ratio until smooth (add more cream if you want to easily pour it). You can even double it up to make a layer cake, or bake it in cupcake tins.
Baking with Almond Flour
Wondering what else you can do with almond flour? Almond flour is used in many French desserts—try making macarons or making a frangipane base for a tart. Almond meal can also make a delicious crumble topping for a fruit crisp, crumble, or tart when mixed with flour, sugar, and butter.
You can also try using almond flour instead of breadcrumbs to coat chicken or tofu—just pay attention because it can burn faster than regular breadcrumbs.
You may also want to play around with using almond flour as a replacement for all-purpose flour (or for some of the flour) in other baking recipes. In some cases you can replace all-purpose flour with almond flour on a 1:1 basis. However, for other recipes, a 1:2 ratio is better—using twice as much almond flour as all-purpose flour.
In addition, almond flour won’t develop gluten as all-purpose flour will. Many recipes will increase the number of eggs used to help bind the ingredients together and create structure.
For more information about substituting some almond flour in your baking recipes, consult this almond flour baking guide from King Arthur Flour. It’s a great resource that shows you exactly how different kinds of recipes react to almond flour.
Other Delicious Almond Flour Recipes
If you enjoyed this chocolate cake with almond flour recipe, you might also want to check out this round-up of my favorite Almond Flour Dessert Recipes. Here are a few favorites:
If you try this Almond Flour Chocolate Cake recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me.
And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
Almond Flour Chocolate Cake
Almond Flour Chocolate Cake has a fudgy texture and is packed with chocolate flavor. Almond flour adds mild nuttiness, and makes this recipe gluten-free!
Ingredients
- Butter, for greasing pan
- 1 ½ c. (150g) almond flour (packed)
- ⅓ c. (38g) cocoa powder
- 1 c. (217g) sugar
- ¾ t. baking powder
- ½ t. kosher salt
- 3 large eggs
- 3 oz. (89ml) vegetable oil
- 2 t. vanilla extract
- ½ c. (90g) chocolate chips
- Powdered sugar, if desired, to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celsius.
- Butter the sides and bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Pour in a small amount of cocoa powder and tap and turn the pan until the cocoa powder coats the butter-covered sides. This will help the cake unmold easily.
- Whisk together almond flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
- In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, and vanilla extract.
- Stir egg mixture into almond flour mixture until well-combined, then stir in chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.
- Use a rubber spatula to scrape into prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until top is springy when touched, and cake tester comes out clean.
- Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes, then cover with a cutting board or plate and flip over.
- Remove pan, then parchment paper, and cover with serving platter. Then flip over again.
- Dust with powdered sugar to serve, if desired.
Notes
Ingredient Tips: This cake shines with a very high-quality cocoa powder. I love Valrhona Cocoa Powder, but there are other great options too.
Expert Tips: Note that metal cake pans, like the one I used in this recipe, tend to bake more quickly than glass cake pans. You may need extra time if you use a glass pan.
Make-Ahead Tips: Almond flour cakes freeze quite well. They also keep well for a few days covered or in a plastic container at room temperature. To freeze, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Non-Dairy Version: To make a non-dairy version of this cake, just replace the butter with non-dairy cooking spray or margarine and make sure that the chocolate chips you choose are also dairy-free.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 242Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 74mgSodium: 239mgCarbohydrates: 34gFiber: 1gSugar: 15gProtein: 5g
Nutrition information is provided as a general reference for users courtesy of the online nutrition calculator Nutritionix.
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this gluten-free chocolate cake recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Deb Kassuba says
Molly Pisula, your last name surprised me. I have relatives in Michigan with your last name.
Molly Pisula says
Funny! It comes from my husband, so maybe he has relatives in Michigan!