The perfect paleo chocolate cake is right around the corner, friends! This easy, blender cake is full of decadent chocolate flavor and a delicious crumb. It’s so easy you’ll be making it again and again!
Chocolate Dilemas.
Ever since going grain-free a few years ago, it’s been a dream of mine to come up with the perfect chocolate cake. The perfect paleo chocolate cake. And preferably a chocolate cake that can be suited for the GAPS Diet.Â
I’d already discovered what my family deemed the perfect coconut flour brownies, the perfect homemade hot chocolate, and the perfect paleo chocolate chip cookies. (Though sadly I lost the cookie recipe… ’cause #mombrain.) But up until last year the perfect paleo chocolate cake eluded me. All my attempts were either too dry, or too brownie-like. Not that brownie-like is a bad thing, mind you, it just doesn’t really work for a birthday cake at my house.
But last summer, when figuring out what to make for my 3 year-old’s upcoming birthday, I hit gold.
The Perfect Paleo Chocolate Cake.
I wasn’t really expecting the cake to come out as well as it did. After all, I pretty much just threw a couple ingredients in my Blendtec, pureed, poured it into my handy little springform pan, and baked it. But it came out amazingly.
So I experimented. Coffee instead of almond milk… Applesauce instead of olive oil… Tapioca flour instead of coconut flour… Perfect every. stinkin’. time.
Gold, I tell ya.
The easiest cake ever.
Like I said, this chocolate cake can’t get much easier. It’s pretty much a blend and dump cake, which means all you have to clean is a blender (not hard at all if you have a Blendtec). It’s firm enough to slice in half length-wise to make a little layer cake, and soft enough to have a tender perfect crumb.
It doesn’t even need frosting (though I do include my favorite recipe for that below)!
If you’re looking for more easy paleo and GAPS-friendly recipes, check out my new ebook, Easy Grain-Free. It’s is full of simple and delicious paleo and primal breakfasts, snacks, lunches, desserts, and drinks – all of which are 100% healthy! Each recipe includes notes with options that help you fit the dish into different diet plans, including keto/low-carb and GAPS Diets, as well.Â
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The variations.
Since this cake can have many variations, it can fit easily in the GAPS Diet. I do always use eggs in it, so I can’t say for sure if it will work egg-free, but I’m working on that.
So far, my favorite flavor combination is olive oil and coffee. I think they both give the cake a nice, deep flavor. But for my kiddos I usually use coconut milk and applesauce for a lighter flavor. And my kids absolutely adore this cake. Even my 7 year-old, who’s consistently disliked her birthday cakes for the past 3 years.Â
More perfect chocolateness.
While I know you’re really here for the cake recipe, you’ll probably love these other delicious paleo chocolate goodies, too. They’re all super easy (’cause I don’t really do complicated), and pretty healthy, too! Healthy enough for breakfast, just like this cake. 😉
- Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
- Chocolate Avocado Nice Cream
- Paleo Chocolate Sweet Potato Smoothie Bowl
- Dark Chocolate Triple Berry Muffins
- Chocolate Peppermint Frosty
- Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding (or any nut butter)
In the recipe card I’ve linked to some of the products from my affiliate partners that I like to use. Purchasing through these links won’t cost you anything extra. Thanks!
The Perfect Paleo Chocolate Cake
Free from grain, gluten, dairy, and refined sugar.
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup honey
- 3/4 cup almond milk, coconut milk, or coffee
- 1/4 cup avocado or olive oil, applesauce, or pumpkin puree (learn how to make your own!)
- 3 cups almond flour
- 2 tablespoons tapioca flour or 1/4 cup coconut flour for GAPS
- 3/4 cup cocoa powderÂ
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Himalayan salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 7-inch springform pan or a 8×8-inch baking dish
Put all the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.
Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from pan and cool before frosting.
Easy Chocolate Frosting
Free from grain, gluten, dairy, and refined sugar.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I like to make my own or use this one from Azure Standard)
Instructions
Whisk ingredients together until smooth.
Frost cooled cake.
Hi Raia, Id love to try out this recipe, but can you please suggest a substitute for almond flour? I am not doing GAPS or Paleo, but I do like to make refined sugar free desserts whenever I can
I’ve not tried this specific cake without a paleo flour, but I do have a couple other regular gluten-free cakes that are also refined sugar free and dairy-free, if you’d like to check them out. 🙂
Summer Squash Chocolate Sheet Cake
Peppermint Buttermilk Dark Chocolate Cake
Personal Pan Carrot Cake
Honey Gingerbread Cake
Hi Fatima. I’ve had great success with using tigernut flour to replace almond. I’m going to try it and I’ll update.
I made this with the tiger it and it worked beautifully!
That’s awesome, Daniela! Thanks for letting us know!
honey! this looks beautiful and delicious/moist/heavenly….u get the point! making this for Christmas- will follow up!!! Than
Thanks so much, Maria! I hope you enjoy it!
this looks incredible, I am definitely making it for a family celebration this week!
Yay! I hope you and your family enjoy it, Jennifer!
Hello, this looks wonderful. What would you recommend as a substitute for the coconut oil in the frosting?
If you can handle butter, I would use that instead. But if you’re wanting to keep it paleo, you could use palm shortening or avocado oil (though please note the avocado oil will not set up like coconut oil). You could also just use a little pumpkin, sweet potato, or avocado puree. 🙂
Hi Fatima,
I am looking forward to make this nice cake, but I am unsure whether you mean, that I need to use avocado oil or olive oil OR applesauce or pumpkin puree, or whether it means I need to use avocado or olive oil PLUS applesauce or pumpkin puree. Thank you 🙂
Sorry, I meant Raia of course!
Haha! Sorry for the confusion! You can pick which one you want to use – and you only need to use one of them. 🙂
Hello,
Could I use this batter for cupcakes?
Thanks
Probably. 🙂 I haven’t tried, but in my experience, most cake recipes work for cupcakes, you probably just won’t need to bake them as long.
This looks tasty.