Have I got a treat for you today! A chocolate cake that is moist, decadent and allergy friendly. Not only that, but it is easy to put together. This is a must have recipe for any situation needing a cake; a birthday, anniversary, Sunday company, you name it. No one will guess you are serving them an allergy free dessert!
This can also be made into cupcakes. They freeze well and defrost just as well. I recently made this recipe as cupcakes for company of four adults total. We ate up 10-12 cupcakes in just one evening. They are that addicting…that good!
Now, here is kind of the weird part. I found this recipe in an allergy friendly cookbook with no author! Why would anyone create such a good dessert and not take credit for it? Well, I made it yummy and extra good by switching up a few ingredients and also making it soy free. It calls for chocolate soymilk. I have made it that way in the past, but my new and yummier way is to use chocolate coconut milk. It is the extra special ingredient that you really don’t want to skip or trade out.
The chocolate and vanilla frosting featured in these pictures came from this cookbook.
So, don’t despair if you just learned of food allergies. You can have your cake and eat it too! Oh, and if you like this, be sure to like my Facebook page and add to interest lists so that you can hear about more recipes like this. There is also Twitter and Pinterest!
Also shared at Allergy Free Wednesdays, Make Your Own Monday, Gluten Free Monday, and Allergy Friendly Friday.
Best Ever Allergy Free Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
- 3 cups Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 6 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. xanthan gum
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 cups chocolate coconut milk
- 1/2 cup + 2 T. canola oil
- 2 T. apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9 inch round pans with cooking spray or line 24 cupcake spots with liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients well.
- In a smaller bowl, combine the wet ingredients.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until smooth, making sure all dry ingredients are mixed in from the bottom of the bowl.
- Place in preheated oven immediately.
- Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Cool in pans for 5 minutes before removing to cooling rack. If cupcakes, remove immediately.
- Cool completely before frosting with the frosting of your choice.
Oh man… this must be made! So delicious! What kind of frosting did you use??
Thanks for stopping by. For the vanilla frosting I used a recipe that uses a lot of powdered sugar, rice milk, some vanilla, and shortening. For the chocolate frosting kind of the same thing only with cocoa powder too. Both recipes came from The Allergen Free Baker’s Handbook by Cybele Pascal. There is a link to it in the body of the post.
Any idea how I can get rid of all the sugar? My son has Candida and has to eliminate sugar and I want to make him a birthday cake that taste good but that has low or no sugar. Any suggestions?
Oh I wish did know. I have just started learning about alternative sweeteners in the last few months, but have yet to try them in baked goods. It’s a little tricky when also eliminating gluten, eggs, milk and soy I’m thinking. And I assume that the coconut milk has added sugars too, although I don’t have a container at home right now to check. I do have a chart that states for every cup of sugar one can use 1 1/2-2 tablespoons of powdered stevia, so I guess you could try that, but stevia is a bit bitter I think. However, I will definetly put this idea (to make a cake without this much sugar) on my “wanting to try/to do list.”
Stevia is an excellent alternative. 1-2 T. would ruin your cake. Stevia is bitter because people use too much. I suggest 1 C sugar and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. stevia. Mary
While this may work, I still think a bulking agent would be needed to replace all the sugar.
I use Just Like Sugar, Tabletop, cup for cup…does not affect glycemic index at all. It is an excellent alternative that is healthy and has lots of fiber (chicory root, orange peel extract and orange peel are the only ingredients)
I’ve never heard of that so thanks for sharing. Where do you purchase it?
Realized I said orange peel twice…meant vitamin C. Just saw your response. Sorry for the delay. I buy it on line from vitacost.com, justlikesugarinc.com, Whole Foods or any other online merchant that can offer me the best price. Hope you like it!
I want to pull one of those cupcake right off the screen! They looks beautiful.
Thanks so much for sharing with us. 🙂
Thank you so much for the wonderful compliment! I hope you enjoy them.
I like this recipe so much that I will be featuring it this week on Gluten-Free Monday at OneCreativeMommy.com. Please stop by and grab a featured button if you’d like. I hope you’ll be back to link up again on Monday.
Thanks for featuring it!
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back tomorrow when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts! 🙂
YUM!! Your cake looks so moist and delicious! I don’t even like chocolate that much, but your photo has my mouth watering for a piece.
Thanks, Devin! This cake may just make you like chocolate!
Your timing was perfect! I made this on Saturday for my husband’s birthday! (He is dairy and gluten free.) He LOVED it! And so did the rest of the gang! It was the first treat that he has really enjoyed for some time, and chocolate cake has been sorely missed! So thank you!
Oh I am so glad to hear it was such a hit! And thank you for coming back to say so!
Here I am again to say this recipe is how I cheer up my Honey! Thanks!
Happy to hear it!
I made coconut milk just with coconut milk and melted dark chocolate. This cake is so delicious, Thankyou! Oh, I halved the sugar and added a squirt of stevia, I suspect the structure wasn’t as great as it could be but still best choc cake I’ve had since nuts were the next out the window…then egg whites.
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the cake and made it work for you! Thanks for coming by to comment….comments make my day! 🙂
Is there any thing I can use except the chocolate coconut milk as my granddaughter is also a diabetic.?
Way to much sugar.I can sub the sugar part but I don’t know what to do about the chocolate coconut .
Thanks
Well, most of the chocolate flavor comes from the milk. I suppose you could try add more cocoa powder and use plain unsweetened dairy free milk. I have not tried this though, so I really don’t know if it will work.
Have you experimented with other gluten free flours other than Bob’s Red Mill? My son is allergic to one of the flours in Bob’s Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour. Of course, I didn’t know that until I made him this cake (which he LOVED!). Also…he can’t have rice flour…this is so hard!! His 3rd birthday is 2 weeks away and I was hoping to tweek the flour combo and use the rest of the recipe….because it was AMAZING. Even the wheat eaters came back for seconds! Any suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated!!
Have you been able to determine what flour in Bob’s he is allergic too? It has garbanzo bean flour, fava bean flour, sorghum flour, as well as potato and tapioca starch. Having the rice allergy makes a lot of the commercial blends out too as most of them contain rice. I recently reviewed this flour blend by Allergic Solution. It absorbs liquid more than others, but it is without rice, but does have sorghum and navy bean in it. And while I’ve never tried it I have read that some gluten free bakers divide 1 cup of flour into thirds. For example take 1/3 cup of gluten free flour of choice, with 1/3 of another gluten free flour of choice and 1/3 cup starch of choice to equal one cup. Then for this recipe you would have to triple that since it calls for 3 cups flour. But to answer your original question, no I have not tried this with any other blend. I do hope you can find something that works, because like you said..the cake is awesome and I know that 3 years old love cake (and deserve it too)!
Looks so good! I will be adding this to GF cake pins. Can hardly wait to make. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Thanks for pinning! I’m glad you like it!
Can another oil besides Canola be used? I’ve been reading a lot of bad things about Canola oil.
I don’t see why not. The whole oil thing is very confusing. One day something is good for you, the next it is bad. Thanks for coming by.
I followed the recipe to a tee, except for using a different brand of GF all purpose flour. I find that most cake recipes use too much sugar. I used organic sugar but cut it back by l/2 cup. I was really disappointed that the cake didn’t mix up smoothly. Therefore when baked it came out bumpy. tastes ok but something is certainly wrong. I wonder if 3 cups of the flour is too much. Not something I would make again.
Well, you did NOT follow the recipe to a tee. GF flour blends are not interchangeable as they all weigh different amounts and contain different flours. And by reducing the sugar, you reduce volume and did not replace that volume. So it’s not the recipe.
Can I use Bobs Red Mill spelt flour and just omit the xanthan gum? Also, would a 13×9 pan work?
I don’t think using spelt would work, but one never knows until they try. I’ve never made it in a 9×13.
What does 1 T. mean.
Thnaks
One Tablespoon.
As a newly gluten free person i have a lot to learn. One thing, which may sound obvious but isn’t to me, is if there is no allergy to milk present, may regular 1% milk be used instead of coconut milk?
Also, is there any suitable substitute for apple cider?
TIA.
Not a silly question….cow’s milk can be used cup for cup in place of any dairy free milk. Any vinegar could be used in place of the apple cider vinegar. Sorry for the delay in answering…..I used to get email alerts when someone commented, but haven’t recently.