Gorgeous 2-layer moist and delicious gluten-free chocolate cake frosted with a rich chocolate ganache frosting. Ideal for special occasions.
This gluten free chocolate cake is so perfectly moist and chocolatey that no one will even know it’s gluten-free. Gluten free cakes can sometimes be dry but not this one.
It’s also really easy and made with simple ingredients that are easy to find.
What You’ll Need For The Cake
Ingredient Notes
- Gluten free all purpose flour – this must be a blend. Single type flours like rice flour or almond flour won’t work. It needs to be a gluten free flour blend that is meant to replace regular all purpose flour in baking.
- Light brown sugar – this adds moisture to the recipe.
- Soy milk – can be replaced by pretty much any other non-dairy milk.
- Applesauce – adds moisture without weighing down the cake with extra oil.
- Flax egg – 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds mixed with 3 tablespoons of hot water becomes a gloopy flax egg that works great in baking. If you don’t have any ground flaxseed on hand, you can replace this with an extra 3 tablespoons of applesauce.
- Vinegar – this reacts with the baking soda and causes the cake to rise. You can use either white distilled vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
The Frosting
The frosting is our vegan chocolate ganache frosting recipe. Another option for the frosting is our ultra simple vegan chocolate frosting.
How To Make Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Sift gluten free all purpose flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. Add light brown sugar, baking soda and salt and mix together.
- Prepare a flax egg by adding 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed meal to a bowl and then adding in 3 tablespoons of hot water from the kettle. Let it sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add soy milk, oil, flax egg, applesauce, vanilla extract and vinegar and mix into a batter.
- Divide the batter between two 7-inch (see notes for different cake pan sizes) cake pans (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with circles of parchment paper on the bottom).
- Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes, check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake, it should come out clean.
- Let the cakes cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- When the cakes are completely cooled, frost with vegan chocolate ganache frosting or vegan chocolate frosting.
Recipe Tips
Gluten Free Flour – The only way this recipe works is if you use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend that is designed to be used in place of regular flour. If you use a single kind of flour like rice flour or almond flour or coconut flour or something like that, it will NOT work.
Frosting – The frosting pictured here is our vegan chocolate ganache frosting. This frosting works great for this cake and so does our simple vegan chocolate frosting if you’re looking for an easier option.
Cake Sizes – This cake as pictured is made in two 7-inch cake pans. It can also be adapted as follows:
- Three 6-inch round cake pans – bake for 20-25 minutes
- Two 8-inch round cake pans – bake for 20 minutes (note that the cake layers are quite thin).
- One 9-inch round cake pan – bake for 30 minutes
- 9×13 sheet cake – bake for 15-20 minutes
- 9×9 square cake – bake for 20-25 minutes
Recipe FAQ
We have tried out quite a few blends and all have worked great. Some blends have xantham gum as an ingredient, some do not. We haven’t found this to make a difference for this recipe. We’re fans of Bob’s Red Mill gluten free all purpose baking flour, but we have also used lesser known brands and they have all worked great. The key factor is that it must be a blend that is meant to replace regular flour in baking.
Yes, you definitely can. This recipe makes a perfect 12 cupcakes. Bake for 22-25 minutes.
Store it in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days if the weather is cool. Alternatively store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Let it come to room temperature on the counter before serving.
It’s freezer friendly for up to a month if you’d like to freeze it.
More Gluten-Free Baking Recipes
- Vegan Gluten Free Carrot Cake
- Vegan Gluten Free Brownies
- Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Gluten Free Banana Bread
- Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes
- Vegan Gluten Free Vanilla Cupcakes
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake:
- 1 ½ cups Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Blend (204g)
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar (200g)
- ½ cup Cocoa Powder (42g) Unsweetened
- 1 ¼ tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 cup Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk) (240ml)
- ½ cup Canola Oil (120ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 Flax Egg 1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal + 3 Tbsp Hot Water
- 2 Tbsp Applesauce
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
Frosting:
- 1 Recipe Vegan Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 7-inch cake pans (*see notes for different cake pan sizes) with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.
- Sift gluten free all purpose flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. Add light brown sugar, baking soda and salt and mix together.
- Prepare a flax egg by adding 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed meal to a bowl and then adding in 3 tablespoons of hot water from the kettle. Let it sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add soy milk, oil, flax egg, applesauce, vanilla extract and vinegar and mix into a batter.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake, it should come out clean.
- Let the cakes cool for a few minutes before removing them from the cake pans and transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- When the cakes are completely cooled, frost with vegan chocolate ganache frosting or vegan chocolate frosting.
Notes
- Gluten Free Flour – The only way this recipe works is if you use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend that is designed to be used in place of regular flour. If you use a single kind of flour like rice flour or almond flour or coconut flour or something like that, it will NOT work.
- Flax egg – this can be replaced with an extra 3 Tbsp of applesauce.
- Frosting – The frosting shown in the photos is our vegan chocolate ganache frosting. This frosting works great for this cake and so does our simple vegan chocolate frosting if you’re looking for an easier option.
- Cake Sizes – This cake can adapt to different cake pan sizes as follows:
- Three 6-inch round cake pans – bake for 20-25 minutes
- Two 8-inch round cake pans – bake for 20 minutes (note that the cake layers are quite thin).
- One 9-inch round cake pan – bake for 30 minutes
- 9×13 sheet cake – bake for 15-20 minutes
- 9×9 square cake – bake for 20-25 minutes
- Cupcakes – This recipe makes a perfect 12 cupcakes. Bake for 22-25 minutes.
- Storing – Store it in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days if the weather is cool. Alternatively store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Let it come to room temperature on the counter before serving. It’s freezer friendly for up to a month if you’d like to freeze it.
- Nutrition estimate is for cake only and excludes frosting. Nutritional information for the frosting can be found on that separate linked recipe.
- This recipe was first published in January 2016. It has been updated with new photos and lots of extra tips but the recipe itself is unchanged.
Ok Alison the SuperChefstress!:) I’m preparing to make the cake again for my son’s bday party on Sun. Gonna make it tmrw. Please let me know any tips for what I need to do which is basically triple the recipe to accommodate the party. Any changes? Also I hesitate to try a new substitute but bought this Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour which states it’s a “flour blend with xanthan gum built right in.” So does using this change any measurements? I pray you have guidance because I want the cake to be as yummy as the first time we made it a couple weeks ago!! Thank you!! Going grocery shopping tmrw!
Hi Heather, were you going to make 3 separate cakes? That would be the safest in my view. I have not tried scaling this recipe up, if you were to triple the recipe, it would be risky, as cakes can be tricky that way! The 1-1 flour will be fine, no adjustments needed. I have made this recipe using flour blends containing xantham gum and there is no difference that I have ever noticed. All the best, hope it goes well! 🙂
Yes, I was going to just triple the quantities to make a bigger two layer cake doing the two separate pans still but just more of it. Does that work or is disaster afoot?? ?
Haha, yes disaster is afoot! ? If you were tripling the cake recipe you would have to use much much bigger cake pans than the 7 inch pans called for here, and probably have to test it quite a bit beforehand to troubleshoot, so in the end that would be more trouble than just making 3 cakes, which would be risk-free since you have already made it before. ?
Hello, cake looks great but I can’t help asking why there is an add for Oscar Mayer Bacon on your website…? Seems completely ironic, offensive to some, and misplaced.
Hi Lori, yes that is out of place indeed! But unfortunately we don’t have a lot of control over the ads that are served because different ads serve to different people, so with hundreds of thousands of visitors to the blog and everyone seeing something different, it’s not something that we are in control of. The ads are usually based on a persons search history but of course sometimes totally inappropriate stuff gets through anyway. It’s definitely an odd choice of ad to show on a vegan site, but it’s really not something that was selected by us (it would never be), and yes, this is definitely not the audience for something like that.
I have been baking GF/DF/egg-free for years and what set your recipe apart for me is that the batter is yummy too! Not always so in allergen-free baking even though the final product is delicious. I used almond milk in the cake, used oil instead of applesauce (I can’t stand the hint of apple and it’s always detectable for me), and subbed espresso for one tbsp. of the oil to bring out more complexity in the chocolate. I also baked as cupcakes–12 perfectly cooked and rose nicely in 30 minutes. This is a dry-run for my son’s birthday and I’m thrilled with the results! This is a keeper for sure. I’ll frost and fill with ganache, then drizzle with a vegan dark chocolate glaze for decor, and top with vegan chocolate chips. (He asked for chocolate on chocolate on chocolate… lol). The only thing I may do differently next time is to add a few vegan chocolate chips to the cake batter as well. Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe!
So glad to hear the results were great with this recipe! Your plans for the ganache filling and chocolate glaze and adding chocolate chips sound awesome! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I am a baker out of my home and I have made regular wheat flour vegan cakes with success before, but had never tried with gluten free flour (that scared me without eggs!) I was making a shower cake for my sister in law who has some friends with egg, milk, and gluten allergies, so I tried out this recipe! I followed it almost exactly: I added a tiny bit more flax/water because I am used to cakes having more than one egg, I used dark cocoa powder, i did a little under a cup of the brown sugar (maybe 2 tbsp less), used half olive oil and half vegan soy-free butter, added a little espresso powder, and I did the recipe as a professional would do a cake recipe (cream oil and sugar, then alternated milk and flour as so.) it turned out amazing!!! Not too sweet, amazing texture!! I love it more than my GF cake WITH the eggs! Thanks so much for doing all the experiments so that we could get a great recipe 🙂 I’ll be back to your website for sure because vegan baking isn’t something I’m as familiar with (yet!)
I didn’t try the frosting recipe because I have my own, but I bet it’s fab like this cake recipe. Thanks guys!!
That is sooo cool Angela! I’m so pleased it worked out so well, and thanks for sharing all your adjustments! ?
Hi I’m preparing to make this for my boys ages 5 & almost 2. The youngest is allergic to wheat & eggs so we are pumped! But… I don’t have flax to make the flax egg! Pls say I don’t need to drag them to the store… can I just use more applesauce or any other substitute? Or should we wait until I can make this flax egg? Thank you!
Hi Heather, it should be okay if you use a little more applesauce like 3 Tbsp but I can’t say for sure, since I didn’t test it that way, it’s always a little risk in baking to make substitutions that haven’t been tested but in theory it should be fine! Let us know how it goes! 🙂
AMAZING!!! The most moist delicious cake I’ve ever made vegan or not! In place of the flax egg, I used 1 Tablespoon Chia seeds with 3 Tablespoons water & popped in the fridge for 20 min. Worked beautifully. I also mashed a banana and put that in the batter as well. My baby is also allergic to coconut so I admit using a canola oil/soy based store-bought icing which worked well. I’ll be making this again for his second birthday in a few weeks. I’m so grateful for your beautiful recipe that finally allows this little guy to have his cake like all the other kiddos & eat it too!! Thank you!!!
Wonderful! So glad it was such a success! Thanks so much for sharing and so glad the substitutions worked. 🙂
Thank you for an awesome recipe! I made it for my wife’s birthday and I had to make it again the next day. The cake is perfect!!
Excellent! So glad to hear that! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I’ve made this cake today, its delicious!! I didnt make the frosting just the cake and added some candied orange peels, wonderful! Thanks for sharing the recipe
Wonderful stuff! Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
Hi again,
I’m also wondering if your soy milk is plain or unsweetened? Most plain milk alternatives are sweetened with some sugar. I buy unsweetened almond milk and if your soy milk was plain I’d have to add more sugar to the recipe, I reckon?
thanks!
I used regular sweetened soy milk, but the amount of sugar that adds is nominal, I would not worry to add any extra sugar to the recipe.
Hi there!
This looks delicious, and I’d love to try it for my husband’s birthday. Do you know the nutritional information for the cake withOUT the ganache frosting? I may use a different kind of frosting.
Thank you for your prompt response! I’m hoping to make it later today!
Thanks for sharing your recipe!
This recipe is AMAZING! Cannot believe how delicious these are! These are very moist! Delicious chocolate flavor. I didn’t need them to be vegan, just gluten free. So, i used a regular egg and 2% cows milk. And gluten free flour, of course. The recipe is easy to follow and put together. Best of ALL, these are ingredients I usually have in my home!
I made them into cupcakes – it made about 18 regular sized cupcakes. Baked them for about 23 min until tops sprang back to the touch.
Thank you for crafting such an awesome recipe! This is now my go to chocolate cake recipe!!
Awesome that it worked out so well Dora! Happy to hear! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Hi there! I love the look of this recipe! I want to make it for my boyfriends birthday tomorrow, I’m in the UK and I can’t find that type of flour, can I use Doves Farm GF self raising flour?? Can you give me any easily accessible ready made flour mixes in the uk please? Desperate woman here!! Thanks x
Hi Lia, I don’t know that brand and I don’t know any particular brands to recommend to you, but I have used other blends since making this recipe, all worked out great, the important thing is that it must be a blend (not a single type of flour), and it must say that it is for use in cakes/baking and is a replacement for regular flour. If it says that on the packaging, it’ll likely work great! That being said though, always good to do a test run with it first! All the best! 🙂
Can I use rice flour instead? And coconut oil ? Tks. Having friends for Christmas and they are allergic nearly to everything.
Coconut oil yes, rice flour no. It has to be a blend. If you read the post above, you’ll find out why it’s a definite no to the rice flour! 🙂
This recipe is amazing! My daughter made it for Thanksgiving and a few guests requested to take home some. Now, I need to make more for us! By the way, my daughter made it WITHOUT the ganache frosting. We are not really frosting people and it was fabulous without any. Also, she replaced the applesauce with pumpkin, which worked just fine. She used Trader Joe’s gluten-free flour. Thanks so much for all your hard work on this recipe and for sharing it with us!
Thanks so much for sharing, that’s great, so happy to hear it’s good without frosting too, and that pumpkin worked well as a substitute! 🙂
Oh my gosh this looks amazing i cant wait to try just started healthier eating and would love to make these into cake pops!
Cool! Cake pops would be great! 🙂
Hi! So, I just made this cake for the first time and followed the instructions completely, and my cakes hardly rose. They look much smaller than the picture shown. Is this normal? Thanks!
My cakes are also quite small – the pics might be deceiving in that respect. But if they really didn’t rise then things that could have caused this would be: if the baking soda isn’t fresh or if the oven was opened while baking or if the batter was overmixed or left too long before baking. If none of these was the cause then I’m not sure what could have happened there.