Making a chocolate cake without wheat, eggs, dairy, and a safe solid fat when you can’t have coconut, palm, or corn, that doesn’t end up tasting weird is a bit tough. I started with Allyson Kramer’s Dark Chocolate Chipotle Cake, which is gluten-free and vegan, for which I’ve previously made modifications to make it safe for me and which is awesome, but I just wanted a plain really chocolaty cake. I think I got there finally. So I took my prior modifications, tweeked the levels of sugar and chocolate some more, and de-veganized it, as I don’t have a safe solid fat that’s plant based. But I couldn’t leave well enough alone with the frosting, so there’s a bit of cinnamon in it, and it’s good.
Feel free to try it with shortening instead of lard, I just don’t have a safe one I can use. Also, the coffee just brings out the chocolate flavor, but you won’t really taste it. You will need a mini bundt pan, like the one shown here:
While normally I’d do a play by play of the whole recipe, things are a bit crazed here, and cake is not very hard, so the recipe card should suffice. But here are some of the in-process photos:
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup lard or shortening, melted (I use my home rendered lard)
- 1/2 cup safe for you oil (I used olive and you'll need a bit extra to grease the pan)
- 1 1/2 cups cacao powder (I used Wilderness Family Naturals Raw Organic)
- 1 1/4 cups sorghum flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- 1/2 cup glutinous rice flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder (I use a homemade version)
- 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used homemade cashew milk)
- 1/3 cup brewed coffee
- 3 Tbsp aquafaba (See aquafaba.com)
- 1 Tbsp ground chia seed
- 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (Bragg's is usually the safest option corn allergy wise)
- 1 mini bundt pan
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease your mini bundt pan well.
- Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, mix together the sugar, brown sugar, melted lard or shortening, olive oil, and cacao powder, until the ingredients are completely incorporated and the mixture is smooth.
- Place your sorghum flour, tapioca flour, glutinous rice flour, salt, and baking powder in another bowl. Whisk well until completely combined.
- In small bowl, place your chia seed and aquafaba. Mix well until combined. Then add your non-dairy milk and coffee, and mix well.
- With your mixer set on low speed, alternate between adding your flour mixture, and your non-dairy milk mixture to the rest of the cake batter in small portions, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Once the flour and non-dairy milk mixtures are fully incorporated into the batter, add your apple cider vinegar, and mix well.
- Divide the batter evenly between the mini bundt cake wells of the greased mini bundt cake pan.
- Bake in your pre-heated oven for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes clean. I used a stoneware pan, which is much thicker than metal pans, so you may want to check it at 35 minutes just to be sure.
- When the cake has cooled completely, remove it from the pan. You may need to loose it a bit with a butter knife.
- 1 cup powdered sugar (I make mine in my blender with a bit of tapioca flour)
- 4 Tbsp non-dairy milk (I used homemade cashew milk)
- 1/2 cup cacao powder (I use Wilderness Family Naturals Raw Organic Cacao powder)
- 2 Tbsp softened lard, or safe for you shortening or vegan margarine (I use my home rendered lard)
- 1 Tbsp brewed coffee
- 1 tsp safe for you oil
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- Place all ingredients in a bowl and using a stand mixer with beater attachment or a hand mixer, blend the ingredients until smooth. This frosting will harden, so wait to make the frosting until the cake is cool and you are ready to frost it.
Enjoy your cake! Here’s a picture with an apple for size comparison:
