Gluten & Dairy Free Chocolate Cake!
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*
A two layer gluten free and dairy free chocolate cake for everyone to enjoy! Fudgey, chocolatey, and DELICIOUS.
Gluten and dairy free
Dairy and gluten free chocolate cake – woohoo! So recently I decided to try a gluten AND dairy free diet at the same time, to see if it was maybe both of these things that I am intolerant to… but, I stopped it pretty quickly as I just craved chocolate too much, so I will try it again in the future. I basically have no self control, but I will get back to it. Maybe.
However, in the short week I tried it, I got really upset about how there was basically NOTHING sweet I could eat, that I actually wanted. Like, there are things in the supermarket that you can buy that are either naturally gluten free and dairy free, but I tend to find they aren’t the things I want. Or there are things that have been manufactured to replicate things which do contain them, but they’re often just a bit rubbish in my opinion.
I love chocolate and bread
I love all things chocolate, and all things dairy. I love all things bread, and all things gluten. It’s only when you suddenly can’t have something, that you realise just how much you love it! Or, how many things either one appears to be in. Some random pieces of food such as cool original Doritos contain milk?! What?! Why! I obviously can’t say why.. thats how they get their delicious taste, but is damn annoying.
I know I only tried this diet for a week so far, and I am not doing it to lose weight or anything, I’m purely trying to see if its a cause of my stomach issues. For those who have to do this permanently, who are allergic.. I’m sure you’ve got used to it! I do feel sorry for you though. As soon as I couldn’t have dairy, all I wanted was a chunk of Galaxy chocolate!
Gluten free baking
I’ve dabbled slightly in gluten free baking before with my gluten free double chocolate cookies and gluten free chocolate cupcakes and a few others, and I’ve done one dairy free recipe so far with my dairy free brownies, but I haven’t done both before. I was like oh yeaaahhh it’ll be easy! But yeah, its something you do have to think about. You have to check every single ingredient first, which I made a mistake with before and it was a little odd.
Chocolate
The best thing about this cake, is you can still use real chocolate… but it has to be dark chocolate. You do have to still check the dark chocolate because some still contain dairy in small quantities, but most of them are naturally dairy free. For example, in this I used a mash up of Tesco value dark chocolate, and a bit of ‘Hotel Chocolate’ as well because its what had in my cupboard.
Flour
The gluten free part is actually quite easy, because all you really HAVE to do is swap the flour to a gluten free one. I did go a little step further with this cake however after some experimenting and I used some xantham gum in this cake. I didn’t use it in my gluten free chocolate cupcakes as they’re small, and its maybe not necessary. However, with a larger cake the sometimes more crumbly texture of a gluten free cake is a bit more problematic.
Xantham gum
It’s not an essential ingredient, but its designed to help bind the cake in a way, that gluten would do if you could use it. It prevents the crumble and more dusty texture of gluten free. Doves Farm (branding shown in photo above) do both the gluten free self raising flour, and the xantham gum in most supermarkets, and this is the brand I would choose hands down!
Butter
The other part of this cake, other than the chocolate which we have covered, is the butter. Butter is something that is important to a cake, other than in a recipe such as a gluten free carrot cake for example. The best thing product I have found to replicate butter, is the Stork for baking & cooking. It’s the one wrapped in foil. Not the various tubs, the foil one.
I prefer this above other dairy free ‘spreads’ for cakes, but you can give whatever a go. The Stork is still designed for baking, but more for biscuits then anything. The good thing is, it still works in cake! It is a little softer however, so the buttercream that you make with it is a tad softer as well… which is why I slather it on.
Tips and advice
I know most people will shun the idea that this cake is still a very delicious and fudgey and glorious chocolate cake, but it honestly is. It’s not ‘healthy’ by any means, because its still a cake, but its gluten free and its dairy free. You can see form the images that it looks like a perfectly normal cake, and it tastes INSANE! The buttercream is super chocolatey, and just moreish. Not going to lie, I did eat a few spoonfuls of it on its own. The cake as well, its just lovely.
If you want the cake to be dairy free, but you don’t mind about gluten.. just use regular self raising flour. Or if you are the opposite and you can’t have gluten, but you don’t mine dairy… use regular unsalted butter in the cake and frosting! If you need an Egg Free cake as well – check out my vegan chocolate cake and swap the flour for GF with added xantham gum! Enjoy! X
Gluten and Dairy Free Chocolate Cake!
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 300 g dairy free butter (Stork in foil/vitalite)
- 300 g light brown sugar
- 300 g gluten free self raising flour (Doves Farm)
- 6 medium eggs
- 3/4 tsp xantham gum
- 200 g dark chocolate
Buttercream Ingredients
- 250 g dairy free butter (Stork in foil/vitalite)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 400 g icing sugar
- 200 g dark chocolate
Decoration
- 12 Strawberries
- Sprinkles
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan, and line two 8"/20cm springform cake tins with parchment paper.
- Melt your dark chocolate in the microwave in short bursts, or in a bain marie. Leave to cool to room temperature.
- In a large bowl, add your dairy free butter, and light brown sugar. Beat together until light and fluffy.
- Add in your gluten free self raising flour, eggs, and xantham gum, and beat again until combined.
- Add in the cooled melted dark chocolate, and fold until combined.
- Split evenly between your tins, and bake for 35-40 minutes. Start checking the cake after 30 minutes, if its looked baked. A skewer should come out clean!
For the Buttercream
- Melt your dark chocolate in the microwave in short bursts, or in a bain marie. Leave to cool to room temperature.
- Make sure your dairy free butter is supple enough to mix first by leaving it to warm on the side for a bit.
- Add your dairy free butter to a bowl, and beat on its own for at least a minute to loosen it up.
- Add in the icing sugar and vanilla extract, and beat again. Add in the melted dark chocolate, and fold through.
For the Decoration
- Get your first cake, and and slather on half of the buttercream.
- Add on the second cake, and slather on the rest of the buttercream.
- Add a fresh strawberry for each slice, and sprinkle over your favourite sprinkles!
Notes
- If you need an egg free cake as well - check out my vegan chocolate cake and swap the flour for GF with added xantham gum!
- I recommend DOVES FARM gluten free flour brand for this recipe!
- I also recommend DOVES FARM xantham gum for this recipe - although, the xantham gum is optional. It just helps bind the texture.
- I used the Stork found in foil, which is mainly made up of vegetable oil, and is dairy free. You can use any dairy free spread such as Vitalite, but some are softer than others, and the Stork one is designed for baking.
- This cake will last for 3 days once baking, and should be stored at room temperature.
Find my other recipes on my Recipes Page!
You can find me on:
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Youtube
J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
Hi Jane
I have purchased the flour recommended in your recipe, but have noticed it already contains Xanthan Gum. Silly question, do i still need to add more?
Thank you
Frankie
Hiya! You don’t have to if you don’t want to! Hope this helps x
Same question as the user “Maddie”, you make mention of cocoa powder in the comments, like it’s in the recipe – but there isn’t any cocoa powder mentioned anywhere in the recipe…. Am I missing something?
Also, to add some color and more chocolate oomph, could I lower the flour and add a couple tablespoons of cocoa powder? Or too risky? Thanks
Hiya! Yes you can do this! However cocoa powder may just slightly dry the sponge. Hope this helps! x
Hi, I’m baking this as 3 tier cake, 8”, 10”, 12” could you help me with the extra measurements for the 2 larger cakes, I’m struggling with the maths of it! This cake was a massive hit last time!! Thanks
Hi Jane,
I have made this cake before and it was amazing but I never know quite how much xantham gum to use and some cakes have been more successful than others. It says 3/4 teaspoon in the recipe but is that three quarters or 3-4 teaspoons? any chance you could give it too me in grams?
I am a huge fan of your cakes, keep up the great work.
Hiya! By this I mean 3 quarters yes! Hope this helps! x
Hi Jane,
Is there a way to actually make this cake dairy free. You use dark chocolate which has dairy in it?
As mentioned on the post, not all dark chocolate has dairy in it – you need to use one that doesn’t.
Hi Jane I’m making a dairy free abs soy free cake. Do you know if this recipe contains any soy please? Thanks Ellie x
You need to check the ingredients that you buy to check for soy!
Hi Jane, if I were to make this as a 3 layer cake, how much xantham gum would I use? Xx
Is there a reason you use melted chocolate in this sponge instead of cocoa powder? Is this due to GF flour being drier than ordinary flour?
Hiya, I found it prevented the cake from drying out better, yes x
How is this dairy free when it contains eggs and what can I replace the eggs with?
Eggs aren’t dairy. For a vegan bake, you need to look at my vegan chocolate cake recipe.
😱 since when the eggs are dairy ? 🤷🏻♀️
Hi, how far in advance can I make this cake?
Hello! Potentially a very silly question here but is it “three quarters tsp” of xantham gum, or “3 or 4 tsp”? Thank you!!
it means three quarters x
Fantastic recipe, I have made it a couple of times- struggled to find a container it would fit in as it rose so beautifully! This time made it in a tray bake- perfect, beautiful sponge😃
Hello, would you have any idea of how many slices per cake (average size) and also how many calories per slice? Thankyou xx
Just tried making the sponge and it’s a really pale colour almost mottled with chocolate bits it doesn’t look nice at all and with the buttercream it went from being super soft to super thick within seconds. Not sure what I did wrong :/
Followed the recipe and the result is delicious!!
Hello I am baking this cake but it’s needs to be vegan what could I use instead of eggs? And what amount? Thanks 🙂
I have no idea im afraid – it may be best to follow my vegan chocolate cake recipe and make that gluten free instead x
This cake was out of this world! Super moist and delicious! I used regular butter for the buttercream. It was super rich. Recommend icing the cake per the photo unless you really want chocolate “overload.”