Gluten & Dairy Free Chocolate Cake!
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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.
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J x
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Good
Recipe great but if you are adding dark chocolate this adds dairy if the person has grade A allergies.
I have a friend who is gluten and dairy free . Does the dairy free chocolate do the same thing?
Lots of dark chocolate can be naturally dairy free – you just need to check the packaging!
This is easily the best gluten free chocolate cake recipe I have tried! As I didn’t need it to be dairy free I used unsalted butter and it worked a treat.
I would like tu use this recipe to make gluten free version of your Triple Chocolate Cake. Would this recipe work OK for milk chocolate and white chocolate layers?
Hi Jane, hoping to make this for my little one’s birthday and wanted to ask whether you can tell it is a dark chocolate cake (I.e. is it more bitter tasting than milk choc) or is it best to use diary free milk chocolate if we prefer that taste over dark (and can hopefully find some in the shops)?
Does it also stack well with 3 tiers? I was considering doing an extra half of the cake mix and buttercream to make a third tier – would this work? Cake baking newbie here so sorry for the silly questions, will be doing a trial run beforehand too!
I am unable to leave an official rating right now because I have not tried the cake yet, it is still baking. But, the batter was delicious from the little bit I licked off of my finger.
My comment was regarding the extreme difficulty I encountered when mixing the batter. It was VERY thick, like a step down from dough. I was tempted to add a little bit of almond milk…. BUT after double and triple checking the ingredients to make sure I didn’t miss something, I realized I may have let my chocolate cool too much. Once I added the melted chocolate to the rest of the ingredients, I coups not even mix it in. It took a lot of effort to get something resembling chocolate cake. It looked like marble.
When I tried to transfer the batter from the bowl to the pan, it came out so thick and sticky, I found myself trying to spread and flatten it from the ball to form the pan. Then, I saw small chunks of chocolate forming. Even though all my ingredients were room temperature, and I melted the chocolate on the stove top, I think these Minnesora winters are just too cold of ambient temps for this cake, LOL. It was as if the combination of the cooling chocolate and the room temp ingredients just cooled the chocolate even more and it was like little shavings of chocolate within the batter.
Upon taking trying this I will let yall know how it turned out, but so far, it’s been a pain in the A$$ 😂
Hi! I don’t have any spring tins just regular cake tins, does this matter at all? Thanks!
First time making this cake this morning and WOW. So tasty and light!
Yet to try it easy to make. Will be icing in the morning. My cakes had a crust not over cooked I checked at 30 mins not quite ready so cooked for 35.? It had a flaky outside layer which I removed. Any idea why it went like that? Followed recipe to the tee.
It sounds like their could have been too much air in the mix if you created a flaked outside x
Can I use gluten free plain flour? If so how do I adjust the recipe. Thanks
Hi Jane, I made cupcakes using this recipe and they were delicious. Would now like to make a 9 x13 traybake.
I assume the ingredients would need to be increase by a quarter to 8 eggs, 400g butter, sugar, flour etc. etc
My question is would I still use temp of 160c fan and roughly how long would you suggest baking for.
Any advice gratefully received. Thank you
Hey, hope it’s okay to jump on and ask if you adjusted the recipe or method at all to make cupcakes? Other than using cupcake cases instead of a cake tin! I’m planning to make as cupcakes too. Thank you!
Absolutely wonderful cake – thank you! I was wondering, would it be possible to add walnuts to the chocolate cake? If yes, how much would you recommend? Thank you!
I already added 200g walnuts and I can’t wait to taste it tomorrow. 🙂
I made this cake for work and it was a hit! People told me it was the best chocolate cake they’ve ever had (including Non- GF!) people were asking me for the recipe and said the cake was divine! Thanks Jane! X
Made this today for my gluten free colleague at work but omitted the dairy free bit. It was amazing and by the far the best chocolate cake I’ve ever made either gluten free or normal. My friend couldn’t believe it was actually gluten free. I can’t wait to make some of your other gluten free recipes. Xxxxxx
Hi Jane, donI need to make any adjustments to use this recipe to make cupcakes?
Thank Andrea
Hi Jane,
Absolutely love your recipes. I make them all the time. I am gluten and dairy free and wondered could I make this as a plain sponge? Do I just take away the dark chocolate? Thanks x
Hello I need the gluten free side of this cake, will the recipe work if I was to add normal butter instead of dairy free? And do you have to use xantham gum?
Hiya! Yes you can do this, and yes I would recommend using xanthan gum. Hope this helps! x