Paleo Chocolate Cake

This paleo chocolate cake is supremely moist, decadent, and chocolatey. It has the perfect light and fluffy texture, and is finished with a dairy free chocolate frosting that is out of this world. This recipe is simple, foolproof, and ideal for birthdays or special occasions.

If you’re looking for the best paleo chocolate cake on the planet—you’ve landed in the right place. This cake is everything you’d want from a chocolate cake and more. The rich chocolate flavor comes from cocoa powder, so it’s incredibly moist with an amazing light and fluffy texture. And best of all, it’s finished with a dairy free chocolate frosting that will have you wondering how you ever lived without it!

The truth is, everyone needs a good chocolate cake recipe in their back pocket. There are so many special occasions that can be elevated with layer cake—birthdays, promotions, holidays, or even just because it’s the weekend. This chocolate cake will become your go-to for family and friends, including those who aren’t paleo or gluten free! So much went into perfecting this paleo chocolate cake recipe—I can’t wait to share a slice with you!

Ingredient Notes

• Almond flour – Make sure to use blanched almond flour. This makes the cake soft and moist.
• Tapioca flour – Tapioca is a starch that derives from the cassava root. You’ll find it in the baking section (often near almond flour). It’s also sometimes labeled tapioca starch.
• Cocoa powder – Make sure to use an unsweetened cocoa powder or cacao powder.
• Coconut flour – A drier flour made from ground coconut meat. This gives the cake a nice cakey texture. You’ll find this in the baking section.
• Sea salt – I like to use an unprocessed sea salt like Real Salt.
• Eggs – Lay these out about an hour ahead of time to bring them to room temperature.
• Coconut sugar – This adds a nice maple-like flavor to the pudding. Coconut sugar is paleo because it’s sourced from the coconut palm tree.
• Coconut milk – I like to use full fat coconut milk from a can for this recipe. You can also use coconut milk from a carton.

Substitutions

I do not recommend substitutions for this recipe. Yes, you need all three flours—almond flour, tapioca flour, and coconut flour—for the best light and fluffy texture. If you vary from the original recipe, the flavor or texture will change, or your cake may not rise properly. If you have allergies and need to make a substitution, here are my recommendations:

• Allergic to coconut? Try swapping out the coconut oil for avocado oil. And while coconut milk makes the cake dense and moist, you can swap it out for another dairy free milk. I recommend cashew milk.
• Allergic to eggs or vegan? While I haven’t tried it with this recipe, I’ve had great success using flax eggs in my other dessert recipes. I always follow this recipe for flax eggs.

How to Make Paleo Chocolate Cake

1. Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease three 8-inch cake pans or two 9-inch cake pans with coconut oil and line the bottoms with parchment paper. 
2. Mix the Batter: Whisk the almond flour, tapioca flour, cocoa powder, coconut flour, baking soda, and sea salt together in a large mixing bowl. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and coconut sugar. Add the coconut milk, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, and water, and stir to combine. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together until just combined.
3. Bake: Evenly distribute the batter among the cake pans. Spread the batter so it sits evenly in each pan. Place the cake pans on the same rack in the oven and bake for 28-30 minutes for three 8-inch pans, or 30-35 minutes for two 9-inch cake pans, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
4. Make the Frosting: While the cake is baking, mix all of the ingredients for the frosting together.
5. Assemble: Once the cake has completely cooled, assemble the cake by adding the chocolate frosting between each layer, then frost the outside. Decorate with sprinkles, chopped chocolate, or additional piping if desired. 

Baking Tips

• Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature. Don’t skip this step—it will help your layers rise evenly.
• If you forgot to lay out your eggs to get them to room temperature, just place the eggs in a warm water bath for a few minutes.
• Do not over-mix the ingredients. When combining the wet and dry ingredients, fold them together until just combined.
• You can use either three 8-inch cake pans or two 9-inch cake pans for this recipe. Baking time is slightly longer when using two 9-inch pans.
• This recipe worked awesome in these round 8-inch pans. Just place a round sheet of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan, and grease the sides lightly with coconut oil. They’ll slide out easily!
• For the frosting, make sure to sift both the cocoa powder and powdered sugar for a smooth consistency.
• If you still have clumps after whipping the frosting, just press them out with a spatula. Then, whip the frosting for another minute on high.

How to Get Even Layers

To get even stackable layers, use a food scale to evenly distribute your batter. This may seem like an unnecessary extra step, but it’s actually really easy! And you won’t be frustrated with uneven layers when stacking your cake. Here’s how to do it:

1. Weigh your mixing bowl in grams.
2. Weigh your mixing bowl in grams with the batter in it.
3. Subtract the bowl weight from the bowl weight WITH the batter to get the weight of your batter.
4. Divide your batter weight by two or three (depending on the number of pans you’re using). This number is the amount in grams you’ll need to pour into each cake pan.
5. To fill the pans, place each empty pan on the food scale and zero it out. Pour the batter into the pan until you reach the number in grams.

Tip: I usually pour the batter into the pan and stop just short of the number in grams (about 5-7 grams less than the number). This gives you some extra wiggle room because it’s actually hard to get every last drop out of the bowl.

Recipe FAQs

Storage and Freezing

TO STORE: This cake fits on most cake stands and in most cake containers. You can store chocolate cake frosted at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you store it in the refrigerator, it will last about a week.

TO FREEZE: Simply cut the remaining cake into slices and wrap each slice in parchment paper. Then, put your slices in a freezer-friendly resealable bag and store them in the freezer for up to three months. To thaw, lay out a slice of cake at room temperature for a few hours.

More Paleo Recipes

• Fudgy Paleo Brownies (Crackly Top, Gluten-Free)
• Paleo Chocolate Donuts (Baked, Gluten-Free)
• Paleo Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
• The Best Paleo Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Paleo Chocolate Banana Bread