This Gluten Free Chocolate Cake is made with almond flour, covered in a butter-based icing and topped with popcorn and a peanut butter drizzle. It’s a dream come true!
Ohhh YES, we’re doing Monday right! I mean… gluten free chocolate cake anyone?
I had “caramel popcorn cake with my homemade caramel sauce” on my ‘recipe ideas’ list for quite some time, only to realize that Linda had already created that exact same recipe. Her cake is beautiful and amazing and I figured the world only needs one caramel popcorn cake; however, there’s definitely room for more popcorn cakes in general. Or, at least I think so!
This gluten free chocolate cake is made with strictly almond flour, and only took me about four tries to get right. ….which was to be expected, since I don’t typically bake with gluten free flours. However—and I may have mentioned this before—one of my 2017 goals is to get more comfortable with gluten free flours. I figured that now’s just as good a time as ever to get started.
I used oat flour in my last cake recipe, and I’m not saying that doesn’t count as a gluten free flour because it does count, but oat flour is the easiest and more similar flour to all purpose (or at least I think so). Almond flour, coconut flour and all those other gluten free flours are a bit trickier, but definitely fun to experiment with.
The actual cake itself is subtly sweet and it’s topped with a not-so-subtly sweet chocolate icing, meaning the icing will curb your sweet tooth after just one bite (my kind of dessert!). It’s made of butter, melted dark chocolate and powdered sugar and is oh-so dreamy.
Once the cake is cooled off and you’ve finished icing it, you can throw some plain salted popcorn on top and then drizzle it with either some melted peanut butter like I did, or some melted chocolate instead. The drizzle isn’t technically necessary, but it does help to hold the popcorn which makes the whole cake-cutting process easier.
Say hello to your new favorite salty-sweet cake!
If you make this recipe, be sure to tag @thealmondeater on Instagram!
PrintGluten Free Chocolate Cake with Popcorn
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 2 tier 6" cake 1x
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1/3 cup cane sugar (or sub granulated sugar)
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- For the icing:
- 3.5 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- Popcorn and melted peanut butter for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk eggs together and then add syrup and vanilla.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix with an electric mixer.
- Line two 6″ cake pans with cake liners* and then pour batter evenly into the pans.
- Place pans in the oven and bake cakes for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave cakes in the pans for 10 minutes before carefully inverting them onto cooling racks. Wait until cakes have completely cooled before icing them.
- For the icing: combine chocolate and oil in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until chocolate has melted; set aside.
- Add butter to a bowl and then pour the melted chocolate overtop; mix with an electric mixer before adding the cocoa and sugar. Continue mixing until icing has formed–icing should be nice and thick. If it seems too thick, add 1 tbsp of milk.
- To assemble: Once cakes have cooled, use a serrated knife to cut off the domes of the cakes. Ice one of the cakes and then place the other cake on top. Ice the top of that cake and then spread icing all around the cakes until it’s covered to your liking.
- To top it off, add some popcorn and drizzle melted peanut butter and/or more melted chocolate over the cake.
- Enjoy!
Hey Erin,
Looks Amazing!
Can you use Almondmeal or does it need to be actual Almond Flour?
☺️
Hi Holly! I believe you can typically substitute almond meal 1:1, but I haven’t tried it in this recipe. Let me know if you do!
This is fantastic! Not only tasty but so quick and easy to make.
★★★★★
I love that this cake is oil-free and grain-free! Gotta love when chocolate is health food 😉
Haha right?!
I’m loving the salty sweet of this cake!! And those photos are stunning!
Thank you Lindsay!!
This looks incredible! Yum!
★★★★
Thank you!
It looks like all of your hard work testing paid off. This cake looks amazing! And with popcorn on top? Hello sweet & salty chocolatey DREAM.
Sarah @ Making Thyme for Health recently posted…April Favorites
Exactly–sweet and salty dream is right! Thanks Sarah 🙂
Oh Erin! You totally proved the myth that gluten-free baking is boring with this beautiful cake! I’m a big fan of almond flour personally, and I like when there is only one type of flour in a recipe. The addition of popcorn makes it even better!
Yesssss I’m getting more comfortable with almond flour lately (woohoo)! Thanks Bethany!