Flourless Gluten Free Chocolate Chocolate Cake (AKA Quinoa Chocolate Cake) Recipe
This is a three-part recipe. You can make it all in one day, but I prefer to make the quinoa and frosting one day and the cake the next because both have to be cooled before putting them in or on the cake. Nothing takes very long to do, but the refigeration and cooling take time.
Servings: 12
Calories: 283kcal
Ingredients
Cake
- ½ cup uncooked quinoa
- 1 cup water
- 1 15½ ounce full fat coconut milk—use ⅓ cup for cake DIVIDED: Use ⅓ cup in cake, balance in frosting
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 6 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 cup turbinado sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Frosting
- The whole can EXCEPT ⅓ cup of coconut milk use ⅓ cup for the cake
- 1¼ cups semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
Instructions
Quinoa
- Rinse the quinoa. Then put the water and quinoa In a small, covered saucepan and heat over high heat to boiling. As soon as it boils, cover the pot and turn the temperature to low.
- Simmer for about 12-15 minutes until all the water is absorbed and the quinoa has a ring around the center and is fluffy.
- Set aside to cool. I refrigerate it and make the cake the next day.
Frosting
- Make the frosting next because you have to cool it in the refrigerator fully (for a few hours) before beating it.
- I simply pour the chocolate chips and coconut milk (or cream if you are using it) into a medium glass bowl and microwave it for about 2 minutes.
- Stir to combine and even out the heat. The chips will continue to melt as you stir since microwaves do not heat evenly.
- If the chips are not fully melted, heat again, 30 seconds at a time until fully melted. Stir. they tend to finish melting when you are stirring.
- Chill in the refrigerator for several hours or over night until cold.
- Whip with an electric mixer until fluffy.
Cake
- Heat oven to 350F degrees.
- Put ⅓ cup coconut milk, the eggs, vanilla, butter, and sugar in a mixing bowl (I use my stand mixer) and beat until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. When combined, dump these dry ingredients into the wet cake ingredients and mix to combine.
- Add the cooled quinoa to the batter and mix to combine.
- Spray two round cake pans (I use 8- or 9-inch pans) with baking spray. Some people add parchment paper (cut to fit the bottom) on the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking (or you can use wax paper), but I have good, heavy pans that don't stick, so I don't bother with that.
- Divide the batter between the two pans and bake in the oven for 28-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Take the cakes from the oven. Let them cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the pans. Use a table knife to loosen around the cake pan to make sure the cake doesn't stick when you are trying to remove them from the pan.
- Invert the cakes onto a cooling rack, removing them from the cake pans. If you used parchment or wax paper, peel it off now or it won't come off nicely.
- Let the cakes cool before frosting them.
To Frost and Serve
- Spread the whipped frosting over the top of one cake, place the other cake on top, and continue to frost the top and sides of the two-layer cake.
- Cut in slices and serve.
Nutrition
Calories: 283kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 70mg | Sodium: 285mg | Potassium: 295mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 257IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 111mg | Iron: 2mg