Grain Free Chocolate Birthday Cake Recipe

It's approaching birthday time for our little miss and this year she's been more vocal with a birthday cake request. 

"I want a chocolate cake with red icing Mummy." 

I have to admit, I always get a bit nervous when baking a birthday cake. Ill fumble around the kitchen feeling the pressure to come up with the goods for the grand finale of a loved ones birthday. I'll never be a Mum who can produce an extravagant unicorn shaped cake, but I do know how to swap ingredients in and out to whip up a healthier dish. I’ll take that.

"There's always a healthy alternative" I told myself and searched for that old chocolate cup cake recipe one of my coeliac patients shared with me many years ago. It shares a special place in our heart as we also celebrated our wedding with the same cake recipe, whipped up by my mother in law. 

I found it, baked it and was happy with my tweaks to make it a little more fluffy with the addition of arrowroot flour. Our practise run turned out delish, moist and a big hit with our soon-to-be birthday girl. 

Then it was time to it's time to experiment with icings. Last year I made a cashew based icing tinted with purple from cooked blueberries (find the icing along with the tiger nut flour based birthday cake recipe here). As we do fine with butter, this year I wanted to whip up a a different icing, but this time using raspberries and beetroot powder to create the highly requested red colour. 

Well I didn't quite nail a red red icing, but I think dark pink was close enough and was oh sooo yummy for a topping to the choc cake.

Note: If you want an extra inside layer of icing as we did, just double the recipe of the icing. If your cake tin is large, try also doubling the cake recipe and bake in two seperate batches. Use the two different cakes on top of each other for a higher overall cake and ice in-between. 

Ok here goes...

Grain Free Chocolate Cake

What You'll Need For The Cake:

• 2 cups almond meal
• 1 cup arrowroot flour
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
• 1 cup canned coconut milk or cream (if there's any lumps of the cream, melt these first)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup or raw honey
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

What You'll Need For The Icing:

• 125gm salted butter, cut into small cubes
• 2 tablespoons raw honey 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup frozen organic raspberries
• 1 teaspoon beetroot powder (I used Nutra Organics Velvet Latte powder) but next time I’ll trial more of this one to see if it creates an icing colour closer to red

What You'll Need To Do For The Cake:

• Preheat your oven to 175 degrees C.
• Line a springform cake tin with baking paper. 
• In a large bowl, combine the almond meal, arrowroot flour, cacao and baking powder.
• Add the milk, sweetener, coconut oil, vanilla and eggs and mix until well combined.
• Pour into your cake tin and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until cooked through. 
• Remove from oven and cake tin and let it cool while preparing your icing. If you wish to have a middle layer of icing, very carefully cut the cake in half. If your cake tin is large, you may want to bake another batch and ice in-between the two sitting on one another. 

What You'll Need To Do For The Icing:

• Add your frozen raspberries into a small saucepan over low heat and cook slightly, stirring continuously for 2 minutes. Turn off heat and let them sit aside to cool.
• Place butter, honey and vanilla into a mixing bowl and use an electric mixer on high speed until the icing mixture is smooth and creamy. I have also used an electric food processor and the icing has also come out smooth after using on high for 1 minute, scraping edges and processing for another minute. 
• Add the cooked raspberries and beetroot powder and blend/ mix for an additional minute or until all the berries and powder have blended through. If you want a darker colour, add extra beetroot powder. 
• Using a scraper, remove the icing and ice the top of your cake, and  middle and sides if you have doubled the recipe. 

Best enjoyed the same day.

For another birthday cake and dairy free icing option, head here. 

After more recipe inspiration? Find age appropriate meal ideas in my baby health guide, Thriving Bubba & pregnancy specific nourishment within my online program, Path To Glowing Mumma.