Gluten Free Chocolate Snack Cake

This chocolate gluten free snack cake is the perfect small batch recipe. It’s an easy single layer cake, topped with chocolate buttercream, berries, or whatever you like!

Back with another gluten free chocolate cake! But this is a small batch snack cake that’s perfect for a small dinner party, at home birthday, or just a dessert to bake for your family for the week!

It’s so moist, made in one bowl, topped with chocolate buttercream and berries. Chocolate and berries is one of my favorite combinations. But if you prefer, you can just use a regular vanilla buttercream frosting.

If you love this recipe, try my mini gluten free cupcakes or mini vanilla cake next.

Before we get started!

• This recipe calls for hot brewed coffee. If you prefer not to use that, just sub for boiling water instead. The coffee helps enhance the flavor of the chocolate.
• You need an 8×8 pan for this recipe. If you only have a 9×9, you can use that instead but the cake will be thinner so you will therefore want to decrease the bake time by about 5-7 minutes.
• Careful not to over bake or under bake! Over baking will lead to a dry cake, under baking will make the cake dense and a bit mushy. You want a clean toothpick with just a few crumbs!

How to make gluten free snack cake

Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Grease and line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat (with an electric mixer on low speed) all wet ingredients aside from the hot coffee until smooth.

Beat in the dry ingredients, and as it is mixing, slowly pour in the coffee. Beat on low speed until a smooth batter forms, about 30 seconds.

Transfer to the prepared baking pan. Bake for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Mine is perfect at 30 minutes but all ovens are different. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then lift out and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Chocolate buttercream frosting

Meanwhile, beat the room temperature butter on low/medium speed for 30 seconds. Beat in the cocoa powder, vanilla and salt.

Slowly add in the powdered sugar, and milk or cream on low speed. Start with 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and add more as needed or to reach your desired consistency.

Once the cake is cool, add the frosting on top, then add berries, sprinkles, chocolate shavings, whatever you like!

Ingredient swaps

Yogurt- The greek yogurt adds a lot of moisture to this recipe. I used regular greek yogurt, but you can use a dairy free version like the one from Kite Hill. Sour cream also works!

Milk- Any kind of milk will work! Dairy or non-dairy such as soy, almond, coconut etc.

Sugar- A mix of white sugar and brown sugar will sweeten and the molasses in the brown sugar will deepen the flavor a bit. You can sub both for coconut sugar if you prefer, but I do not recommend any liquid sweeteners here.

Flour- I used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour, but any gluten free all purpose flour will work, as long as it has xanthan gum.

Coffee- Coffee helps enhance the chocolate flavor, but boiling hot water will work too. A hot liquid vs. a cool one will help activate the cocoa powder more.

Egg- Just one egg to bind all ingredients together. Since there is only one, you can safely sub for a vegan version. I suggest apple sauce (3 tablespoons), a store bought egg replacer or a flax egg.

How to store and freeze

Once frosted, this snack cake stores best at room temperature or in the fridge covered with a cake pan cover or foil for about 3-5 days.

Once it’s sliced, it will dry out faster, so I like to put some parchment paper or plastic wrap on the part that is sliced to keep the air out.

Once baked, you can freeze the cake and frost when you’re ready to serve. Just be sure to let cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap and place in a freezer safe bag. You can frost right when it’s frozen, just let thaw until you freeze!

How to keep cake moist

This gluten free snack cake is moist thanks to the oil, egg, molasses in the brown sugar, milk, yogurt and coffee. We aren’t using too much flour which would dry out the cake.

Be sure not to over-bake as this can easily dry out a cake. The top should be set, there may be a few cracks, but a toothpick should come out clean with a few moist crumbs.

More recipes for the chocolate lover!

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