Well, happy birthday to him yesterday.
And as a birthday gift to all of you? I give you this cake. And since I made it with a 3-week-old baby who is nursing constantly when she is awake… you know it must be easy.
Plus it’s grain-free and gluten-free. Score!
And my husband just wouldn’t be nearly as pleased with a non-chocolate cake…
I didn’t EXACTLY measure anything… er… I didn’t measure anything at all. I “eyeballed.” But here’s my best guess at the measurements.
Grain-Free Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
In your stand mixer (or a bowl – whatever), combine:
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 6 Tbsp butter
- 1/4-1/3 cup honey (start with less)
- 1/4-1/3 cup Cocoa powder
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Taste it and see if you need to adjust the amount of honey or cocoa – I wanted enough honey so that the cocoa wasn’t making the cake bitter, but not enough that the cake would scream SWEET CANDY CAKE… Then when you have that all adjusted, add:
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp lemon juice
Pour batter into a buttered cake pan, then bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Turn onto a cooling rack when you take it out of the oven.
While it’s cooling, make the ganache to ice it with. Ganache is supposed to be just chocolate and cream typically, but I make it with butter too. And I do it “wrong” (You’re supposed to pour warm cream over the chocolate to melt it… I melt the chocolate and butter, then stir in cold cream. It works fine). Here’s how I do mine:
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- a few Tablespoons butter
- a cup or so of dark chocolate chips, or chopped dark chocolate
Microwave about 30 seconds, then remove and stir. If necessary, microwave in 10 second increments, stirring each time until all the chocolate is melted and smooth. Then pour in cream a little at a time, stirring to completely combine after each addition until the ganache reaches the consistency you want.
When the cake is completely cool, spread the ganache on it with a spatula and put it in the fridge, because my husband prefers his chocolate cake to be cold.
This may or may not have been my breakfast this morning:
Hi! I'm Emily. I'm a Navy wife and stay at home mom of two beautiful children. I cook simple, delicious, grain-free recipes, do crafts, decorate my home on a budget, and keep a happy household. I tandem breastfeed, babywear, cloth diaper, practice elimination communication, homebirth, and co-sleep, but I'm not a hippie.
[...] forum about a pumpkin loaf that sounds good. Can't help you with cookie-type stuff, sorry. Grain Free Gluten Free Chocolate Cake (I used almond butter instead of peanut butter!) – Primal Living StL Meetup group Reply [...]
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[...] Happy Birthday to my Sweetie | Joyful Abode my wife made this for my last birthday. very tasty. Reply With Quote [...]
I wonder how it would turn out using coconut oil in lieu of butter? I’d love to make this!
Can you use any type of nut butter for this?
I’m thinking almond butter or cashew butter.
i’ve done it with almond butter and it’s great. definitely a nuttier flavor than peanut though. i think it would work with any nut butter but have only tried almond and peanut. let me know how it goes!
[...] they were cool, I dipped them into some dark chocolate ganache. Back into the fridge they went, until the ganache had firmed up. I gave most of them away, but [...]
[...] grain free and gluten free cake. I must say, I was skeptical after checking out the recipe on Joyful Abode’s blog. I was excited because I love all things chocolate, okay well, most things – all things [...]
Okay – I have it in the oven with a few minor changes. First, I didn’t really measure anything – nasty habit, but usually works out – added a pinch of cardamom and a pinch of cayenne pepper, more organic cocoa and agave for sweetening, (we’re low on honey ;0) and I used a smaller diameter springform pan w/ high sides for a more unusual looking dessert. I’ll be topping it with the ganache and fresh berries later. I am not a ‘special’ eater – simply vegetarian and our family eats that way, but we are always super excited to try out new things – especially if my kids who we unschool, can help out and this is one of those recipes the kids can make with little supervision. I’ll let you know hwo it rocks out with the kiddieos (our chocolate lovers) and will post the finished product and recipe on my blog once we have success! Mwah and thanks for your rad recipes!
Don’t know if you (or anyone else who has made this cake) will be able to answer in time, but I am thinking about making this cake this afternoon, for my son’s birthday party tomorrow afternoon. Do you think this cake best made the day it is served, or is it ok to make it about 18-24 hours ahead of time? Also, do you recommend storing it room temp or in the fridge (not much room in the fridge until I get the huge pork shoulder roast out to start slow roasting it for pulled pork).
It’s good the day of and also the next day, so I don’t think it would be a problem to make it ahead of time. I also prefer it at room temperature…seems more moist at room temp than refrigerated, but my husband prefers it cold.
If you’re making it ahead of time, just make sure the ganache covers the whole surface area of the cake… it’ll act to seal in the moisture so it won’t evaporate out of the cake. hehe.
Can I come to your son’s birthday party? Pulled pork sounds delicious!!!
I just asked my husband and he said he could taste peanut butter – you could
tell there was peanut butter in it, but that it didn't taste like a peanut
butter cake. It's hard to describe… it clearly doesn’t taste like a
flour-based cake – but peanut butter isn't the overwhelming flavor. Hope
that makes sense.
I love your recipes! I've just made this one this afternoon for us to have later tonight as it's Father's day here and I thought of doing something special…but all my usual stuff is flour and sugar filled non-primalness…nothing worse than not being able to partake of your own baking!!
Thanks for all you do…looking forward to keeping up with your blog!
Looks great, but can you taste the peanut butter?? Not that that is even a baaaad thing, but I guess 'chocolate' cake should only taste like chocolate to me and not chocolate AND peanut butter.
Thanks for deciphering my jumblings!!! 
I made this yesterday and we loved it!
Oh my gosh, I think I love you! I just spent 45 minutes on Saturday mixing up a complicated cake batter, and an additional 10 minutes mixing up the buttercream frosting (the frosting was delicious, the cake was merely “good”), and I'll bet this cake is so much tastier and healthier! Certainly easier!
This cake is delicious! Thanks for the great recipe.
K, just wanted to say I made this cake again to take to a ladies event (and didn't burn it this time…) but as I was trying to get this out of the pan, I dropped it on the floor!!!
I was so mad at myself! But I still have the ganache I'll probably eat tomorrow night w/ something else.
This sounds fabulous, looks delicious and I may or may not have it for breakfast too! ROFL!
I just made this! It's really good, but I'm not sure if it was my oven or not, but I probably cooked it 5 minutes too long (I should have taken it out when I smelled it, but I was busy working in my craft room…). I didn't have cream, so I added a little extra butter and used some skim milk and the ganache still turned out great, IMO! This is wonderful with a glass of milk!
(I've also made the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins and they were wonderful!)
[...] Grain-Free Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake [...]
I haven't made the cake yet, but I used your ganache tips to spread on my adaptation of Son of Grok's sugar-free gluten-free strawberry cheesecake (http://www.sonofgrok.com/2009/02/time-for-chees…), and it was FABULOUS. I made it for my nonprimal extended family in honor of my mom's birthday, and they said that the ganache “made” the creamy tartness of the cheesecake. YUM.
Needless to say I'll be using again and again, and checking out your other gluten-free baked goods for future special occasions!
Thanks so much for sharing!
And – good luck with your continued pumping/herbal stuff. I have used Mother's Milk tea (via Amazon on Subscribe and Save it works out to be pretty inexpensive, at least compared to buying in my grocery store). When I was doing some serious pumping, drinking a couple of cups each day upped my output by somewhere around 30%, so it definitely helped me through a tight spot supply-wise. Licoricey taste, but mild.
I made it tonight and its actually a very light cake…not at all dense like I thought it would be. It would be great with a glass of wine or a cop of coffee!! ENJOY!
OMG….I made this cake today!!!! I wanted to have a dessert for after dinner…we haven't had and after dinner dessert in YEARS!!! But going Primal we figured its a ok once an a while. We just loved loved loved this cake. I actually had run out of vanilla extract so I substituted it with 1/2tbsp of almond extract and it tasted great too!! Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I am for sure going to make it for my birthday!!
I made it tonight and its actually a very light cake…not at all dense like I thought it would be. It would be great with a glass of wine or a cop of coffee!! ENJOY!
Hey how do you like your Gdiapers?!?! I may have some mediums for you if you'd like. My 9 month old is 23lbs and they are getting a little snug, so I may be moving into larges sooner than later. I'd be happy to send em your way – I will just need to keep the liners for my new larges!!!!
This looks rich. I've been craving chocolate cake lately.
It would work with almond butter for sure – I've made similar muffins w/almond butter and it was great. I just haven't bought almond butter lately because it's about 5x as expensive as peanut butter… sadly!
I probably used around 1/4 cup of cream. If you don't use butter like I did, you'd probably use as much cream as chocolate… depends on the texture you're going for though. I just kind of splash, stir, splash, stir…. until it's “right.”
This looks delicious! About how much cream in the chocolate ganache would I expect to use? Do you think this recipe would work with almond butter?
Ooooh, derisicuous (as my oldest daughter said when she was 3….SIX years ago! AHH!) that seriously looks so freakin good I may have to bake it tonight. *hugs* glad to hear things are going well!
That looks so good… I'm thinking hard for an excuse to make it lol. Thankyou for sharing the recipe!
Oh.my.word. How nummy does this look? I am making this on my next indulge day. And since today is my first “good” day (after millions of starts) it may be a week or so.
Good for you making something! Did it feel good to do something besides be a human pacifier? Good job on that as well.
OMG THIS LOOKS DELICIOUS. molly
Looks delicious! I may have to take this one for a test-drive.