If you love chocolate, this cake will be for you! Rich dark chocolate flavors are in every bite you take of this gluten free devil's food cake.
This gluten free cake recipe can make a sheet cake, a layered cake, or cupcakes! If you love chocolate as much as we do, you will want to check out all of my delicious gluten free chocolate recipes.
Today is all about chocolate cravings. As I was going through my family's antique recipe cards, it was really hard to figure out what to make next.
When I saw this devil's food chocolate cake recipe in my grandmother's recipe box, I knew I needed to convert this recipe to gluten free asap just in case my readers love chocolate as much as my family.
Devil's food cake is a moist, rich chocolate cake. If you love angel food cake, this would be the chocolate version of that cake. This gluten free version of devil's food cake is dense, and rich, and would be delicious by itself, or smothered in a rich chocolate frosting.
You will also notice this gluten free chocolate cake has a darker color than many gluten free chocolate cake recipes. This recipe has extra baking soda, which changes the pH level of this cake, making it a deeper dark brown color.
I love how this card is noted: "Never Fails". If you are a chocoholic, or just love chocolate cake, this easy gluten free chocolate cake recipe is going to become one of your favorites!!
When you make this cake, you will find it is a moist chocolate cake that is still light and airy. I created another delicious Gluten Free Chocolate Layer Cake that is beautiful for a party.
If chocolate isn't your thing, or if you need both a chocolate and vanilla cake, you will want to make this Gluten Free Vanilla Cake recipe. It is the ultimate party cake!
As you can see, this cake has all of the delicious devil's food cake traits, it is moist and rich!
Variations:
- Make this cake in a round baking pans and you have an amazing gluten free birthday cake!
- It also makes a delicious gluten free sheet cake. All you would need is the frosting! It would be perfect for a kid's birthday party.
- Knowing my kids, they would want a cupcake version of this so they can pile on the frosting :-).
Instructions:
This gluten free chocolate cake is so easy to make! The first step is to make the chocolate custard in a saucepan.
The secret to this old fashioned chocolate cake is the custard. I never heard of creating a cake this way until I found my Grandma's old recipe card.
It is a little different from your typical cake recipe because the cake is made from a chocolate custard. You want to make the chocolate custard first, and allow it to cool a little bit. This is why the cake is so moist and chocolaty!
What cocoa powder is best for baking?
In the old days, this cake was made with unsweetened chocolate baking squares. Times have changed over the years and many more devil's food cake recipes are made with unsweetened cocoa powder now.
There are a lot of great high-quality cocoa powders out there. I tend to use this organic cocoa powder because it has great flavor, and the price is really low compared to many other brands. (And it is cheaper than most non-organic brands.)
If you want to try more recipes with this cocoa, give these Gluten Free Chocolate Donuts or this delicious Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes recipe a try!
Mix in the chocolate custard, remaining wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
What gluten free flour blend is best?
I have tested this recipe with three flour blends. That isn't to say a lot more will work, but there are so many on the market now it is expensive to test them all, plus I would drown in chocolate cake!
Avoid heavy starchy flour blends or blends with bean flours. If your blend doesn't include Xanthan Gum, add 1 teaspoon to your blend.
- King Arthur Measure for Measure is a nice blend and it is corn-free as well in case you have to avoid corn.
- Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Blend is a good blend as well, you will want to let your batter sit for 5-10 minutes if you use this one. It seems to help prevent graininess.
- Authentic Foods MultiBlend is another great flour blend. This company mills their gluten free flours extra-fine, which really makes a difference in gluten free baking. They make a lot of great blends and individual flours you can try.
You can see the batter is just right (sorry for the meh picture!) Bake the cake in this pan, it is a perfect size, unless you prefer to make a cute little-layered gluten free birthday cake! Then you would want these pans.
Bake your cake at 350 degrees F for 30-45 minutes. That is a big range, but it really depends on the size pan you use. I used an 8x8 pan for this recipe, but many decide to make it a layer cake and those pans are not as deep.
When is the cake is done?
I like to use what I call the toothpick test for checking to see if my cake is done. Insert a toothpick into the middle of your cake. If the toothpick comes back clean, your cake is finished baking. If there are crumbs or batter on your toothpick, you need to bake it longer.
Are you ready to take a bite? I love how this forkful of cake looks like a heart!
More gluten free chocolate desserts:
- How fun are these Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Pops? Everyone will love decorating them.
- This Dark Chocolate Custard makes a wonderful chocolate dessert that is thick and creamy.
- A Gluten Free Chocolate Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is perfect for a birthday cake, or use the batter to make cupcakes!
- Banana and chocolate go perfectly together in this easy Gluten Free Chunky Monkey Donuts recipe.
Gluten Free Devil's Food Cake
Ingredients
Custard
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder * see note
- 1/2 cup almond milk * see note
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
Cake
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1 3/4 cups gluten free flour blend * see note
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350º F.
- Spray coconut oil in an 8x8 baking pan.
- In a saucepan, add custard ingredients and cook over low heat. Allow to bubble gently, then remove from the heat.
- In a large bowl, add all cake dry ingredients. Sift together.
- Add wet ingredients to custard and whisk to blend.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix.
- Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake 30-45 minutes until done. *see notes
Notes
- Baking time really will vary by pan size, if you are making sheet cake, thinner layer cakes, or cupcakes with this batter.
- I have tested this recipe with King Arthur Measure for Measure GF, Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 GF blend, and Authentic Foods Multi Blend. That doesn't mean others will not work, I just have not tested other flours.
- If your gluten free flour blend doesn’t contain Xanthan Gum or Guar Gum, please add 1 teaspoon.
- To make this recipe dairy-free, substitute the butter for vegan butter.
- There are several great gluten free cocoa powder brands I like to use. Ghirardelli, Rhodelle, Anthony's, and Hershey.
- This cake will keep up to 4 days in an air-tight container, or up to 4 months in the freezer.
Nutrition
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(*This post was updated from an older September 2018 post when it appeared on my old blog Grandma's Gluten Free Recipes. I moved it over to this blog when I merged my two sites.)
Deborah
My flour blend doesn't contain xanthan gum. Would you recommend adding it to the recipe?
Sandi Gaertner
Hi Deborah, please add 1 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum
Belinda
Have you been successful in doubling or tripling this recipe? Thanks!
Sandi Gaertner
Hi Belinda, you can always double or triple the recipe. Would you be making layers or is this for a larger sheet cake?
Bee
I am in the same boat, still very wet in the middle after 30++ and I've used a metal pan of the size recommended..
Sandi Gaertner
Hi Bee, I updated this recipe today to and added information about the gluten free flours I tested in this recipe. I found people using starchy gluten free flour blends are finding it needs to bake a lot longer. I hope my clarifications will help.
Melissa
Can you use regular 2% milk in place of almond milk?
Sandi Gaertner
Hi Melissa, you can definitely use regular milk in this recipe. Enjoy :-).
Rhonda
I tried to make this cake but it did not get done in 30 minutes. Left it in for probably 5 minutes more and still wasn't done in the middle. I used a glass baking dish - could that have been the problem?
Sandi Gaertner
Hi Rhonda, I am not sure the size and depth of the pan you used. I haven't baked in glass bakeware either. I hope you let it bake longer so you could enjoy it?