Gluten Free Almond Cake Recipe
This gluten-free almond cake recipe was developed exclusively for Nuts.com and our customers by Miryam Quinn Doblas, Registered Dietitian (RD). Miryam shares her nutritional knowledge and commitment to healthy eating on her website, Eat Good 4 Life.
My gluten-free almond cake is perfectly moist and tender with the delicate flavor of almonds. This easy-to-make single layer cake is elegant enough to impress your guests at any gathering, and simple enough to satisfy your sweet tooth at home. I absolutely love making cakes because not only are they a lot of fun, but I get to decide which ingredients go into them. That means that I can create recipes with healthy alternatives to the refined sugar and flours commonly used in traditional cakes.
For a gluten-free cake, I paired almond flour and coconut flour together to achieve a texture similar to that of wheat flour. The light consistency of finely blanched almond flour complements coconut flour, which is dense and much more absorbent. Both of these flours are low in carbohydrates and packed with nutrients.
Almond flour is a protein powerhouse that also provides plenty of fiber, heart-healthy fats, calcium and vitamin E. It can even be used as a one-to-one replacement for wheat flour in baked goods, but I decided to incorporate coconut flour in this recipe to produce a more tender cake. Coconut flour is exceptionally high in fiber, and is mildly sweet from the natural sugars of the coconut. You’ll find that recipes made with coconut flour call for more eggs and liquid because it soaks up wet ingredients like a sponge. Both almond flour and coconut flour have a low-glycemic index, so they are often incorporated as part of low-carb and paleo diets.
I recommend using a natural sweetener like coconut sugar, agave syrup or sucanat because they’re not overly processed like refined sugars. This almond cake recipe only uses a ½ cup of sweetener so it’s not too sweet, which is a good thing in my opinion. If you’d like to make it sweeter, you can drizzle some agave syrup or melted dark chocolate over the top.
Decorated with sliced almonds, the cake looks lovely and is ready for any special occasion. It’s also a nice treat to have at home for a little dessert every now and then. If you have any leftovers, I recommend keeping them in the fridge. I don’t anticipate you’ll have much left though, because this scrumptious cake disappeared from my house in no time. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup unrefined sugar
- 1 1/2 cups Almond Flour
- 1/2 cup Coconut Flour
- 1/2 cup Coconut Oil, room temperature
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp Sliced Almonds
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F.
- Line the bottom of an 8-inch round baking pan with unbleached parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, or a stand mixer, combine the sugar and coconut oil. Add the eggs, almond milk and vanilla extract, and combine until you obtain a homogeneous mixture. Add the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and baking powder. Mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are well-combined and the batter is creamy and thick.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan and make sure it’s spread evenly. Sprinkle the sliced almonds over the batter and bake the cake for 45-55 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Transfer cake to a cooling rack and cool completely. Serve with milk or as desired.
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This recipe was developed and photographed exclusively for Nuts.com by Miryam Quinn Doblas, RD, of Eat Good 4 Life.
27 Responses to “Gluten Free Almond Cake Recipe”
Delicious! A recipe my family would definitely love!
Whenever I put nuts on top of a batter and bake the cake for more than 25 mins, the nuts are burnt. How come the same doesn’t happen to others? Am I missing something? Thanks.
Hi Helena – Different oven temperatures can vary, even if they’re set to the same temperature. In that case, you can add the nuts halfway into the total baking time.
Have you ever tried to make the almond cake into cupcakes? If so, any advice for cooking times and using versus not using liners? I think they would go over better with my kids that way 🙂
Hi Julie – We haven’t tried making them into cupcakes but you could certainly give it a try! You may want to reduce the cooking time, but unfortunately we can’t make any specific recommendations.
Can we substitute the coconut oil with butter?
Hi Bianca – Yes, you can. Just keep in mind that the nutrition information will vary.
I loved, loved, loved the almond cake. Brought me back to my childhood. It’s so lite. The perfect amount of sweetness. I put sliced almonds on bottom of pan and on top of batter. Following recommendations, I covered top with ganash and fresh raspberries and blackberries. Powdered with powder sugar and served. OMG! Who knew it could be so good. I’m used to high rising cakes. This one didn’t rise to much but it wasn’t heavy or dense. My friends loved it. Thank you for that recepie.
We’re so happy you loved it, Maria! Thanks for the feedback 🙂
I just made a dozen muffins with this recipe. They are the bomb!
I didn’t even have almond or coconut flour, so I subbed them with what I had, which turned out to be rice flour. Plain and simple. Plus, I added some extra butter and 1/2 cup of olive oil to ensure muffins come out moist and fluffy. 25 min-in-the-oven later my taste buds were completely smitten with delicious, most tender, not overly sweet, coconut-ey little morsels. And they rose beautifully too.
I absolutely love them. Thanks so much for the awesome recipe!
Eva, we’re so happy you enjoyed the cake! Thanks for sharing your substitutions with us 🙂
I would like to make muffins as well. Did you use olive oil instead of coconut oil or in addition to? How much butter did you add?
Sounds yummy! I’m allergic to eggs and would like to try substituing flax eggs or Egg Replacer or applesauce. Has anyone tried this?
Hi Kathleen,
While we haven’t tested flax eggs or applesauce, we recommend chickpea flour as an egg substitute. We recommend whisking 1/4 cup of chickpea flour with a 1/4 cup of water to use as a substitute for 1 egg.
Enjoy!
Allie
Can dairy milk be used instead of milk alternative?
Hi Alicia,
Yes, traditional dairy milk can be used instead of nut or soy based milks. Let us know how it turns out!
Allie
I tried this recipe for the first time today for a friend who is highly gluten and soy intolerant. The texture turned out great, but it tastes strongly of un neutralized baking soda. I followed the recipe exactly. So, looking back over it, I see there’s no acid to neutralize the baking soda. So, I’d suggest either leaving the baking soda out or adding a tbsp of apple cider vinegar. I’m a bit bummed out because it was a waste of expensive ingredients.
We’re sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work out for you. Thanks for sharing those helpful tips to improve the recipe.
What a delicious and light cake!
It goes in my list of favorites.
It was delicious. I used agave syrup instead of the sugar. In my connection oven the cooking time was about 14 mins faster. Good flavor and texture.
We’re so happy to hear this, Carl! 🙂
Hi, Carl. Did you use the same amount of agave syrup, half a cup? Thank you.
I wanted something gluten-free and not too sweet, and boy this hit the spot! After reading all the reviews I decided to add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to neutralize the baking soda , my just to be on the safe side. And I only added half cup of unsweetened almond milk and I substituted the difference with a quarter cup of whole milk Greek yogurt . I was out of vanilla extract, but I’ll make sure I add it next time. For sweetener I added a half cups of xylitol. This will definitely be one of my go to desserts. It came out moist and delicious! Thanks for a great recipe!
I baked this cake today. I was pressed for time and didn’t read the comments like i usually would do before proceeding. I wish i had seen the comment about the baking soda; i would have added a bit of ACV. or lemon juice. Sure enough, in an otherwise perfect cake, the soda taste was there. Also as a side note: i sifted all the dry ingredients together before adding them to the wet.
I made this last night. It was so good even my husband liked it! He hates anything gluten free or not made out of standard refined sugar. He encouraged me to make this for guests and for Christmas. You don’t know him, but this is truly amazing. lol.
Hi Nuttyscoop, wow what a great cake recipe.Turned out perfectly.I trawl the internet for gluten-free recipes and wanted a ‘paleo’ sponge recipe..this fitted the bill.Hubby and I had a craving for a classic Victoria sponge[a UK thing!].Shop bought ones are too sweet and are usually made of tapioca flour[not healthy] so gave your recipe a go.We doubled the recipe and used two 8inch cake tins.Baked at 170 Celsius for approx 45-50 mins.Once cooled i filled with strawberry jam.Delicious.Will have some for breakfast!
Thank you for posting
Thank you, this not-too-sweet cake was delicious served warm, great with afternoon tea. Being keto, we used a monk fruit/erythritol blend 1:1 instead of sugar, & then topped it with a dollop of whipped mascarpone w/ heavy cream (slightly sweetened +vanilla) & a chopped strawberry. The cake was quick to mix, golden brown baked in a Wolf convection oven for 22 -25 minutes @350. Will make this again!