This. Is. Divine. A divine accident. Truth is, I was trying to make brownies and instead stumbled on cake… (horrible, I know!) 😉 I tweaked a failed recipe in hopes for fudgey brownies – so I eliminated the avocado, added cocoa powder and crossed my fingers. The result was one of the most amazing chocolate cakes I’d ever tasted – moist, chocolately and with the perfect amount of crumb. It’s also oil-free, gluten-free, refined-sugar free and made with sweet potato purée – yeah, crazy, right? Completely accidental and now one of my favorite recipes yet. Just typing this makes me want to run back upstairs to sneak another bite. It’s that good. And the vegan version has a fudgier texture more like brownies, so it’s kind of the best of both worlds. Two amazingly simple, decadent and healthy alternatives to chocolate cake goodness. Super easy to make too. Throw all the ingredients in one bowl, stir and bake.
One-bowl Chocolate Cake with Nutella Frosting (gluten-free!)
ACTIVE: 20 MIN TOTAL: 60 MINS
Makes 1 9×13 sheet cake (haven’t tested it as muffins yet, but I bet it would be amazing!)
Ingredients for the cake
- 4 eggs, beaten (or 4 flax eggs to make it vegan, see note*)
- 1 cup sweet potato purée (organic canned sweet potato or fresh works too)
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- ½ cup Bob’s red mill 1:1 Gluten-free flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
Ingredients for the nutella frosting
- ½ cup plain yogurt
- ¼ cup Nutella
- ¼ cup sweet potato purée (optional, see note**)
How To Make It
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 Pyrex baking dish with coconut oil.
- In a large bowl, mix the eggs, sweet potato purée, coconut sugar, flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. (If using a flax egg, prepare that first in a small bowl and set aside.
- Mix the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, then add the flax egg. Gently fold until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Pour into greased baking dish. Bake for 18-20 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes up with only a few crumbs on it and top springs back when pressed.
- To make the frosting, stir together the yogurt and Nutella. Adjust portions to taste, if needed.
*Note: 1 flax egg is 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons water. In a small bowl mix 4 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 12 tablespoons water and set aside to gel while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
**Note: If you used a can of sweet potato, you can mix in the remaining sweet potato purée into the Nutella frosting to give it some extra depth. If needed, add a tablespoon of maple syrup for extra sweetness. It’s a great way to sneak in more sweet potato (and this mixture alone makes an amazing dip for a fruit platter at a party!).
Recipe by Andrea Branchini
About that frosting…
You can always skip it or use a simple chocolate glaze or ganache instead. Here are a 3 great vegan and/or paleo chocolate frosting recipes to try on this cake, on brownies, or on a spoon straight up… you get the idea:
2. Paleo Chocolate Fudge Frosting
Enjoy!
