This dense flourless chocolate almond cake is perfect for celebrations, made with ground almonds, maple syrup and of course–chocolate.
When Alex and I first started eating a mostly whole food diet, celebrations were hard. How could we balance our love for nutritious foods with the fact that celebrations tend to involve refined sugar and butter? Over time, we’ve grown to realize the power of moderation and the special-ness that comes from only using rich ingredients occasionally. In the spirit of treat food, here’s a chocolate almond cake that’s a splurge and full of whole foods, too. It’s rich, chocolatey and delicious: but made with ground almonds and maple syrup. Oh and chocolate! Keep reading for the recipe.
Want a large chocolate cake instead? Try our Flourless Chocolate Cake (for chocolate lovers!).
How to make chocolate almond cake
For this recipe, we’ve put our “whole foods” spin on a decadent flourless chocolate cake by using ground almonds for protein and nutrients and maple syrup instead of added refined sugar. We’ve also used one of our favorite “tricks”: creating modest individual portions. It’s also a gluten-free dessert: all ground almonds and no refined flour! It’s incredibly easy to make and looks beautiful too.
If you don’t have a food processor to grind the almonds, you can use almond flour or almond meal. See the recipe below! And if you want more with almond flour, we’ve got 10 easy almond recipes for you to try.
Here’s how to make chocolate almond cake:
- Melt the butter, maple syrup and chocolate together.
- Mix it together with the egg, almond meal or flour, and cinnamon.
- Pour it into greased 5-inch ramekins and bake for about 35 minutes.
- Allow to cool, then dust with powdered sugar.
Serve this tasty flourless cake with vanilla ice cream or our homemade whipped cream recipe.
Perfect for celebrations
Alex and I made this chocolate almond cake for a special celebration: my birthday! As I’ve grown into my 30’s, birthdays have become a much simpler affair. Today, I’m mainly thankful to be alive, and surrounded by beautiful, wonderful, loving and life-giving people. After being diagnosed with leukemia in my late 20’s, as positive and pain-free as my treatment has been, it’s made life that much dearer. Readers, know that every kind note and comment here has been a light to me.
We hope you enjoy these chocolate almond cakes in whatever celebration you find yourself, be it a birthday, anniversary, life-event, or any special day!
Looking for easy dessert recipes?
This chocolate almond cake so simple to make! Here are a few more of our favorite easy dessert recipes:
- Simplest Applesauce Cake
- Bliss Bites (Healthy No-Bake Cookies)
- Baked Bananas with Toasted Coconut
- Easy Bananas Foster
- Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- Granola Instant Pot Apple Crisp
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Blondies
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse
- Maple Vegan Blondies
- Chocolate Tahini Vegan No Bake Cookies
- Chocolate Cherry Dessert Bites
- Blackberry Vegan Cheesecake Bites
- Fudgy Vegan Brownie Recipe
This chocolate almond cake recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten-free.
Print
Chocolate Almond Cake
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
This dense flourless chocolate almond cake is perfect for celebrations, made with ground almonds, maple syrup and of course–chocolate.
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw almonds (or 1 ¼ cups almond meal or almond flour)
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 6 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 pinches kosher salt
- 1 pinch cayenne
- Powdered sugar, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- If using whole almonds, grind the almonds very finely in a food processor until the texture is light and fluffy. (Alternatively, use almond meal or almond flour.)
- In a glass measuring cup or bowl, add the butter, maple syrup, and semisweet chocolate chips. Microwave for 10 seconds intervals, stirring after each, until fully combined. (Alternatively, use the stovetop method to melt the chocolate and stir in the butter and maple syrup until fully combined.)
- In a medium large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Then add the almond meal, cinnamon, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, and the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.
- Butter four 5-ounce ramekins. Pour in the batter, and bake for 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out nearly clean.
- Allow to cool, then dust with powdered sugar.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Chocolate almond cake, Gluten free chocolate cake, Almond cake, Chocolate cake
YUM!!! I could got for this any day over a big cake. Almonds and cocoa are the marriage I wish I knew about sooner because it right now is my comfort combo. Hope you have an awesome B’day!
Relax, you deserve to savor every moment of it
Happy birthday, Sonja! These look beautiful!
happy birthday in advance..its been a rough week for me and it was really nice to see refreshing post for you. Thank you for the sweet treat as well. Pinning it :)
Happy happy birthday week! I think those simple celebrations with the big, decadent desserts are the best. :)
Happy birthday! What a lovely way to celebrate. Moderation is absolutely the key, and a bit of indulgence every now and then is good for everyone. Here’s to a happy birthday, a happy Valentine’s Day and many more years of health and chocolate cake for two :-)
These are gorgeous perfection! I love that you’ve just used a bit of honey to sweeten the cakes. I’ve been trying so hard to reduce the amount of sugar I eat and was wondering what to make for Valentine’s Day without over indulging! Pinning now to make for my hubby and me!
Happy Birthday!
These look fantastic!! I love that they are each individual size, makes it even more special :) I might try to sub stevia and see how it turns out. Love the simplicity!!
YES! I chill low sugar chocolate recipe I can make for valentines day. Finally.
Looks lovely. Can you post this in grams/ounces please?
Sorry! We don’t have those measurements available :)
Hi Becky, I haven’t tested this recipe in weights (yet!) but by my calculations, the conversions into grams should be roughly as follows:
50g almond meal
45g butter
60g (50ml) honey
55g chocolate chips
1 egg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
A pinch of salt and cayenne
I hope that helps : )
A birthday without a little chocolatey cake is hardly a proper birthday. I love how you put your own wholesome spin on this; it looks totally delicious and definitely the perfect way to celebrate! Happy birthday for tomorrow Sonja : )