Did I need to a reason to make a double layer cake? Nope.
Did I have a reason? I guess you could say I did 🙂 Yesterday was my 27th birthday and I baked myself a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting – my all-time favorite combination.
Smiles all around on my end, I am a happy girl.
This cake is moist and springy and not overly sweet. I adore the combination of oat and coconut flours and the addition of the arrowroot results in a lighter and less dense cake 🙂 It’s also nut-free for those of you have a nut allergy. I am not sure how to make this vegan…I’ll have to work on that.
Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
½ cup gluten free oat flour
½ cup arrowroot flour (or I assume you could sub tapioca starch)
¼ cup coconut flour
6 Tbsp coconut/palm sugar (you may be able to use a liquid sweetener if you cut the milk back to 1/4 or 1/3 cup, cake may be more dense)
1/4 tsp pure stevia extract (or 3-5 more Tbsp more palm sugar)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup coconut oil, butter, ghee or Earth Balance
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup coconut milk (other non-dairy milk would also probably work here too)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
Optional garnish
cacao nibs, chocolate shavings, chopped or sliced nuts
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease two 6 inch round cake pans with coconut oil/butter and line bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flours through salt). In a separate bowl, blend or whisk together remaining ingredients.
3. Add wet ingredients to the dry and stir until incorporated and well combined.
4. Divide batter among the two prepared pans and tap on the counter to remove air bubbles. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cake is cooked through and toothpick inserted comes out dry. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Carefully remove cakes from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack
5. Prepare frosting below. Assemble cake by frosting the bottom layer on a cake stand or plate. Top with remaining cake layer and finish with frosting.
*Cake is best eaten within several days of baking. Refrigerate leftovers due to the avocado in the frosting.
Chocolate-Avocado Frosting
Ingredients
2 large avocado, ripe (not overripe) or 3 small-medium
3-5 Tbsp honey or agave or to taste if desired (I sided with the lesser amount since I was going for a slightly sweet frosting, up to you though!)
couple pinches of pure stevia extract (or more sweetener if desired)
2 tsp pure vanilla
pinch of sea salt
2 1/2 Tbsp coconut oil, liquified (refined for no coconut taste, unrefined for coconut taste)
6-8 Tbsp raw cacao powder or cocoa powder
Directions
1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth and creamy. Let sit in the refrigerator for several minutes to harden slightly (coconut oil will cool down) and frost cake.
Natural Noshing 
Yeah, I’m stealing that frosting recipe for sure 🙂
Hope you had an AMAZING 27th, friend!! xo
Good 🙂 I sure hope you do! I did have a nice birthday, thanks girl!
Wow! You did a great job icing and decorating. You’ll have to make me one for Easter. :o))
Thanks B! 🙂 I picked up some icing techniques when I made my friends wedding cake hehe – and I’ll gladly make a cake when you come visit!
Happy birthday!
That cake is beautiful! I’m so impressed that it’s gluten free – it looks amazing. And I love that you used avocado in your frosting! I just made a chocolate avocado pudding today and thought it would be amazing, a little sweeter and spread like frosting over a cake 😀 And your frosting does look amazing – so nice and smooth!
Thanks so much Heidi! There’s just something pretty about a layer cake 🙂 We must be on the same wavelength about the frosting!
Wow, that frosting looks so good! And nice picture overall 🙂
Thanks so much! 🙂
Hey, Happy Birthday Girlfriend!!!! What a gorgeous birthday cake you made for yourself. It looks just like the real thing, seriously. I am impressed. I can’t believe how moist that cake looks. Looks like a must try right here. Hmmm… I wonder about adding matcha powder to that one… I might have to borrow that recipe and try and turn it into a sponge cake of some sort!
Aww thank you so much Sonia! 🙂 I like pretty things haha! I bet matcha would be a lovely addition to this cake. I seriously need to buy some of that powder…the cake you just posted is making me drool!
Just found you through Forks and Beans…. LOVE your work! Hope you had a great birthday, cake eating is always a good start in my book 🙂
Thanks so much for stopping by Lou! I appreciate your sweet comment, thank you! You can’t go wrong with cake, can you? 🙂
You made a cake and I missed it! It’s so pretty.
I’m 27 too. 🙂
I can’t wait to try that icing! I tried making “healthy” chocolate frosting too but it wasn’t really that healthy and it came out as fudge.
I read your paragraph about the cake’s texture, but how does it compare to “normal” cake? Could it pass for one? I haven’t had the best experience with coconut flour so far. I’m kind of scared of it.
Thanks Erin! 🙂 Yay for 27! Did the healthy frosting/fudge you mentioned happened to be the peanut butter fudge you posted today? which looks divine btw!
I’ve had hit or miss results with coconut flour – the addition of the other flours really help balance out the texture so it is much like a normal cake! I am the same way with coconut flour…I don’t like pancakes made with 100% coconut flour but I loved my pancakes when I added other ingredients to them… my grain free pumpkin pancakes were a hit and I have another pancakes recipe coming up this week 🙂
How thick does the frosting come out to be? Would you say very thick or more watery?
I’d say it’s more middle of the road – it definitely holds up on it’s own and can be piped! It does need to be refrigerated though 🙂 The more cocoa powder, the thicker it will be too!
The coconut oil helps thicken it up as well, if you want thicker then I would use less amount of liquid sweetener and add a bit more stevia as well! Hope this helps 🙂
Such a yummy recipe! I was wondering, though – I made the cake and it was more like a torte, super thin and barely rose. I was wondering what I may have missed?!?
Thanks for posting! I didn’t have six inch pans so I just made cupcakes out of them and they’re delicious!
Could i sub the oat flour for almond flour?
You can make this cake vegan by using flax or chia eggs!! 1 tbsp flax/chia mixed with 3 tbsp. let it sit until it becomes gelatinous (egg like consistency) I am going to try this today and will let you know how it turns out!!
If you give this a try, please let me know how it goes! I have made chia and flax eggs before but I haven’t tested it with this recipe. Happy baking!