This healthy Tigernut Flour Chocolate Cake is Paleo, grain free, dairy free and can easily be made nut free. It is made with a blend of tigernut flour, tapioca flour and cacao powder and is sweetened with coconut sugar. This Paleo chocolate cake recipe is dense, moist and perfect for any birthday or celebration!
I've been testing this tigernut cake recipe for quite some time, but I've finally perfected it!
I'll be honest, cakes are not my favorite thing to make (well, besides Paleo mug cakes) because they are such a commitment!
They require a lot of ingredients and then you're left with a lot of dessert. Which, isn't always a bad thing. But, if you do the amount of baking that I do, then having multiple full-sized cakes laying around the house isn't optimal.
However, this grain free chocolate cake is worth all the time, ingredients and money I spent recipe testing. It's the perfect dessert to wow your guests if you're in need of a gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free treat. Dare I say, this is the BEST Paleo chocolate cake ever!
Healthy Tigernut Flour Chocolate Cakeย
My recipe for chocolate tigernut cake is healthy, but still tastes amazing! Yes, it is grain free, dairy free and lower in sugar than your average cake recipe, but it still tastes like an indulgent dessert.
This 6-inch, three layer tigernut cake has a texture that is slightly denser than a "regular" cake, but it still has a nice crumb and is moist - not dry. (Ugh, dry cakes are the worst!)
Recipe Highlights
- Paleo friendly
- gluten free & grain free (made with tigernut flour)
- rich dark chocolate flavor
- refined sugar free (made with coconut sugar)
- easily made nut free (swap almond milk for coconut milk)
- moist and fluffy with a nice crumb
- easy chocolate coconut cream frosting
This no-fail Paleo cake is just what you need for your next celebration!
Before we dive into the recipe, let's discuss tigernut flour. If you're new to the blog, you may not have heard about this nut free Paleo baking flour. And if you've followed my blog for a while, then you know that I have many tigernut flour recipes on my site.
What is tigernut flour?
First off, tigernut flour IS Paleo friendly. Not only Paleo, but gluten free, grain free, nut free, AIP friendly and Vegan too.
Tigernut flour is made from finely ground, peeled tigernuts. As confusing as it may be, tigernuts are not actually nuts, but small root vegetables. They are naturally sweet and nutty in flavor, perfect for baking!
Additionally, they contain a lot of fiber, a decent amount of potassium, Vitamin E and iron, as well as resistant starch. This resistant starch has prebiotic properties that help promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut.
Simply put, tigernut flour is a great baking flour for anyone that is avoiding gluten, grains, nuts and seeds but still wants to enjoy Paleo baked goods. It is a gut friendly baking flour with a delicious, nutty and naturally sweet flavor.
I love it! In fact, tigernut flour is one of my favorite Paleo baking flours.
Where to buy tigernut flour?
I buy tigernut flour from Amazon. My favorite brand is Anthony's. They produce an organic tigernut flour at a great price and I've had lots of success baking with it.
Other online places to buy tigernut flour include: Vitacost, Thrive Market and Nuts.com.
Some health food stores stock tigernut flour. But I've actually never seen it in-store. I assume it would be cheaper to buy online, as long as you can purchase it with free shipping.
How to use tigernut flour?
Tigernut flour works similar to almond flour. In some recipes it can be the sole flour, such as my Vegan Tigernut Flour Waffles and Chocolate Chip Tigernut Flour Muffins. But, depending on the other ingredients in the recipe, you may need to combine it with other flours like tapioca flour or coconut flour.
You can use tigernut flour in any type of recipe, sweet or savory. I like it best in baked goods.
Tigernut flour recipes
I actually do quite a bit of baking with tigernut flour. Here are some favorite tigernut flour recipes from my blog:
- tigernut flour chocolate chip cookies
- vegan tigernut flour pancakes
- tigernut flour cupcakes
- Vegan tigernut flour blueberry muffins
- tigernut flour pumpkin bread
Okay, so you should have a pretty good understanding on tigernut flour after all of that! However, there's nothing quite the same as hands-on experimentation.
Which brings us back to this cake. This cake is a great tigernut recipe AND it's easy. Here's what you need to make it...
Ingredients in Tigernut Flour Chocolate Cake
- tigernut flourย
- tapioca flour (or arrowroot starch)
- cacao powderย
- coconut sugar
- Paleo baking powder
- salt
- large eggs
- almond milk (or coconut milk)
- avocado oil
- vanilla extract
- apple cider vinegar
Tigernut Flour
I used Anthony's tigernut flour in this recipe. Any brand should work, but this is the one I prefer. For best results, sift the tigernut flour prior to use and measure by the spoon and level method. Meaning, spoon the tigernut flour into each measuring cup, then level using a knife. Or, even better, measure the tigernut flour by weight (given in grams).
Tapioca Flour
Tapioca flour (or arrowroot) is necessary to get the proper cake texture. This ingredient is a must!
Cacoa Powder
I used an organic cacao powder, however cocoa powder should work as well.
Coconut Sugar
Any granulated sugar may be subbed for coconut sugar. Just be aware that some granulated sweeteners (like monk fruit) are sweeter than coconut sugar so it will slightly change the taste.
Eggs
This recipe has only been tested with eggs, so I cannot recommend an egg-free option. However, if you try an egg-free alternative, then please share the results.
Avocado Oil
Avocado oil is flavorless and perfect for Paleo baked goods because it is a healthy fat that can withstand high heats. The best replacement would be olive oil.
How to Make a Tigernut Flour Chocolate Cake
To make this cake, first preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Next, line three 6" round baking pans with parchment paper.ย This will keep the cake from sticking to the pan.ย The cake layers are not super thick, so I don't know how well this recipe will translate to a 9" cake pan - one, maybe two 9" ones will work.
Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk. This includes: tigernut flour, tapioca flour, cacao powder, coconut sugar, baking powder and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, almond milk, avocado oil, vanilla and apple cider vinegar. Then, pour into the dry mixture and whisk until the batter is a thick, smooth consistency.
Next, pour an equal amount of batter into each of the three pans.
Place the pans in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
Remove the cakes from oven and cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then, transfer the cakes to a wire cooling rack and cool to room temperature.
Lastly, once the cakes are cooled, frost them using your favorite Paleo frosting.
How to Decorate a Paleo Cake
For this cake, I made a chocolate coconut cream frosting and added freeze dried strawberries, chocolate shavings and bee pollen for decoration. The full recipe is given in the recipe card below, but here's a list of what you need:
Chocolate Coconut Cream Frosting
- coconut cream
- dark chocolate
- maple syrup
- vanilla extract
- tapioca flour
Toppings
- freeze dried strawberries
- chocolate shavings
- bee pollen
The frosting is best made the night prior to baking the cake because it takes a few hours to fully set. Also, toppings are best added right before serving the cake.
How to Store Tigernut Flour Chocolate Cake
This cake is best stored in the fridge. Cover it and keep it in the fridge for up to one week. You can also store leftovers in the freezer up to one month.
If you make your own frosting from coconut cream, it is super important to store the cake at a cool temperature.ย As, coconut cream does not keep well at room temperature once the can has been open.
PrintTigernut Flour Chocolate Cake (Paleo)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: one 3 layered, 6" cake 1x
Description
A moist, three layered Paleo cake made with tigernut flour.ย Nut free, gluten free, grain free and perfect for any birthday or celebration.
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 2 cups tigernut flour (168g) sifted, spooned & leveled
- ยฝ cup tapioca flour (60g)
- ยฝ cup cacao powder (31g) sifted, spooned & leveled
- ยฝ cup coconut sugar
- 2 tsp Paleo baking powder
- ยฝ tsp salt
- 3 large eggs
- ยฝ cup almond milk (coconut milk for nut free)
- ยผ cup avocado oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
For the Frosting
- 1 cup coconut cream (just the cream from a can of full fat coconut milk)
- ยผ cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- ยฝ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp tapioca flour
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line threeย 6" round baking pansย with parchment paper, set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients (tigernut flour, tapioca flour, cacao powder, coconut sugar, baking powder, salt).
- In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, almond milk, avocado oil, vanilla and vinegar.ย
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk batter until smooth.
- Pour an equal amount of batter into each of the lined cake pans.
- Place the pans in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
- Remove cakes from the oven and cool in their pan for 10 minutes.ย Then, transfer cakes to a cooling rack and cool to room temperature.
- Once fully cooled, frost the cake.
- Store cake covered in the fridge, for up to one week.
For the Frosting
- Melt the coconut cream and chocolate chips in a small sauce pan, over low heat.
- Once fully melted, remove from heat and whisk in remaining frosting ingredients.ย The frosting should be smooth and quite runny.
- Refrigerate the frosting overnight to thicken (or at least 4 hours).
- Frost the cake after the cake has fully cooled.
Notes
I recommend making the frosting the night before you plan to bake the cake, as the frosting takes a least a few hours to thicken.
Katie
This is my favorite chocolate cake recipe! Hope you all love it too!
Elizabeth
This cake is SO good. I made it for our Christmas dessert and we loved both the cake and the frosting! (my AIP daughter and I, and my SAD husband) I ordered the recommended cake pans and made the cake exactly according to the recipe. It turned out fantastic. I spread sugar free berry jam between the layers and covered the outside with the frosting. Thank you for this keeper of a recipe!!
Katie
I'm so glad you and your family enjoyed the cake! Thank you for the review and Merry Christmas ๐
joanne
Hi!
Could this cake be made with a vanilla base but keep the chocolate icing? Is it possible to eliminate the cocoa powder and have the cake work out?
Thank you in advance!
Katie
Hi! I have only tried this as a chocolate cake so I'm not sure how eliminating the cocoa would turn out.
Paula
Can this batter be used for cupcakes?
Katie
Yes, it should work for cupcakes but the baking time will decrease. I haven't made the cake as cupcakes so I can't say the exact time or how many the recipe will make.
Lena
I can't wait to make this cake. Do you think I could use arrowroot powder instead of tapioca?
Thanks.
Katie
Yes, arrowroot will work well in place of the tapioca ๐
Anonymous
Hey, thereโs a Instagram food blogger who I can prove copied this recipe from you word for word word, minus subbing in the carob powder. Check out the new cupcake recipe she just posted. I thought you should know. I have seen her do this many many times with several well known food bloggers like yourself. I believe this is not the first recipe she has copied from you! The Instagram is called LaurenloLiving and her blog where the recipe is posted is laurenloliving.com. I hope you reach out to her and have her remove the recipe. This is very wrong of her to do. Take others hard work and claim it as her own. She even has recipe books on her blog sheโs charging money for and no doubt most of those recipes are copied from others. I have no doubt most of her recipes in general are copied. Iโve found at least 15 total- every one Iโve searched for.
Katie
Hi! Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I've reached out to her and hope that she will give credit where it's due. Thank you again!
Lotus
Whatโs the best way to substitute the 3 eggs?
Katie
I have only tested this recipe with eggs...not sure that an egg substitute would work well.
Christina
Hi Katie, this cake was absolutely amazing. Who would think you could get such a brilliant result using a flour most people havenโt heard of?! I tried this recipe out for my daughter who had just returned from Uni last weekend for the Christmas break. She was amazed at the result and so was I. She said it tasted just like real chocolate cake! High praise indeed.
This is the 4th recipe Iโve tried of yours and theyโve all been brilliant. I started with the chocolate zucchini muffins, then the tigernut bread, then the tigernut pancakes. I only started just over a month ago when eggs were reintroduced to the ultra strict AIP diet sheโs had to follow since September. Sheโs been so much happier since I started trying to make her these little โtreatsโ. I have been able to successfully switch to tigernut flour wherever you suggest it as an alternative, eg, the muffins, as nuts are eliminated from her diet.
I canโt thank you enough for the wonderful recipes youโve devised. Youโre a star!
Katie
Oh my goodness! This message just made my day! Thank you so much for trying my recipes and I greatly appreciate this review. I understand first hand how rough it is to deal with dietary restrictions, so helping others navigate it through my recipes brings me so much joy! Thanks again ๐
Emma
This cake is so good! My parents who do not have restrictions loved it. I used 1/4 cup applesauce for each egg and it worked perfectly. I did add a bit more coconut milk to make it more the consistency of the picture.
Katie
I'm so glad the recipe turned out using applesauce instead of eggs! I'll have to try that myself ๐ Thank you for leaving a review!
Michelle
Like all the other desperate for dessert and nut free bakers out there, I am so grateful for your hard work. We canโt do coconut either so finding this tigernut flour was truly a blessing. Iโve never used it before. Despite subbing coconut sugar for a cane/monk blend, using whole milk and turning them into cupcakes the recipe actually worked out like it was supposed too. I baked them in metal muffin tins for 16 min at 350. Perfection!!
Katie
Hi! I'm SO glad the recipe turned out for you even with the substitutions. Tigernut flour is a dream and I wish more people knew about it! Thank you for the review ๐