Last updated - ; Published - By Rhian Williams 14 Comments
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This Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake is filled with the most indulgent peanut buttercream, and drenched in a silky chocolate sauce.
I used my favourite vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar free chocolate sponge recipe for this cake. I love its taste and texture, and what’s more, it requires just one bowl and uses easily accessible ingredients. The coconut oil gives the sponge a rich, buttery flavour whilst ground almonds add a nutty sweetness and fluffiness.
The recipe is also easily customisable, as you can use any liquid sweetener you like, and substitute the coconut oil with olive or vegetable oil if you wish.
Peanut butter is one of my favourite things ever, and you can't go wrong with a peanut butter and chocolate combo, right? So, I decided that I really needed to make a peanut butter and chocolate cake for the blog.
And I knew this would require a peanut butter buttercream frosting. A lot of vegan buttercream recipes use ingredients like cashews, coconut whipped cream oravocado, but I wasn’t particularly keen on any of these.
Cashew nuts are delicious, but pretty expensive. Coconut whipped cream is delicious too, but I feel like it's too light to pass as a buttercream substitute. And I've never really been a fan of using avocado in desserts.
So I turned to thischocolate buttercream, which usessweet potatoes. I use sweet potatoes to make things like thisice cream, milkshakeandmochi), so why not buttercream?
Unlike avocados, their indistinctive taste means they’re great to use as a basis fordifferent flavours. Unlike nuts, they’re wallet-friendly, and the texture ends up a lot thicker than coconut whipped cream.
And so all I did was swap the cocoa powder with peanut butter, and the most delicious peanut butter buttercream was born!
All you need to do to make this simple 4-ingredient buttercream is cook the sweet potato, add peanut butter, maple syrup and vanilla, then just blend until completely smooth. It's luxuriously smooth, super rich and peanut buttery, and the perfect consistency for frosting the sponge cake.
I then topped off this Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake with some chocolate sauce, which is completely optional, but oh-so-delicious. You can use melted dark chocolate, but if you’d prefer it to be refined sugar free, you can also melt some coconut oil and mix with cocoa powder and maple syrup (or any other sweetener).
Really hope you'll love this Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake as much as I do!Want more cakes? Then you might like my:
- Red Velvet Cake
- Chocolate Truffle Cake
- Tropical Carrot Cake
- Lemon Blueberry Cake
- Chocolate Sponge Layer Cake
- Black Forest Cake
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog,I’d love to hear how you get on! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tagphoto #rhiansrecipes onInstagram!I’d really love to hear anyfeedback – thank you!
Helpful tools to make this Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake:
For the cake:
glass mixing bowl
measuring jug
18 cm / 7 inch sandwich baking tin
baking paper
cooling rack
For the frosting:
food processor
blender
hand-held stick blender
palette knife for frosting
This Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake is filled with the most indulgent peanut buttercream, and drenched in a silky chocolate sauce.
3.56 from 9 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: gluten-free chocolate peanut butter cake, vegan chocolate peanut butter cake, vegan peanut butter frosting
Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes
Total Time: 1 hour hour
Servings: 8
Calories: 416kcal
Author: Rhian Williams
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 250 ml (1 cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- 12 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 50 g (½ cup) cocoa powder
For the frosting:
- 400 g (14 oz) sweet potatoes (about 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes)
- 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup (or any other sweetener), to taste
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the chocolate sauce* (optional):
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Instructions
For the cake:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)
Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil)
Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the vinegar, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and ground almonds
Sift in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder
Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry
Divide mixture between two greased baking tins lined with baking paper (I used two 7inch/18cm baking tins)
Bake in oven for around 15 minutes until risen slightly and an inserted skewer comes out clean
Once out the oven, transfer cakes from baking tins onto a wired rack to leave them to cool completely before applying the frosting
For the frosting:
Cook sweet potatoes by boiling, steaming or roasting them until very soft and tender
Discard any skins, and add to a food processor or blender (or hand-held blender) along with all other ingredients
Whizz until completely smooth
Taste and adjust ingredients as necessary – add more maple syrup for sweetness, more peanut butter etc
Leave to cool before using to frost the cake
To frost and decorate the cake:
Place one half of the cake onto a plate and spread just less than half of the buttercream onto it
Place the other half of the cake on top of that and use rest of the buttercream to spread on top and around sides of cake
Decorate with chopped roasted peanuts, or whatever else you fancy!
For the chocolate sauce:
Place all ingredients in a bowl and melt either over a bain-marie or in the microwave, until mixed together well
Pour over the cake
Keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days
Notes
*You can alternatively usealmond flour
**You can alternatively use melted dark chocolate (ensure vegan if necessary)
Nutrition Facts
Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
Amount Per Serving
Calories 416Calories from Fat 180
% Daily Value*
Fat 20g31%
Saturated Fat 8g40%
Sodium 132mg6%
Potassium 403mg12%
Carbohydrates 57g19%
Fiber 8g32%
Sugar 26g29%
Protein 9g18%
Vitamin A 7094IU142%
Vitamin C 1mg1%
Calcium 164mg16%
Iron 3mg17%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
