Special thank you to Amore di Mona for sponsoring this post.
Autumn really is one of my favourite seasons, the colours, the chill in the air yet still plenty of warm days, not forget the incredible Farmers markets. And today I have another Autumn inspired recipe for you – an Autumn Chocolate Cake.
It’s a rich indulgent cake with a simple decoration of chocolate leaves, figs and blackberries that I hope will inspire your baking.
This cake is an adaptation of my Sachertorte that I’ve created for Amore di Mona last year. It’s a really lovely moist cake and you will never be able to tell that it’s vegan and gluten-free. It’s that good.
As with all of my cakes it’s minimally sweetened, just enough to enhance the flavours of other ingredients and to taste the beautiful decadent flavour of the dark chocolate. I’ve chosen to coat the cake with a fig jam, please feel free to use any of your favourite jam.
When making the chocolate leaves choose freshly fallen leaves so they keep strong once being peeled off. Coat the bottom part of the leaf where the veins appear more prominent. Experiment with a variety of leaves, some are easier to work with than others.
Choose seasonal fruit for the topping and some fresh flowers to add touch of colour. Enjoy :)
Autumn Chocolate Cake (vegan & gluten-free)
Ingredients
- 70g brown rice flour (1/2 cup)
- 35g buckwheat flour (1/4 cup)
- 70g sunflower seeds (1/2 cup), ground into flour consistency
- 30g tapioca flour (1/4 cup)
- 75g rapadura sugar (1/2 cup)
- 1tsp baking powder
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- pinch sea salt
- 3tbsp ground flaxseed + 9tbsp water
- 80ml olive oil (1/3 cup)
- 80ml plant milk (1/3 cup)
- 2tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 150g chocolate or dark vegan chocolate (5.3oz)
Topping:
- fig jam or jam of your choice
- 100g chocolate or dark vegan chocolate (3.5oz)
- fresh figs and blackberries
Chocolate leaves
- 100g chocolate or dark vegan chocolate (3.5oz)
- selection of fresh autumn leaves
Instructions
- Mix 3tbsp ground flaxseed with 9tbsp water and set aside to thicken.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350F)
- Grease and line the base and dust the sides of 8" round cake spring form baking tin.
- In a large bowl whisk together brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, ground sunflower seeds, tapioca flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
- In a small bowl whisk together flax eggs, olive oil, plant milk of your choice, apple cider vinegar and vanilla.
- Roughly chop the chocolate, place into heatproof bowl and gently melt in a double boiler.
- Add the wet mix to the dry mix and mix until well combined. Fold in the melted chocolate.
- Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and level out the surface.
- Bake for about 25 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out with just few crumbs left on.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool down for 20 minutes before carefully moving onto a wire rack.
- Once the cake is completely cooled use brush or spatula to coat the whole cake with a very thin layer of jam. Leave to set.
- Roughly chop the chocolate for coating, place into heatproof bowl and gently melt in a double boiler. Stir until smooth. Pour over the cake and use spatula to gently smooth the chocolate over the edge and around the side of the cake.
- Carefully transfer onto serving dish.
- Gently melt the chocolate to make the chocolate leaves. Wash and pat dry the leaves. Line a baking sheet with some greaseproof paper. Using brush coat the bottom part of the leaves with a layer of chocolate and place onto the sheet with the chocolate side up. Place into freezer until set. Very gently peel the leaves off.
- Carefully arrange your chocolate leaves, figs and blackberries on top of the cake. Decorate with flowers if you wish.
This looks amazing! Not sure I can do the leaves, but would love to try the cake. I’m allergic to buckwheat. Is there a flour substitution I might use? Thanks!
Hi Jan, you can replace it with any other gluten-free flour like teff, quinoa, millet, oat or just use extra brown rice flour. Hope you like it :)
This looks so good! Do you use this flour blend for any other recipes?
Thank you so much Suzanne! Yes, I do, most of my cakes have a similar gluten-free mix. Please have a browse through my recent ones.
Thanks for sharing! What is rapadura sugar? Can I use another kind?
Thank you so much Vanessa! It’s a raw sugar that I like to use, you can use any sugar that you normally use in baking in this recipe.
This site and these recipes are amazing. I brought the cardamom pistachio carrot cake to a holiday party, and it was devoured!
I made this cake last night as a trial run for an event this weekend. My only sub was almond flour for the ground up sunflower seeds, and while the flavor is divine, the texture of the cake was extra crumbly. Could the almond flour have been responsible, and if so, do you have a recommendation – like add a little extra oil (fat)?
Hi Crystal, ground almonds would have been better, almond flour is little drier. If you found it too crumbly, you could add 1tsp psyllium husk or xantham gum to the mix. I don’t tend to use the binders, but sometimes they are needed in gluten-free vegan cakes. Also, try not to overbake it. A little extra olive oil could be good too. Hope it’s better this time :)
Thanks so much! Giving it another go tomorrow. Happy holidays!
Hi! Thank you for the recipe.
Can I use something else to replace tapioca flour?
Hi Julia, yes, any other starch like arrowroot or cornflour would be fine. Hope you like it :)
Hi,can I substitute brown rice flour by any chance?
This cake, and the icing, looks beautiful! But I’m not gluten free or vegan. Any recommendations on how to make the cake with regular old flour? Thanks!