Vegan, grain-free and nut-free chocolate layer cake with cassava and tigernut flour.
Special thank you to Amore di Mona for sponsoring this post.
I hope you’re getting into a festive mood, slowing down for the end of the year and planning some lovely recipes to make. For sure we all deserve a peaceful end to the year.
Today I’m sharing with you my final Christmas recipe, Chocolate Cranberry Orange Cake. Amore di Mona has challenged me to create vegan, grain-free and nut-free chocolate recipe and so I took on the challenge with this layer cake.
I have finally bought myself some cassava and tigernut flours I’ve been meaning to experiment with for a while and had a play with them this week.
If you haven’t experimented with them, they do behave different to gluten-free flours and absorb quite a bit of liquid. The cake batter also looks different more separated once mixed. Hence I have added the tapioca flour for extra binding. The sponge is also more crumbly than one made with gluten-free flours so I have opted for apple sauce as well as flax eggs.
I’m pretty happy how it turned out, the flavor is wonderful and the texture is moist. It didn’t look anything like this at my first try!
You could also make the cake as 8″ one layer cake if you prefer and just frost the top.
The flavors are lovely and festive for this time of a year. I have decided to layer the cake with cranberry chia jam which works so well with chocolate and decorate it with chocolate ganache, fresh cranberries, orange slices, rosemary and edible gold powder.
And if you’re looking for a grain-free and nut-free Christmas cake it’s a wonderful cake to treat yourself to.
Wishing you the most wonderful Christmas!
Chocolate Cranberry Orange Cake (vegan & grain-free)
Vegan, grain-free and nut-free chocolate layer cake with cassava and tigernut flour.
Ingredients
Layer cake:
- 1/2 cup cassava flour (110 grams)
- 1/2 cup tigernut flour (70 grams)
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour (30 grams)
- 1/4 cup cacao powder (30 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon all spice
- pinch sea salt
- 1/2 cup rapadura sugar (75 grams)
- zest of 1 orange
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 6 tablespoons water
- 1/3 cup apple sauce (80 ml)
- 1/3 cup olive oil (80 ml)
- 1/2 cup orange juice (120 ml)
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Cranberry chia jam:
- 1 cup cranberries (100 grams)
- 1/4 cup orange juice (60 ml)
- little orange zest
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- small cinnamon stick
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
Chocolate ganache: make the night before
- 7-ounce dark vegan chocolate (200 grams)
- 1 cup oat cream (240 ml)
- 1 tablespoons maple syrup (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 360 °F (180 °C)
- Grease and line two 6" round cake baking tins.
- Mix 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed with 6 tablespoons water and set aside to thicken.
- In a large bowl whisk together cassava flour, tigernut flour, tapioca flour, cacao powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, salt and sugar. Add the zest of 1 orange and set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together flax eggs, apple sauce, olive oil, orange juice, apple cider vinegar and vanilla.
- Add the wet mix to the dry mix and mix until well combined. You should have muffin consistency. Add more orange juice or water if needed.
- Spoon the mixture evenly into your prepared tins and level out the surface.
- Bake for about 25 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven once ready and leave to cool down for 20 minutes before removing from the tins.
- To make the cranberry jam place cranberries, orange juice, maple syrup and cinnamon stick into a pot and gently heat for about 10 minutes until cranberries have popped and are soft. Remove the cinnamon stick and mash the cranberries with a fork until smooth. Stir in chia seeds and leave to cool down for a bit before transferring into fridge to set.
- Roughly chop the chocolate for the chocolate ganache and place into a medium bowl. Place the oat cream and maple syrup into a small pot and gently heat until boiling point. Pour over the chopped chocolate and stir until completely melted and smooth. Leave to cool down before placing into a fridge to set overnight into a spreadable consistency.
- Once the cakes are completely cool, you can assemble the cake. Place the bottom layer onto a cake stand and spread with cranberry chia jam. Top with the second cake layer and using spatula frost the sides and top of the cake.
- Pipe leftover ganache on top and decorate with fresh cranberries, orange slices and rosemary. Dust with gold edible powder.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving:Calories: 450Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 10mgSodium: 262mgCarbohydrates: 62gFiber: 6gSugar: 32gProtein: 6g
Hola!! en Argentina te venden el fruto de chufa, no el harina, por cual otra harina la podrÃa reemplazar? Gracias!! GENIA TOTAL!!
Hi Marcela, you could replace it with another ground nuts or seeds. Alternatively you could also make your own flour out of tiger nuts. Please let me know if you have anymore questions. Hana
Hi, how do you make the oat cream?
Hi Gaby, I buy oat cream from a brand called Oatly. But I believe you can make it with a blend of oats water and oil.