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Gluten-free Chocolate Cake with Rocher-inspired Icing

Moist. Dense yet light. Decadently chocolatey and with the ability to make it gluten-free like ALL of the 180 recipes in The Wholesome Cook book. The icing doubles as a real food nutella, so clever. And the gluten-free chocolate cake? I don’t know anyone who has stopped at having just one piece!

The Wholesome Cook book chocolate rocher cake recipe gluten-free

About the cake

One of the favourite blog recipes has been transformed for The Wholesome Cook book. I shared it on stage at the Smooth FM Festival of Chocolate at the Rocks on Saturday 12th September. With tastings that went down a treat.

Now, it’s a gluten-free chocolate cake that’s a little indulgent and as adaptable as it is beautiful to look at and, not to mention, delicious. That’s the whole premise of the book, too. Eat food that’s best for your body. Be flexible when catering for a crowd or entertaining friends with intolerances.

Great, huh?

The Wholesome Cook book chocolate rocher cake recipe gluten-free

The cake can be made using wholemeal flour, or teff flour which makes a wonderful version that’s also gluten-free. Best of all it is easy to make and uses just a few pantry staples, plus good quality butter or coconut oil for the dairy-free version. The celebration shot was actually take on the day of Helena’s birthday – she was one of my assistants helping with cooking the book for the shoot.

Use the gluten-free chocolate cake batter to bake donuts!

It is versatile enough to use as a ‘mudcake’ to be covered in frosting for birthday cakes, can be layered with whipped cream and jam, baked in a muffin tin for lunchbox-sized treats or made into 27-or-so baked donuts.

How cute are they?

I have made the cake and these donuts so many times now. Hands down it’s one of my favourite last minute party cakes that turns out no matter the oven. In fact, it is our family’s favourite celebration and cupcake-drive cake.

Wholesome Cook Chocolate Donuts Recipe

My go to icing for the cake

I chose to make the Rocher-inspired icing because hazelnuts go so well with chocolate and the broken up wafer (gluten-free waffle cones or buckinis for a gluten-free version) add an interesting crunch to the mix. If you are allergic to nuts you may, of course choose to use just a plain cream-based ganache icing and omit the nuts from the topping.

If you can have them though, the icing makes a wonderful, real food… NUTELLA! Store it in a jar and spread on your choice of bread or rice cakes. Delish.

Serve the cake while still slightly warm in the middle, as the vanilla and cocoa aroma is much more intense then and the cake is even more spongy and soft. Leftover cake can be kept in the fridge for upto 5 days, but I’m sure it will never last that long…

The Wholesome Cook book chocolate rocher cake recipe gluten-free

Want the recipe?

There’s an interview on The Alimental Sage website featuring the cake and a bit more about the book, too.

The recipe for this cake and 179 more refined sugar-free recipes, all with gluten-free options and adapatble to other common dietary lifestyles is also in my cookbook.

To make the donuts, use a donut pan and bake for 15 minutes then cool before icing…

The Wholesome Cook book chocolate rocher cake recipe gluten-free
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Gluten-free Chocolate Cake with Rocher-Inspired Icing

It's one of my go-to chocolate cakes for birthdays. It's delicious and goes so well with a hazelnut butter chocolate icing! You can also use the batter to make chocolate donuts (use a donut baking pan. Bake for about 15 minutes.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Total Time1 hour 5 minutes
Servings: 12 people

Ingredients

  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup unrefined demerara sugar or granulated stevia
  • 1/2 cup rice malt syrup or honey
  • 120 g butter, chopped 100g coconut oil
  • 3 tablespoons raw cacao powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla powder or natural vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup wholemeal plain flour or teff flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder

For the icing

  • 1/2 cup hazelnut butter there’s a recipe for it in the book as well!
  • 40 g dark 70% cocoa chocolate or dairy-free chocolate, roughly chopped and melted
  • 10 extra hazelnuts chopped
  • 1 ice cream waffle cone or gluten-free ice cream cone crushed finely, OR 2 tablespoons buckinis

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Grease and line a 22cm spring-form cake tin with baking paper.
  • Place water, sugar or stevia, rice malt syrup or honey, butter or coconut oil, cacao powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large saucepan over low heat. Heat, stirring, until butter melts. Increase heat to medium and bring to a simmer – the mixture will rise and double in size. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
  • Once cooled, add vanilla and whisk in eggs. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and add to egg mixture, whisking until just combined. Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven, place on a wire rack and allow to cool in the tin.
  • To prepare the icing, combine hazelnut butter with melted chocolate and half of the crushed waffle cone or buckinis. Mix well. Scoop the icing onto the cooled cake, spread gently over the top and top with hazelnuts and crushed waffle cone or buckinis before serving.
  • Store cake in the fridge, covered, for up to 7 days. You can freeze any remaining slices for up to 1 month.
Tried this recipe?Mention @wholesomecook or tag #wholesomecook

16 comments

Bec August 17, 2010 at 5:44 pm

That cake is sooooooooo good! We’re eating the first pieces as i’m typing this lol….AND I even made the One Pot Wonder Spaghetti & Meatballs for dinner tonight…was fantastic! Thank you so much for the recipes…you’ve made Paul one very happy, well fed man :-D

Now, time for the second piece of cake…

Reply
Wholesome Cook August 18, 2010 at 1:25 pm

Thanks Bec! I’m glad you both enjoyed it.
I wasn’t telling fibs when I said one piece is never enough…

Marty

Reply
Kerryn September 5, 2010 at 9:44 am

I made it as muffins and they were delicious! Especially heated a little as suggested. Thanks so much for the recipe – easy and tasty – can’t get much better than that!

Reply
Wholesome Cook September 11, 2010 at 10:10 pm

Thanks for your kind comments Kerryn, I’m glad you enjoyed the muffins :-)

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libby March 17, 2011 at 9:20 am

i baked it wiv my aunt it was delicous cant be beta thnx so much 4 the recipe i love ferero rochers im eatin em right now thnx so much 4 tat recipe

Reply
Wholesome Cook March 17, 2011 at 10:01 am

Hi Libby, so glad you enjoyed the cake!

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Jeannie June 24, 2011 at 8:25 pm

Wow!! This cake is amazing. My daughter said it is the best chocolate cake she has ever had and we quite often bake chocolate cakes. Thanks! A

Reply
Wholesome Cook June 24, 2011 at 9:16 pm

Wow! Thank you – that’s a great compliment and I’m thrilled you liked it!

Reply
eftychia September 16, 2011 at 7:04 pm

What a yummy cake!!

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Rifat December 14, 2012 at 12:11 am

best chocolate cake i ever made, thank u so much! although i did an addition. i split the cake in the middle and soaked it with a little mixture of melted chocolate and milk. yum yum yum :D

Reply
Azza January 22, 2013 at 1:58 pm

I will try making it tomorrow night for my husband’s birthday. will let you know how it turns on Thursday. Hope they’ll like it :)

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Sarah May 4, 2013 at 4:49 pm

Looks fantastic, although I learned long ago never to use recipes for cakes. Since then, I’ve never had a cake that didn’t look and taste absolutely perfect. No cracking tops, no failed textures, just pure perfection. More people should try baking intuitively…they might be surprised to discover their own creations are so much better than following often misleading ‘recipes’.

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Maureen | Orgasmic Chef October 21, 2015 at 12:30 am

What a beautiful cake! The book sounds dreamy too. Congratulations!

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Clare October 28, 2015 at 9:04 pm

I’m so glad that you posted this! Such a great recipe to try this weekend and proof that you don’t need to cut out everything in order to achieve that balanced lifestyle. Such misconceptions in the fitness and health industry that you need to be eating raw vegetables and bland food to achieve a healthy lifestyle, you actually need balance.

Thanks for sharing,
Clare from Team Fit and Wellbeing )

Reply
Martyna @ Wholesome Cook October 28, 2015 at 9:21 pm

Thanks Clare! My thoughts exactly :-) Enjoy the cake – I’m glad you’re share similar views!

Reply
Look Who’s Been Cooking The Wholesome Cook Book… Join in the Fun | Wholesome Cook November 4, 2015 at 10:22 am

[…] Cook book in the following reviews: by Lee Holmes Supercharged Food, get the recipe for the Rocher Cake and a little background interview by Camilla from The Alimental Sage and grab an adapted Almost […]

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