My husband named this “The Best Chocolate Cake Ever”.
He actually told me to throw out all of my other cake recipes, including those decadent sugar-laden treats I made before we started changing our diet. It was also a hit with our family as a Christmas Eve treat, and has become my go-to cake for special occasions.
This rich, fudgy cake is also free of gluten and grains — bonus! — and makes use of the by-product of making your own almond and nut milks: nut pulp. If you make your own nut milk, you probably know what it’s like to have a fridge (or freezer) full of pulp, ready to be made into something… but what? Start with this delicious cake! And then read on for a list of eight other things you can make with your leftover pulp.
FYI –> Here are instructions for making your own nut milk straining bag.
Best Ever Chocolate Cake
My husband named this “The Best Chocolate Cake Ever”. This rich, fudgy cake is also free of gluten and grains — bonus! — and makes use of the by-product of making your own almond and nut milks: nut pulp. Adapted from this recipe.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips or chocolate (6 oz)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil or butter
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup raw honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup almond pulp other nut and seed pulps work well, too
- 3 organic or pastured eggs lightly beaten
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Melt chocolate and coconut oil/butter in top of a double broiler, or in a bowl set over boiling water.
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Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients, stirring after each addition.
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Pour into parchment-lined, 8-inch cake pan and spread evenly.
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Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the center is set.
Recipe Notes
- At Christmas, I added dried cherries to the batter and it was delicious!
Still have pulp to use up?
8 Things to Make with Almond Pulp
- Coconut Chocolate Chip or Raisin Cookies, Double Chocolate Cookies, or Granola Bars
- Make your own almond butter
- Baked Almond Pulp Brownies
- Blueberry Banana Bread or Banana Muffins
- Almond Pulp Herb Crackers
- Make dairy-free cheese
- Cherry-Coconut Almond Granola
- Dehydrate your pulp to create your own almond meal and use in hundreds of grain-free or gluten-free recipes
Looking for more grain free cake recipes? Check out Healthy Homemade Wedding Cakes & Alternatives (Homespun, Pretty, Allergy-Friendly!)
How do you like to use up your nut milk pulp? Do you have a “best chocolate cake” ever?
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I have a best chocolate cake ever but it isn’t……..healthy. 🙁 This looks like a really good one!! I have hazelnut meal, would that work as a substitute for the almond meal pulp? I don’t typically make nut milk.
Jenny, my best chocolate cake ever before this one wasn’t healthy either! 🙂 If you are using a dry nut meal you will need to moisten it in order to get the same moist texture in the cake. Almond pulp is damp, but not soggy. A few tsp of water should do it.
Can you use coconut flour instead of almond meal?
My granddaughter and I were tasked with making a birthday cake for her brother. Their family is avoiding grains and sweeteners. So we tried a coconut cake from a recipe online, Simple Coconut Flour Chocolate Cake at SavoryLotus.com. It was quite nice everyone was very happy with it.
It only has 1/3 cup of sweetener – maple syrup or honey.
I made it first as a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting – coconut cream and melted chocolate whipped together. The frosting was sweeter than I wanted, so I added additional coconut cream which left me with twice as much ‘frosting’ as I needed. I put it in the fridge, and a few days later, I used it as the coconut milk, coconut oil, and sweetener for a cake using the same recipe. It was quite moist, but very tasty and still not too sweet. I just didn’t frost that one.
My husband who had missed out on the first cake was very happy with the second. Of course, it could be that I haven’t made any treats at all for three months, so it was quite a surprise for him. 😉
Nancy, that cake sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing!
You could certainly try it with coconut flour. Almond pulp is quite moist, and coconut flour tends to be quite dry, so you may find you need to add some more moisture to the recipe. If you try it, please let us know how it turns out!
I had a question about sugar substitutes which maybe others with more experience with them can answer . . . I wonder about substituting a sugar substitute for the honey. I have a few options, Swerve, xylitol, as well as a combination of erythritol and monk fruit, or stevia.
My husband and I are eating a very low carb diet and that much honey is more than I want to consume.
Yes, this is definitely a special occasion treat for us. I unfortunately do not have much experience with sugar substitutes. You could outright just decrease the honey, but I understand you still might end up with needing more than you want to eat. I have recently been experimenting with stevia myself, but I know different brands have different substitution ratios. If you go with stevia you will also need to add something (milk, another egg) to make up for the moisture in the honey. Perhaps someone with more experience will have suggestions, too!
Have you tried this? I am also looking for a low-carb option and would love to know if you tried it and how it came out.
I have never made nut milk but really, really want to make this cake. HELP.
If you want to make nut milk, you can find the instructions here: https://traditionalcookingschool.com/2006/03/21/raw-nut-milk-almond-or-hazelnut/ Otherwise, you could try using almond meal, dampened with a few teaspoons of water, in place of the almond pulp in the recipe. The almond meal should be damp enough to stick together, but not soggy. It should create a similar result, but I haven’t tested this as I make nut milk regularly.
Where can you buy almond meal?
Kristi, if you have a high-powered blender, you can make your own almond meal out of whole almonds. I have also read you can use a coffee grinder for the same purpose. Otherwise, depending on where you live, you might find it in a natural foods or bulk foods store. My local grocery store also sells it in their gluten-free food section.
Thanks!
I think you can use almond flour if you add more liquid to compensate for the flour being dryer than the almond pulp would be if you had made almond milk first.
Hi, do you know if I could replace the honey with maple syrup? I’m supposed to avoid honey, but I’d like to try this recipe. Thanks!
I made it with pure maple syrup and it turned out great .
This is a great cake. I use it regularly to get rid of my almond pulp. Even my 18 yo, who doesn’t like healthy, eats it. I use coconut oil and cacao
Hello and thanks for the excellent recipe.
I’m trying to go completely dairy-free and sugar-free so I was wondering if I could substitute the chocolate chips with raw cocoa or some other ingridient.
Keep up the good work.
I haven’t tried any chocolate chip substitutions myself, but you could try using something like this: http://wholenewmom.com/recipes/desserts/homemade-chocolate-or-carob-chips/ If you try a substitution, please let us know how it turns out!
I made nut milk this morning….LOTS of it. So I got on Pinterest to see what I could do with the pulp without dehydrating it. Your recipes came up. The chocolate cake came out of the oven 30 min. ago and we each had some…WOW! It was great. Not as sweet as Julia Child’s Reine de Saba, but honey could be increased and a chocolate ganache icing with sliced almonds would put it right up there with Julia! The almond crackers are in the oven now. Thanks so much for the great recipes!
Wow – chocolate ganache and almonds would make for a very decadent cake, great idea! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Anyone try coconut pulp? I frequently make coconut milk
Hi Melody, I haven’t tried it, but it might be worth attempting. As far as flours go, coconut is not a good substitute for almond because it soaks up moisture which would result in a dry cake. On the other hand, we are talking about pulp not flour, and your coconut pulp will already be quite moist. If I was going to experiment, I might try using slightly less of the coconut pulp than the almond pulp (maybe ¾ cup?) and see what happens. Please let us know if you try it and if it turns out!
I’ve used almond pulp (which I first dry in the dehydrator and process in a vitamix) to make a shake & bake type topping for casseroles. I use it on top of the filling for chicken pot pie. I use maybe a cup of almond pulp, 1/2 c. chopped pecans, 1/3 c. of melted coconut oil, 1 tsp. dried thyme, 1 tsp. dried rosemary, salt and pepper to taste.
This sounds great, Ann! Thank you for sharing!
this is probably a stupid question….i don’t make almond milk, but do you think almond butter or hazelnut butter would work? i don’t buy them often but i have some on hand.
Not a stupid question at all, Bonnie! Unfortunately, I don’t think nut butters would work as a direct substitute, as it would be a completely different texture. That being said, I have seen recipes for muffins before that are made without flour and using nut butter, so it might still make a good cake if you are willing to experiment a little. I am currently working on a version of this cake that does not use almond pulp, for you and all the others who don’t make almond milk but want to make the cake, so you can watch out for that to be posted, too! 🙂
thanks. will look forward to it.
I make almond porridge. Dollop of almond pulp. Slosh of the almond milk – maybe half a cup (sorry, I never measure), two eggs whisked in and some vanilla. Cook gently until porridge consistency. Serve with more almond milk or cocnut yoghurt. Very yum.
Julie, That sounds great! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!
How long is the almond pulp good for in the fridge? I have been making almond milk for about a month and I usually make banana muffins or toast it like a granola for yogurts. I made almond milk 3 days ago and saved the pulp cuz I didn’t know what to do with it. Think it’s still good? I don’t want it to go rancid.
Hi Becca, Usually a quick sniff will let you know if the pulp is still good. I have definitely had mine in the fridge for three days and still used it. Usually I pop mine in the freezer and then thaw it out when I am ready.
Any good suggestions to replace the eggs?
I wonder if I could use Flax eggs instead of real eggs. Any thoughts?
A general rule of thumb with egg replacing is that in egg replacers alone don’t work in recipes that require 3 or more eggs. In this recipe, the eggs act both as binder and to give the cake lift, and flax eggs alone won’t meet both of these requirements. However, I have seen similar recipes for chocolate cake without the eggs that use arrowroot starch and baking powder, so that might be worth experimenting with. I have yet to try it myself though.
I made this cake today and it’s rich, like a brownie! We had it with vanilla ice cream. I think I’ll leave some of the honey out next time.
Great recipe!
Ruth
I made this last night- I followed the recipe exactly and let the cake sit in the oven after the time was up and it WAS SO GOOD! My husband and daughter LOVE IT! WONDERFUL! By the way, I used Almond Pulp that sat in the refrigerator a day or so and it still came out beautifully. What a great recipe, thanks! I wrote this in my “Favorite Recipe Book.” God Bless You!