Chocolate quinoa cake-gluten free
This chocolate quinoa cake is truly sensational. Who would have thought you could use quinoa to make a cake. I am blown away about this recipe. It is simply genius.
Believe me when I tell you you won’t be able to taste the quinoa in this chocolate quinoa cake at all. I was a little bit skeptical at first but because I love quinoa I thought to give this cake a go.
My kids and husband really enjoyed this cake. Now all I want to do is to keep experiment with quinoa in my baking.
I have made some minor changes to the original recipe. For sure I cut down the sugar content, when using baking recipes I normally use half of what the recipe calls for as far a sugar is concerned. I really can’t imagine how sweet this cake must be using the original amount the recipe calls for. I also used olive oil instead of butter, a much better option as olive oil has higher quality fat than butter.
For the frosting I used a cream cheese based frosting. I added some frozen organic wild berries which made the frosting a light purple. I loved it. You can use any other type of berries you like or even omit them all together. You can really use whatever frosting of your choice you prefer. It is a chocolate cake so anything goes.
Well I leave you with this sensational quinoa cake recipe that if for sure going to knock your socks off…or so I hope!
Enjoy!
This is truly a must taste quinoa chocolate cake. You will not be able to tell this cake is made with quinoa at all. The coffee granules gives this cake a more intense flavor as well so I hight recommend using it.
PrintChocolate quinoa cake-gluten free
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients:
- 2 cups loosely packed cooked and cooled quinoa (about 1/2 cup dry)
- 1/3 cup almond milk
- 4 organic eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup apple sauce
- 3/4 cups unrefined sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (you can use 1 cup and omit the protein powder)
- 1/2 cup chocolate protein powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon aluminum free baking soda
- 1 tsp instant coffee granules
- 1/2 teaspoon celtic salt
Frosting
- 16 oz low fat cream cheese, room temperature
- 11 oz white chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup +1 tbsp wild blueberries, frozen and thawed out (You can use blueberries too)
Alternative Frosting
- 2 15oz canned coconut cream
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup wild blueberries
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease three 6-inch round cake pans and line with unbleached parchment paper. Don't skip this step if you want the cakes to come out of the pans. Alternatively you can use two 8-inch cake pans instead of three 6-inch ones.
Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla to your food processor and pulse until smooth. You can also use a blender. Add the quinoa and sugar and combine. Incorporate the remainder of the ingredients and pulse until all of the ingredients are mixed together. This step shouldn't take long, 30 seconds at most.
Divide the batter between the 3 cake pans and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the baking pans for at least 20 minutes. Invert them onto cooling wire racks, remove the parchment paper and let the cakes cool completely.
For the frosting, in a safe microwave plate, place the white chocolate chips and melt in 45 second intervals stirring in between until the chocolate has melted. Place the cream cheese and wild berries, reserve the 1 tbsp, into your food processor and pulse until combine. Add the melted chocolate chips to the food processor and pulse until all of the ingredients are mixed together. Place the frosting in the fridge for about 30 minutes while the cakes are cooling down to set up the frosting.
To assemble the cake. Place one cake layer onto your desired serving dish and top with on third of the frosting spreading it evenly to the edge of the cake. Place another cake layer over the frosting and spread another one third of the frosting over the cake in the same manner. Place the last cake layer over the frosting and use the reaming frosting to frost the last layer. Arrange the reserved wild berries over the frosting.
If using alternative frosting instead blend the coconut cream and maple syrup and refrigerate until firm. About 1 hour. Spread over cake layers like instructions above and arrange the reserved wild berries over the frosting.
You can keep the cake refrigerated for up to 4-5 days.
Recipe adapted from Mel's Kitchen originally from Quinoa 365
Hello there. My name is Miryam and I am the clinical dietitian and Physician Assistant behind Eat Good 4 Life. My wish is to inspire you to start cooking healthier so that you can live a longer and happier life. Thanks for stopping by (
I cannot believe you made quinoa cake, absolutely a fab idea. I love the photographs and the cake looks so moist.
Thanks :-)
I don’t have a food processor…can I use a beater you think ???
You need to puree the quinoa so I don’t think with a beater it will work. Do you have an immersion blender or a blender? That would do it too. Not 100% sure w/ the beaters :-(
I’ve always been too chicken to try quinoa in non-savory recipes, but I think you’ve convinced me to give it a go. This cake looks incredible! Love the white chocolate/berries frosting, too!
Thanks, I hope you like it :-)
I love this! Now I won’t feel guilty at all for indulging in one of my favorite treats. ;) Have you heard of Monk Fruit in the Raw? It’s an all natural sugar sub you use cup for cup in replace of table sugar. (info on my blog if you’re interested :)
Thanks for this recipe! Pinned!
I have never cooked with quinoa so I have no idea about its taste or flavors. The cake looks very pretty and I am sure it tasted great too :-)
Love this idea! I have been seeing so many recipes with quinoa for baked goods. I have to hop on the train!
Hi. Keen to give this recipe a go! Did you split the batter up across three tins as it otherwise would not cook? I’ve had a similar problem with a bean based cake which doesnt cook in the middle if too thick, so i turned them into biscuits instead. I can’ eat dairy or soy so cannot have cream cheese and don’t eat processed sugar so would have nothing for “icing” so didnt want to cook across three or two tins without any icing unless I have to. So just wondering your opinion on not splitting it. Plus I dont have two cake tins of the same size :P
Thanks
You should be totally fine with no splitting the cake. I will cook just fine. You will need more time do. At least 5-7 minutes longer. You use vegan icing and maple syrup to sweetened if you like :-)
Thanks. I will give it a go as one cake. What kind of vegan icing? I can’t have soy and always thought most vegan icing involved soy. I guess I could always add cocoa to a nut butter for filling :)
I meant vegan cream cheese. You can use the vegan cream cheese and maple syrup for the icing :-)
I’m super excited about trying this recipe. I recently made some Chocolate Brownies based on Sweet Potato which were amazing and have inspired me to bake “outside the box”.
Nice – Would love to share with all my foodie friends – If you’re interested then head over to FoodFotoGallery dot com and submit one of your food photos (without watermarks, please).
Do you have to use instant coffee? Can you use regular ground coffee beans? Looks super delicious!
You can use any type of coffee to make it :-) Thanks for visiting.
This looks fantastic! Great job putting the cake together – it’s so pretty! I am just wondering though – what kind of unrefined sugar did you use? Would maple syrup or honey work? Or even date paste?
I think date paste would work great. Honey and maple syrup perhaps. Not sure since it is in liquid form but you can experiment and let me know :-) Thanks for visiting my blog.
I made this chocolate quinoa cake today, it was both moist and chocolatly. I tweeted the recipe somewhat to accommodate the ingredients I had in the house. First I used 1/2 cup coconut oil and 1/4 cup Olive oil, I did not have chocolate protien powder only vanilla, and I used coconut milk instead of almond milk. Baked the cake in 2 8″ round pans for 22 min. For the frosting I used fresh strawberries instead of blueberries. I have pictures of there is any way to upload them let know. This cake was very delicious!
i am glad you liked it. Your substitutions sounds great too. Thanks for stopping by :-)