Paleo Flourless Chocolate Cake

The most decadent paleo flourless chocolate cake that’s easy to make, gluten free, refined sugar free, grain free, and comes together with only 6 ingredients!

Introducing my new favorite: paleo flourless chocolate cake! This flourless chocolate cake is moist, dense, full of chocolate, and subtly sweet for the most decadent bite you’ll ever take! My spin on this classic: I made it entirely without refined sugar!

So with a traditional flourless chocolate cake, you need eggs, butter, sugar, and bars of chocolate. In my paleo version, I changed the sugar to maple syrup and the bars of chocolate to cacao! This added a much richer taste, in my opinion. The maple syrup also was not too overpowering with its very fall-like flavors, so not to worry there! You won’t feel like you’re eating a stack of pancakes haha!

I’m actually quite in love with this paleo flourless chocolate cake. It’s the perfect amount of chocolate decadence, and it is incredible dense and thick! I feel like traditional flourless chocolate cakes tend to be more airy and pancake-like (maybe they’re the ones who need the maple syrup haha!).

That’s not how I like my cake!

So I wanted to create a flourless chocolate cake that met the standards of being paleo (you know I love a challenge) and was thick like a traditional chocolate cake, but not airy (even more of a challenge!).

To be honest, I wasn’t so sure using just the cacao was going to work. I mean, that felt like a pretty bold move to me. But where there’s a will, there’s a way! Like Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

You only fail when you completely give up! Sooner or later, as long as you’re willing to change and learn and grow, that goal that you had in mind will come to fruition!

What has this got to do with paleo flourless chocolate cake? Well, my first attempt at this recipe came right on one Christmas Eve. I wanted to make a gluten-free dessert for my little cousin, who has issues with gluten. Most of our desserts always include gluten, and me being the one who was always making…”interesting” (read: questionable, as my sister would put it!)…desserts and recipes, I stepped up to the challenge.

Well, the first flourless chocolate cake turned out really well taste wise. But it looked like a huge pancake! I had followed many of my mom’s directions, except for changing the sugar to maple syrup. But the melted chocolate, I feel, did not give it quite enough volume and structure. In the oven while it was baking, the paleo flourless chocolate cake looked like it was going to be amazing! It had puffed up so big, I thought to myself, SUCCESS!

Buttttt then I removed it from the oven and it flattened harder than the cartoon mouse scrambling from having the piano fall hard on it’s head (why does that always happen in cartoons? Has anyone else ever noticed that?). Well, I still brought it to Christmas Eve because I didn’t have time to make another, and my little cousin loved the cake for the flavor (it just didn’t look pretty!) so that part was a success!

But what could I do to make the cake airy? I decided to switch in the cacao for the melted chocolate and add baking powder (for my trick on paleo baking powder, see these cupcakes!). I kept my maple syrup the same because I really liked how that turned out the last time (the cool thing about maple syrup is that you don’t need a lot for great taste!).

And I got to work!

Well this round was definitely a success. The paleo flourless cake rose but didn’t sink as low. In fact, it stayed pretty even and became extraordinarily dense while having good structure!

So how do we do that? Glad you asked 😉

Flourless Chocolate Cake Ingredients:

First, you’ll need about half a dozen eggs. I’m so sorry to my vegan friends, but I haven’t worked out a vegan recipe for this! Stay tuned though, it’ll be in the works!

Then I used about 1 cup of melted butter. I always opt for local and grass-fed/finished. To me, it’s very important to support the local economy- it’s what’s important to my wellness. When you’re supporting local people, there’s more of an opportunity to get the best and nutrient-dense foods. Eating locally means you’re eating the nutrients that are designed for your specific location. And you’re also giving jobs to people who wouldn’t have jobs had we only shopped in grocery stores!

Next, I add only 1/3 cup of maple syrup. That’s right! You only need a 1/3 cup here! Traditional flourless chocolate cake recipes typically call for 1 cup. With maple syrup, it delivers the same level of sweetness and I think adds way more moisture to the cake, since we’re taking out the bar of chocolate.

Which brings me to my next ingredient, cacao powder! I highly recommend going for a high-quality cacao powder, like Imlak’esh Organics. Higher in quality not only means higher in nutrients, but it often also means richer in taste!

Then we add vanilla extract and some paleo baking powder! But of course, if you don’t feel like going completely paleo (hey, I don’t live strictly paleo…or any diet for that matter!), then swap in regular baking powder! It’ll still do the trick 🙂

Whip everything together, pour the batter into a baking pan, and let it bake!

Now, I love to serve this flourless chocolate cake with some vanilla ice cream or coconut whipped cream (super simple to make- just whip some coconut cream fat with a little maple syrup, honey, or sugar and there ya go!). It’s the perfect dessert for Valentine’s Day (definitely what I’m making for Jared and I!).

To add some pink to this chocolate decadence, throw some raspberries or strawberries on top 🙂 It definitely adds to the Valentine’s Day theme!

I hope you love this paleo flourless chocolate cake recipe as much as I do! Let me know if you give it a try in the comments below! Happy Baking 🙂

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