Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Lava Cake

This Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Lava Cake is seriously indulgent, filled with a magical velvety chocolate sauce and is surprisingly easy to make. It's crispy on the outside moist on the inside, and refined sugar free too. It's a great dessert to share for a special occasion, or just for eating by yourself! Perfect for Valentine's Day, Easter, dinner parties and other occasions!

How to make this recipe

Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.

• Mix together all the ingredients for the filling in a small bowl, ensuring everything has been mixed together properly.

• Place in the fridge for around 20 minutes until hardened.
• Mix together all the ingredients for the cake batter in a glass mixing bowl.

• Lightly grease a small pudding tin (I used one measuring 8cm/3 ¼ inch on top, 5.5cm/2 ¼ inch on the bottom with a height of 5.5cm/2 ¼ inch).
• Place about ¼ teaspoon cocoa powder in the tin and move it around so that all the inside of the tin is coated in the cocoa powder - this will make it easier to remove afterwards.

• Place half of the cake batter in the tin and make a small well in the centre.

• Remove the filling from the fridge and use your hands to roll it into a slightly flattened ball.

• Place the ball into the well in the centre of the batter in the tin, making sure that the ball isn’t touching the sides of the tin.

• Cover with the remaining cake batter, ensuring that the sides of the ball are well covered with cake batter, as well as the top.

• Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until risen - it's difficult to check whether it's done using an inserted skewer but 20 minutes of baking for a tin of this size is ok (you might have to adjust the cooking time accordingly depending on the size and shape of your pudding tin).

• To make the cake more stable once turned upside down on a plate, carefully slice off the slightly curved top surface of the cake.
• Put a place upside down over the top of the pudding tin then quickly flip it over and remove the tin so that the cake is turned upside down on the plate.

Substitutions you can make

• You can use any type of oil for the cake batter: coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable oil (coconut oil is essential for the filling).
• You can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
• You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
• You can replace the vinegar with lemon juice.
• You can replace the ground almonds (almond meal/almond flour) with ground walnuts.
• For a nut-free version: replace the ground almonds (almond meal/almond flour) with ground sunflower seeds and use a nut-free plant-based milk.
• You can use plain flour instead of the gluten-free flour if you're not gluten-free.

Top tips for making this

• The vinegar is crucial as it's acidic, which means it reacts with the alkali bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to create a bubbly batter and fluffy sponge. If you don't have vinegar, replace it with lemon juice.
• Greasing the tin and dusting it with cocoa powder is essential for making the cake easy to extract afterwards.
• Make sure that the filling has been in the fridge for around 20 minutes before putting it in the centre of the cake batter.
• Make sure to put the ball of filling in the centre and that the sides are covered properly - otherwise the filling will seep out.
• Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until risen - it's difficult to check whether it's done using an inserted skewer, but 20 minutes of baking works for a tin of this size - you can use a tin of a different size, but you will have to adjust the cooking time accordingly depending on the size and shape of your pudding tin.

More vegan chocolate treats

• Chocolate Cake
• Chocolate Truffles
• Chocolate Mousse
• Chocolate Baked Donuts
• Chocolate Bars
• Yule Log

If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.

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