Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

This Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake is filled with the most indulgent peanut buttercream, and drenched in a silky chocolate sauce.

I used my favourite vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar free chocolate sponge recipe for this cake. I love its taste and texture, and what’s more, it requires just one bowl and uses easily accessible ingredients. The coconut oil gives the sponge a rich, buttery flavour whilst ground almonds add a nutty sweetness and fluffiness.

The recipe is also easily customisable, as you can use any liquid sweetener you like, and substitute the coconut oil with olive or vegetable oil if you wish.

Peanut butter is one of my favourite things ever, and you can't go wrong with a peanut butter and chocolate combo, right? So, I decided that I really needed to make a peanut butter and chocolate cake for the blog.

And I knew this would require a peanut butter buttercream frosting. A lot of vegan buttercream recipes use ingredients like cashews, coconut whipped cream or avocado, but I wasn’t particularly keen on any of these.

Cashew nuts are delicious, but pretty expensive. Coconut whipped cream is delicious too, but I feel like it's too light to pass as a buttercream substitute. And I've never really been a fan of using avocado in desserts.

So I turned to this chocolate buttercream, which uses sweet potatoes. I use sweet potatoes to make things like this ice cream, milkshake and mochi), so why not buttercream?

Unlike avocados, their indistinctive taste means they’re great to use as a basis for different flavours. Unlike nuts, they’re wallet-friendly, and the texture ends up a lot thicker than coconut whipped cream.

And so all I did was swap the cocoa powder with peanut butter, and the most delicious peanut butter buttercream was born!

All you need to do to make this simple 4-ingredient buttercream is cook the sweet potato, add peanut butter, maple syrup and vanilla, then just blend until completely smooth. It's luxuriously smooth, super rich and peanut buttery, and the perfect consistency for frosting the sponge cake.

I then topped off this Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake with some chocolate sauce, which is completely optional, but oh-so-delicious. You can use melted dark chocolate, but if you’d prefer it to be refined sugar free, you can also melt some coconut oil and mix with cocoa powder and maple syrup (or any other sweetener).

Really hope you'll love this Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake as much as I do! Want more cakes? Then you might like my:

• Red Velvet Cake
• Chocolate Truffle Cake
• Tropical Carrot Cake
• Lemon Blueberry Cake
• Chocolate Sponge Layer Cake
• Black Forest Cake

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

Helpful tools to make this Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake:

For the cake:

glass mixing bowl

measuring jug

18 cm / 7 inch sandwich baking tin

baking paper

cooling rack

For the frosting:

food processor

blender

hand-held stick blender

palette knife for frosting

Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

This Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake is filled with the most indulgent peanut buttercream, and drenched in a silky chocolate sauce. 

3.56 from 9 votes

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: gluten-free chocolate peanut butter cake, vegan chocolate peanut butter cake, vegan peanut butter frosting

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Servings: 8

Calories: 416kcal

Author: Rhian Williams

Ingredients

For the cake:

• ▢ 60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
• ▢ 250 ml (1 cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
• ▢ 12 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ Pinch salt
• ▢ 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
• ▢ 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
• ▢ 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• ▢ 50 g (½ cup) cocoa powder

For the frosting:

• ▢ 400 g (14 oz) sweet potatoes (about 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
• ▢ 3 tablespoons maple syrup (or any other sweetener), to taste
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the chocolate sauce* (optional):

• ▢ 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• ▢ 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Instructions

For the cake:

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)
• Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil)
• Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the vinegar, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and ground almonds
• Sift in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder
• Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry
• Divide mixture between two greased baking tins lined with baking paper (I used two 7inch/18cm baking tins)
• Bake in oven for around 15 minutes until risen slightly and an inserted skewer comes out clean
• Once out the oven, transfer cakes from baking tins onto a wired rack to leave them to cool completely before applying the frosting

For the frosting:

• Cook sweet potatoes by boiling, steaming or roasting them until very soft and tender
• Discard any skins, and add to a food processor or blender (or hand-held blender) along with all other ingredients
• Whizz until completely smooth
• Taste and adjust ingredients as necessary – add more maple syrup for sweetness, more peanut butter etc
• Leave to cool before using to frost the cake

To frost and decorate the cake:

• Place one half of the cake onto a plate and spread just less than half of the buttercream onto it
• Place the other half of the cake on top of that and use rest of the buttercream to spread on top and around sides of cake
• Decorate with chopped roasted peanuts, or whatever else you fancy!

For the chocolate sauce:

• Place all ingredients in a bowl and melt either over a bain-marie or in the microwave, until mixed together well
• Pour over the cake
• Keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days

Notes

*You can alternatively use almond flour

**You can alternatively use melted dark chocolate (ensure vegan if necessary)

Nutrition Facts

Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

Amount Per Serving

Calories 416 Calories from Fat 180

% Daily Value*

Fat 20g31%

Saturated Fat 8g40%

Sodium 132mg6%

Potassium 403mg12%

Carbohydrates 57g19%

Fiber 8g32%

Sugar 26g29%

Protein 9g18%

Vitamin A 7094IU142%

Vitamin C 1mg1%

Calcium 164mg16%

Iron 3mg17%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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