Gluten-Free Vegan Tahini Frosted Chocolate Cake

This Gluten-Free Vegan Tahini Frosted Chocolate Cake may just become your new favourite flavour combination.

For the cake, I used my go-to gluten-free, vegan and refined sugar free chocolate sponge recipe. Not only is it moist and fluffy and perfectly sweet, but also really easy to make, requiring just one bowl and familiar ingredients.

But the real star of the show is the gorgeous tahini buttercream frosting. I love using sweet potatoes to make a luxuriously rich, creamy and naturally sweet dairy-free buttercream. I’ve used this trick to make a chocolate buttercream and a peanut butter buttercream, so was keen to experiment with new flavours.

Tahini may sound strange in a sweet recipe, but the nutty sweetness of the sesame works so well to balance the earthy flavour of the chocolate.

I’ve already used black sesame in a lot of sweet treats, for example:

• Black Sesame Latte
• Black Sesame Crème Caramel
• Black Sesame Shortbread

But I hadn’t made many white sesame desserts, so I knew a tahini frosted chocolate cake was a good way to get started!

The buttercream is so easy to make, and once you add the tahini, vanilla and your sweetener of choice you honestly can’t taste the sweet potato at all. It’s really fun to try to get people to guess what the secret ingredient is!

I absolutely love the combination of the rich, chocolatey flavours of the cake with the nutty, halva-like tahini buttercream frosting, and I hope you will too!

I hope you’ll love this Gluten-Free Vegan Tahini Frosted Chocolate Cake! For more delicious chocolate treats, you might like my:

• Cashew Chocolate Truffles
• Hazelnut Chocolate Truffles
• Chocolate Sweet Potato Fudge
• Strawberry Chocolate Truffles
• Chocolate Truffle Cake
• or browse the whole collection of chocolate cake recipes!

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 on Instagram! Thank you.

Helpful tools to make this Gluten-Free Vegan Tahini Frosted Chocolate Cake:

For the cake:

glass mixing bowl

measuring jug

square baking tin

baking paper

cooling rack

For the frosting:

food processor

blender

hand-held stick blender

palette knife for frosting

Gluten-Free Vegan Tahini Frosted Chocolate Cake

Gluten-Free Vegan Tahini Frosted Chocolate Cake made using sweet potato tahini buttercream.

5 from 3 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Keyword: chocolate tahini brownie, chocolate tahini cake, vegan chocolate tahini cake

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Servings: 12 squares

Calories: 269kcal

Author: Rhian Williams

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 60 g (1/4 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 1/4 cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
• 150 g (1 1/4 cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
• 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 50 g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder

For the buttercream:

• 400 g (14 oz) sweet potatoes (about 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes)
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To decorate (optional):

• Cacao nibs
• Freeze-dried raspberries

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
• Transfer the mixture into a greased baking tin lined with baking paper (either a round tin or a square tin is fine- I used a 23cm/9inch square baking tin)
• Bake in oven for 20-30 minutes until risen slightly and an inserted skewer comes out clean
• Once out the oven, transfer the cake onto a wired rack and leave to cool completely before applying the frosting

For the buttercream:

• Cook the 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 tahini etc
• Leave to cool before using to frost the cake

To frost and decorate:

• Once the cake is completely cool, spread the buttercream evenly over the top
• Scatter over cacao nibs and freeze-dried raspberries if desired
• Tastes best on the day it's made, but keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days 

Notes

*You an alternatively use almond flour

Nutrition Facts

Gluten-Free Vegan Tahini Frosted Chocolate Cake

Amount Per Serving

Calories 269 Calories from Fat 117

% Daily Value*

Fat 13g20%

Saturated Fat 5g25%

Sodium 72mg3%

Potassium 255mg7%

Carbohydrates 37g12%

Fiber 5g20%

Sugar 17g19%

Protein 5g10%

Vitamin A 4729IU95%

Vitamin C 1mg1%

Calcium 110mg11%

Iron 2mg11%

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

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