This Strawberry Chocolate Paleo Cake recipe is a decadent, dark rich chocolate, moist cake and sweet strawberry confection. No one will know that it is dairy free and grain free because it is so satisfyingly delicious.
I am a total sucker for a good moist decadent chocolate cake. I am pretty much for anything that might include chocolate. I have been trying to keep with a diet that is mostly dairy free and sugar-free and so coming up with a chocolate cake recipe that tasted like a good chocolate cake and did not include dairy or sugar was a bit of a science experiment. I think adding fresh strawberry juice really adds the little something special to this cake. To get your strawberry juice, place four medium sized strawberries that have been hulled and mash with a fork. Then strain pulp through a small strainer catching the juice in a bowl. Any extra juice can be enjoyed by added to a tall glass of ice water.
Anytime you want to exclude dairy in your baked goods, applesauce is a great alternative.
The frosting is made with enjoy life chocolate chips which are dairy, nut and soy free and can be found in your organic section of most grocery stores. If you are not on the Paleo diet or not restricting your diet you can substitute regular semi sweet chocolate chips.
Any extra cake slices should be stored in the refrigerator, and enjoyed over the next few days.
Cake:
- ¾ cup cocoa powder, sifted
- ⅓ cup coconut flour, sifted
- ⅓ cup tapioca flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 5 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar free applesauce
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- 2 tablespoon strawberry juice, from 4 medium fresh smashed and strained strawberries
Frosting:
- 2 cups enjoy life chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons hot coffee
- about 10 medium fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
Cake:
- Grease two 9" round cake pans with a bit of cocout oil.
- Preheat oven to 350 °.
- Add flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
- In the bowl of an electric mixer combine eggs, applesauce, honey, vanilla extract, coconut oil and strawberry juice on low speed.
- Slowly add dry ingredients into wet while mixer is running on a low speed.
- Once blended, evenly pour into pans.
- Bake for 25-28 minutes or until baked through.
- Let cakes cool on wire rack
Frosting:
- Place a medium bowl over a small pan filled with about an 1" of water.
- Heat water over medium heat.
- Stir chocolate until completely melted.
- Add coffee and coconut oil and stir to combine.
- Remove cakes from pans. Place first cake on cake stand. Place ½ of the frosting and spread to evenly coat top of cake.
- Carefully place second cake on top of frosting.
- Spread the remaining frosting over top of cake until reaches edges.
- Starting in the middle of cake lay cut strawberries and continue until just before the edge of the frosting
About Amy Stafford
You can usually find me in my garden, the kitchen, at the gym or spending time with my family. I love sharing recipes, gardening and exercise tips and stories of my backyard chickens and beekeeping.
Connect with me on
Hi, I am Amy, food photographer, recipe developer, food lover, organic garden maven, fitness nut and lover of Airedales
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
What a beautiful cake! I love that it is paleo friendly and combines two of my favorite things – chocolate and strawberries!
Thanks Ashley.
This looks like the most delicious and moist cake! I love that you jazzed it up with strawberries, too. I’ve been wanting to make a paleo cake for my sister-in-law, so I’m glad I stumbled across this recipe!
Gayle, Strawberries and Chocolate are perfect together. Hope you enjoy the recipe. xx Amy
Wow! This cake looks so chocolaty rich! I am going to make this as a surprise for my daughter (gluten-free)! For a special occasion I look forward to trying your frosting recipe. For now, I will skip the frosting (too much sugar in those chips) and use some berries instead.
Thanks!
Enjoy Wendy, I hope your daughter likes. Amy
This cake is beautiful! I appreciate dairy free options and we do enjoy paleo recipes, especially when it uses ingredients that we haven’t tried yet. I actually have coconut and tapioca flour, along with a jar of unsweetened applesauce that I canned.
I’m putting this on my to do list!
I hope you enjoy it Dionne. xx Amy
An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a
friend who was conducting a little homework on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast due to the fact that I found it for him…
lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But
yeah, thanx for spending the time to discuss this
topic here on your site.
it looks delicious!
That doesn’t seem like a lot of flour for 2 9 inch cakes layers.
Kassidy, The measurements are correct, the cakes are thin but dense about 1″ thick once baked. Amy
Can I double up on the coconut flour? & leave the tapioca flour out? Or replace the tapioca with almond meal?
Looks amazing!
Evie,
The Tapioca Flour is used as a thickener in this recipe and to keep the recipe Paleo. If you are not concerned about the Paleo you can add regular flour or gluten free flour or 1 tablespoon cornstarch for every 2 tablespoons tapioca flour.
Best, Amy
I don’t have any tapioca flour, canI use more coconut or almond flour?????Recipes sound and look awesome…yum