Almond Flour Black Cake

Almond Flour Black Cake is a gluten-free and grain-free version of the Caribbean holiday staple. Enjoy this dessert in all its rich, decadent sweetness without any tummy aches.

Almond Flour Black Cake

This almond flour black cake is a winner. It tastes exactly like real deal black cake, but it’s gluten-free and grain-free.

Last year I made a gluten free version of black cake using all-purpose gluten-free flour. It is a great recipe but gluten-free all-purpose flour, while gluten free is not grain free. So this almond flour black cake is my grain-free recipe and it is absolutely delicious!

Why You’ll Love This Almond Flour Black Cake Recipe

• Healthier: Everyone should be able to enjoy this classic Guyanese dessert, no matter their dietary needs. So this recipe is dairy-free, refined sugar-free, dairy-free, and even can be adjusted to be alcohol-free.
• Perfect Holiday Treat: The flavor of this treat just says, “holiday baking” to me. This almond flour cake is enhanced with warm spices for a rich, decadent dessert.
• So Simple: This recipe includes easy step-by-step instructions. Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and bake.

Ingredients for Almond Flour Black Cake

Using coconut oil and coconut sugar also made it easy to pull the cake together as no creaming of butter and sugar was needed. Just simply whisk everything together and the cake is ready for the oven in 15 minutes or less.

• Melted coconut oil: Use this as a replacement fat for butter.
• Coconut Sugar: This unrefined sugar retains most of its minerals and antioxidants.
• Eggs: This acts as a binding ingredient.
• Browning /Burnt Sugar: This ingredient is optional. It is made from cane sugar so to make this completely refined sugar-free just skip the browning. The flavor will be the same but the cake will be brown in color instead of black) See notes for how to make burnt sugar.
• Rum Soaked Fruits: About 2 cups (see notes for recipe).
• Super Fine Almond Flour: This is a grain-free and gluten-free all-purpose flour alternative.
• Spices: I added all of the warm spices, traditionally used in black cake, to the almond flour to create spiced almond flour: ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, and freshly grated nutmeg.
• Salt: This enhances the other flavors so the cake doesn’t taste flat.
• Almond essence: For almond flavor.
• Vanilla essence: For vanilla flavor.
• Orange zest: For a pop of bright citrus taste.
• Port wine: This adds depth of flavor.
• Dark Spiced Rum: For extra moisture and even more flavor, add this to the baked cake. It also helps to preserve the cake.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to Make Almond Flour Black Cake

Prepare the Dry Ingredients

In a small mixing bowl combine the almond flour, ground cinnamon, ground clove, ground ginger, ground nutmeg and salt and set aside

Prepare the Wet Ingredients

Then in a large mixing bowl, combine the coconut sugar, melted coconut oil, eggs, browning, vanilla essence, almond essence, orange zest, wine and fruits and mix together well

Combine Cake Batter Ingredients

Combine the spiced almond flour with the wet ingredients to create a rich black cake batter.

Add the batter to a greased 8 inch by 3 inch baking pan, lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 °F for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Storage

This cake is better eaten stale. Allow the cake to sit for a day or two before eating.

Tips for the Best Almond Flour Cake

• After an hour of baking the toothpick may still have tiny amount of sticky batter. This is ok, the cake will continue to cook as it cools down. You can stop here if you like, or you can continue to bake for another 5-10 minutes.
• I used 3 tablespoons of browning/burnt sugar in this recipe and it was really dark. If you don’t want your cake to be this dark, I recommend using 2 tablespoons of browning instead.

Making This Recipe Alcohol Free

To make this recipe alcohol free swap the rum-soaked fruits for spice-infused fruits:

1. Add 2 cups of prunes, 1 cup of raisins, and 1 cup of currants to a saucepan. Followed by two cinnamon sticks and 1 tablespoon of cloves. You may choose to wrap your spices in a muslin spice bag or pouch for easy removal.
2. Cover the dried fruits and spices with concord grape juice. This should be about 5-6 cups of juice.
3. Bring to a boil on medium heat, then reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Then allow to cool completely before removing the spices and blending into a paste. You can also leave the dried fruits and spices to soak in the grape juice overnight (after simmering) for a full flavor payout.
4. Reserve some of the liquid to use in place of the 1/4 cup of red wine added to the batter
5. When the cake is done baking, skip the addition of rum and just allow the cake to cool completely.

Recipe Variations

• Almond Flour: Can’t have almond flour and looking for another alternative? I tried this recipe with cassava flour and it was a total gummy disaster. I tried it with coconut flour and while it was tasty it was a bit dense and crumbly.
• Coconut Sugar: You can use any sugar substitute in this recipe, including maple syrup.
• Rum-soaked fruits: If you want to make this cake rum free, you can simply cook your fruits in some spiced infused grape juice and use that instead of wine. See below for how to.
• Eggs: The only recommendation for making this egg-free is to use an egg replacer such as this one by Bob’s Red Mill.
• Port: You can substitute the port for other red wines (such as a Cabernet Sauvignon), although the port gives the best flavor.

Frequently Asked Questions