Sinfully delicious, vegan and gluten free, this Peanut Butter Cake will be your new favorite dessert!
As many of you know, I love my peanut butter cookies, and pretty much anything with peanut butter in it. I needed to make a peanut butter cake and I needed to make it healthier.
And vegan.
And gluten-free.
The topping is thinner than a frosting and I just drizzled it on top.
No one will ever suspect how healthy this cake is. It's gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan and made with all wholesome, healthy ingredients. It'll be our secret.
The texture is amazing for a cake that is so allergy friendly. Remember, cakes made with alternative flours are a little more dense than those made with flour from wheat. But this one really has a fabulous texture.
Feel free to use whatever nut butter you'd like. I have also made this with almond butter and it was fantastic. I actually used crunchy almond butter which added a nice texture.
Go ahead and REALLY make it allergy friendly and use sunflower seed butter! Sunflower seeds are a wonderful, allergy friendly alternative to nuts and peanuts. You can also use coconut milk instead of almond milk as well.
Although I haven't tried this with coconut milk, I would imagine it would still come out the same. Please come back and let me know if you made this with coconut milk so I can share with the rest of our readers.
You can also add some chocolate chips to the batter. Why not? Peanut butter and chocolate really are a match made in heaven.
This might sound weird to some of you...but I also freeze individual slices of this cake in the freezer. This way it helps with portion control (so you don't eat most of the cake in one sitting) and it's so convenient because you get to take out a slice for whenever you have a craving. I also like to pop it in the toaster oven once it's defrosted so get it a little crispy.
I know some if you will write me and tell me that sounds weird. Maybe it does? But it works for me.
Now you can see just how ridiculously easy this cake is to make. Even people that claim they are terrible at baking have made this cake and loved it! It really does have rave reviews.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup almond meal
- ¾ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup ground flax
- 1 teaspoon organic cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ cup coconut oil
- ¾ cup unrefined sugar
- ⅔ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup organic creamy natural peanut butter
- 1 ¼ cup unsweetened almond milk I used unsweetened vanilla
- Drizzle:
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons peanut butter
- 5 tablespoons almond milk
- dairy-free chocolate chips for topping optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cake pan and set aside. (I used a bunt pan)
- In a large bowl, mix together the almond meal, coconut flour, flax, cinnamon and baking soda.
- In another small bowl, mix together coconut oil, sugar, applesauce, peanut butter and almond milk until combined.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed and smooth.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until thoroughly cooked and when a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing and placing on a plate. Allow cake to completely before adding the drizzle.
- Prepare peanut butter drizzle while cake is cooling by mixing all ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Drizzle cake with peanut butter glaze, top with chocolate chips if desired and serve immediately.
It is very important that you allow the cake to cool completely before adding the drizzle. I know, I know... it's a true test of patience because you will want to dig in immediately, I totally get that. But you must let it cool or the drizzle will ruin the texture of the cake.
Trust me, I know from experience. I am not the most patient person when it comes time to wait for my baked goods to cool down.
I am fortunate that Frontier Natural Products sent me some samples of their amazing products, one of them being Organic Vietnamese Cinnamon. It smells out of this world and made a wonderful addition to this cake. We all love it on our oatmeal and I can't wait to bake with it some more!
Don't you just love cinnamon? I add it to all of my baked goods.
Here is the nutrition information for this cake:
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 85 g
Amount Per Serving
Calories 295 Calories from Fat 191
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 21.3g 33%
Saturated Fat 9.1g 46%
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 244mg 10%
Potassium 85mg 2%
Total Carbohydrates 23.2g 8%
Dietary Fiber 7.9g 32%
Sugars 10.3g
Protein 7.7g
*Nutrition Information provided by calorie count.com and not 100% guaranteed accurate
Oh and of course I added chocolate chips to top the cake. I mean, you need chocolate with peanut butter, right? This is a perfect example of a desert that taste delicious without all the extra junk.
You can also use Enjoy Life chocolate chips to keep this cake allergy friendly. I buy them on amazon and they are GMO free, gluten free and soy free. They taste delicious too!
I promise to share many more cake recipes on my blog. And this was an awesome one to start with. Don't you agree? Please let me know some recipes and flavors you'd like to see more of. I am always looking for suggestions.
I wanted to share some more yummy peanut butter dessert recipes with you that I thought you might like:
Lightened Up Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bars from Lauren Kelly Nutrition
Healthy No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies from Joy Food Sunshine
No Churn Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream from Lauren Kelly Nutrition
Healthy Peanut Butter Balls from Detoxinista
Chocolate Peanut Butter Biscotti from Lauren Kelly Nutrition
Please come back and let me know if you made this cake or any of the other yummy treats I shared with you. I love to hear from you!
Thanks for stopping by and please come back soon!
Eden
So good! We all loved it and it was easy to make!
April
This was amazing. If you love peanut butter, this is definitely the dessert for you!
lauren.kelly
Thanks April! I am so happy you loved it as much as I do!
MORLIE PATEL
Hi there! This recipe sounds amazing! One question - would it be possible to add cocoa powder into the batter to make the cake chocolatey? Do you have any ideas/thoughts on how to do that (proportions, other things that might need to be added, etc.?)
Thank you in advance 🙂 🙂 🙂
lauren.kelly
Hi Morlie! I have never added cocoa powder to this cake, what a great idea! Maybe start with 1/2 cup cocoa? If the batter seems too dry maybe add another tablespoon of almond milk? Please come back and let me know!
MORLIE PATEL
Oh, I'll definitely try that!!! Thanks 🙂
Kathryn
It's okay to use just coconut flour, right? I don't have almond meal, so just curious if substituting is okay, or if a nut meal is best. I have walnuts...
lauren.kelly
I haven't tried it with all coconut flour Kathryn but please let ne know how it comes out! 🙂
Sherrie
I just made this for a get together at my house. It turned out beautiful! I substituted hazelnut flour for the almond meal because I'm allergic to almonds. Thanks for the recipe!
lauren.kelly
I am so glad you liked it Sherrie! Thanks for sharing your tip with hazelnut flour, I never used that before! 🙂
Kaysha
Enjoyed this recipe! I used it so my gluten-free and egg-free friends could share it with us. Though the ingredients are pricey it's certainly worth it for a special occasion. I didn't have any coconut oil on hand so I used butter instead. And without applesauce, I chopped an apple, microwaved it and threw it in the food processor with a little lemon juice. I also used just a pinch of cinnamon instead of 1 teaspoon.
I took the cake out of the oven as soon as the pick came out clean. It was moist and hearty and the peanut butter flavor not overwhelming even though this recipe calls for more PB than some others I peeped. I didn't use the drizzle, instead, I made a PB&J cake with seedless raspberry jelly filling and a cream cheese icing. We all loved it. Thanks for sharing!
lauren.kelly
Thank you so much for sharing this Kaysha, that jelly filling sounds wonderful!!
Angie | Big Bears Wife
I would have this for breakfast, lunch and dinner! It's beautiful!
lauren.kelly
Thank you Angie! 🙂
Rose | The Clean Dish
That's my favorite flour mix!! Coconut, flax and almonds -- yum!! I am so going to make this cake!! Vegan always works for me, I cannot wait to give this a try!!
lauren.kelly
Thank you Rose! That's my favorite gluten-free mix too 🙂
[email protected] Mom
Oh this looks amazing Lauren!!
lauren.kelly
Thank you Brenda! XO
Ginny McMeans
I am in heaven! Sharing this on my facebook page!
lauren.kelly
Thanks so much Ginny!!
The Food Hunter
This sounds amazing!
lauren.kelly
Thank you! 🙂
Liz
My two peanut butter dessert loving children would love this cake! What a gorgeous drizzle of frosting!
lauren.kelly
Thanks liz! XO
Joan
In this recipe, I might be able to suggest you use either sorghum or brown rice flour in place of this. And if you do, you probably need to add some extra gum or seeds to help it stay together.
lauren
Great ideas Joan! Yes, 1/4 teaspoon of anthem gum might work well in this recipe! Thank you 🙂
Dee Fedor
This sounded SOOOO good. I wish more recipes could be made gluten free without tree nuts though. So many good recipes I miss out on because of the nut allergy!
Adrienne @ Whole New Mom
Yum Lauren! LOVE this. Hey I wanted to email you but there wasn't an email on your contact page. I would love to know if I could feature you on my blog and / or social media with appropriate links and no recipes posted, of course.
My readers would LOVE your content. And this cake :). Thanks in advance.