Flourless Chocolate Cake
The beauty of this Flourless Chocolate Cake recipes is that it’s okay for our gluten intolerant and coeliac friends. Instead of flour, it uses melted chocolate and almond meal, which gives the cake a dense, rich and fudgy texture. It’s wonderful to try, even if you don’t have a gluten allergy. The optional almonds add a slight crunch to an otherwise soft and sweet cake.

The beauty of this Gluten Free Chocolate Cake recipes is that it’s okay for our gluten intolerant and coeliac friends. Instead of flour, it uses melted chocolate and almond meal, which gives the cake a dense, rich and fudgy texture. It’s wonderful to try, even if you don’t have a gluten allergy. The optional almonds add a slight crunch to an otherwise soft and sweet cake.
FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
Makes one 20cm round cake, serves 8-12 people
Difficulty: Easy
EQUIPMENT:
20cm round cake tin
2 saucepans that fit together as a double-boiler, or a microwave safe bowl
INGREDIENTS:
200g Dark Chocolate, chopped
125g Unsalted Butter, chopped
225g Brown Sugar
100g Almond Meal (or hazelnut meal)
100g Unsalted Almonds, coarsely chopped (optional)
5 large Eggs, whites and yolk separated
1 pinch of Cream of Tartar
1 tablespoon Cocoa Powder
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees fan-forced; 350F). Line the base and sides of the cake tin with baking paper.
Melt the chocolate and butter together gently. Either use the microwave in 7-second bursts, then stir after each time so you don’t burn the chocolate. Or make a “double-boiler” to melt the chocolate and butter (a larger saucepan should be filled with about 5 cm of water and brought to a boil while you use the water’s steam to melt the chocolate and butter in a second saucepan above the water).
Transfer the melted chocolate and butter to a large bowl. Stir in the brown sugar, almond meal, and chopped almonds until the mixture is smooth.
Ensure the mixture is cooler than 60 degrees Celsius (114F) before adding the egg yolks gradually. Stir all together. Put aside.
In a clean dry bowl of an electric mixer add the egg whites with a pinch of Cream of Tartar. On slow speed whisk the eggs until they’re foamy. Gradually increase the speed every few minutes. Whisk until firm white peaks form. If you’re unsure, better to overbeat the eggs than under beat them.
Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. The chocolate is quite heavy to mix in. Keep folding until the egg white is just incorporated with the chocolate mixture.
Check the oven has reached the correct temperature. Set your kitchen timer for 40 minutes. Pour the cake batter into the tin and place it on the middle rack of the oven. The cake is ready when a firm crust has formed on top. If the crust hasn’t formed yet, add another 5 minutes to the timer and check again until the cake is done. A skewer test is difficult as the cake texture is very soft and sticky even when cooked.
Let the cake cool completely in the pan before attempting to remove it. You can dust the top with icing sugar or cocoa powder to decorate.
BAKING TIPS:
- It’s good practice to start whisking your egg whites at slow speed then build up speed to form the peaks. If you cut-corners and go straight to high speed it won’t take as long, but you’ll have big air pockets in your egg whites that might make the cake collapse in the oven later.
- The cake is very soft and sticky even when cooked, almost like fudge.
- Store cake at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Servings | Prep Time | Cook Time | Passive Time |
12slices | 30mins | 40mins | 1hr |
Servings | Prep Time |
12slices | 30mins |
Cook Time | Passive Time |
40mins | 1hr |
- 200 g Dark Chocolate chopped
- 125 g Unsalted Butter chopped
- 225 g Brown Sugar
- 100 g Almond Meal
- 100 g Unsalted Almonds coarsely chopped (optional)
- 5 large Eggs separate whites and yolks
- 1 pinch Cream of Tartar
- 1 tablespoon Cocoa Powder
Ingredients
Servings: slices
Units:
|
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees fan-forced; 350F). Line the base and sides of a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper.
- Melt the chocolate and butter together gently. Either use the microwave in 7-second bursts, then stir after each time so you don’t burn the chocolate. Or make a “double-boiler” to melt the chocolate and butter (a larger saucepan should be filled with about 5 cm of water and brought to a boil while you use the water’s steam to melt the chocolate and butter in a second saucepan above the water).
- Transfer the melted chocolate and butter to a large bowl. Stir in the brown sugar, almond meal, and chopped almonds until the mixture is smooth.
- Ensure the mixture has cooled a little before adding the egg yolks in gradually. Stir all together. Put aside.
- In a clean dry bowl of an electric mixer add the egg whites with a pinch of Cream of Tartar. On slow speed whisk the eggs until they’re foamy. Gradually increase the speed every few minutes. Whisk until firm white peaks form. If you’re unsure, better to overbeat the eggs than under beat them.
- Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. The chocolate is quite heavy to mix in. Keep folding until the egg white is just incorporated with the chocolate mixture.
- Check the oven has reached the correct temperature. Pour the cake batter into the tin and place it on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for about 40 minutes. The cake is ready when a firm crust has formed on top. If the crust hasn’t formed yet, add another 5 minutes to the timer and check again until the cake is done. A skewer test is difficult as the cake texture is very soft and sticky even when cooked.
- Let the cake cool completely in the pan before attempting to remove it. You can dust the top with icing sugar or cocoa powder to decorate.
- It’s good practice to start whisking your egg whites at slow speed then build up speed to form the peaks. If you cut corners and go straight to high speed it won’t take as long, but you’ll have big air pockets in your egg whites that might make the cake collapse in the oven later.
- The cake is very soft and sticky even when cooked, almost like fudge.
- Store cake at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
You might like to explore our other gluten-free baking recipes like Rosewater Pistachio Cake, Lemon and Almond Cake, Nutella Cake and Orange and Almond Cake. Chocoholics, we have a whole list of our baking recipes with chocolate here too.
Like this Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe? Spread the word!

this looks + sounds a lot less dense than the neil perry version i made a while ago. LOL. should try this mmmm chocolate
I love the film Chocolat. Johnny Depp is fab it in and all the chocolate looks amazing. You can almost taste it. I’ll have to watch it again with a bit slice of this choc cake – so good
Love the film Chocolat but I think Im in love with this more!
yum!! Looks fantastic :)
Aha winning indeed! I’ve always been intrigued by flourless cakes, but have never made one. This sounds like a swoon worthy dessert and paired with anything johnny depp would be perfect!
You have good taste ;)
Love almond meal in baking – I’ve never tried it in a chocolate cake but I bet it would taste awesome!
MMMMMMMMMMM Johnny Depp…and Chocolate in the same post- I am in heaven :) THanks for this experience. The cake looks really yum.
I love flourless cakes, which is just as well as I’m on a gluten-free diet. I also love chocolate, and I think it’s somewhat impossible not to have Johnny Depp love, so there is a whole lot of greatness in this post :)
Ha! I did that very same thing when watching Chocolat. Well, I watched it sans chocolat once and regretted it, so loaded myself up and indulged my palate throughout (esp. in those scenes where she’s mixing up all the chocolate and spreading it on the slab, etc…).
Thanks for this recipe!!
Oh my.. Johnny and Chocolat and Chocolate all at once… I need a little lie down… MmMmMmMMmm.. sweet thoughts…
Mmm, yummy! Flourless chocolate cake is often the only kind of chocolate cake I eat. I think it’s the moist denisty compared to more spongy cakes. This sounds delish!
Yum. I’ve been looking for a recipe for flourless chocolate cake. I think this might be it!
watched the movie last night (MmmMmmmmmMmmmm Johnny Depp haha LOVE IT!!) and made the cake this morning. It’s the first time I’ve ever attempted a flourless cake, but OMG it’s definitely going in the recipe book!! I think I’ll need to lower the temperature next time as the top started to burn before it was finished, and unfortunately my almond pieces all sunk to the bottom =( but all in all it is still a beautiful cake!!! the texture is to die for! Thinking about watching the movie again just so I can eat some more of the cake hehe :D
P.S. Thank you for your amazing website! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes xxx
i LOVE flourless cakes they are so dense and moist yours looks great :D
Looks divine, Emma! Johnny Depp…mmmm….he was unbelievable in that film… :)
Sounds fabulous.. almonds ++
This cake looks wonderful! and I love the movie Chocolat’ – make sure you check out my post ‘The Good Oil’ we visited the town of Beynac in France where they filmed the movie – so pretty! only bad thing was Mr Depp himself wasnt there :(
I love flourless chocolate much better than the ‘normal’ one! This looks gorgeous!
When I first got a glimpse of the title, I had to myself if it’s really possible. I must say that it’s very catchy and you actually used eggs as an alternative which I find it a very smart thing to do. I’ll definitely have my girlfriend to give this a try. Thanks for sharing!
*sigh no update!
happy easter xoxo
My favourite cake of all time. Love your recipe :)
Hi there!!
Yummeh!! Could you please recommend a recipe for no-bake chocolate cake? =)
Im making one this weekend. I don think I can make it to Monday without it.
Miss T
x
Thanks for sharing your preparations and ingredients of flour less cake.I’m sure it is more delicious because pure chocolate you will taste.Hope this weekend I can do the stuff to delight my family.
Wow!! So so yummy!! Made this on the weekend as a gluten free cake for kids party and EVERYONE loved it!! Two cakes went in minutes!!
Omg just made this cake its so dense like choclate fudge i caught my 3 yr eating the crust of the top so iced it then thought ok i will try this cake omg its a fav of mine now next time i might add a it more almond meal as i didnt add the cup of chopped nuts for the kids just to make it a bit less fudgey but it sooo goooooood!
omg its amazing im in love, best save some for my sister who i cooked it for i iced mine its so rich and just like eating fudge next time i may add more almond meal to make it not so fudge like as i didnt use the cup of chopped nuts but they can only get better thanks for the best cake recipe ever!
This is great! Made it today, and it’s just as it should be!! Yay for that, hate to waste such valuable ingredients! Thanks.
That looks almost as amazing as Depp, but at least accessible!
I’ve baked this twice now and it always goes down a treat! The 2nd time I added some preserved cherries, they surprisingly didn’t sink and added a whole new dimension of scrumptiousness!
ohh, thank you for the recipe I have whipped one up and it’s baking as I type. Can’t wait to try it.
This cake is incredible! I have made it three times now, and every time it is perfection!!