Gluten-Free Buckwheat Chocolate Cake

Learn how to make the best buckwheat chocolate cake with this easy recipe. This gluten-free chocolate cake is a play on the "fallen" chocolate cake made from whipped eggs and sugar with melted chocolate, ground almond, and buckwheat flour folded in before baking. It's delicious with whipped cream and berries or ice cream.

When I worked on this recipe, I wanted a simpler chocolate cake than the typical chocolate layer cake with berries. I was aiming for a single-layer chocolate cake that is quite similar to a flourless chocolate cake of sorts but with a little (buckwheat) flour added to the mix. The buckwheat flour in this recipe not only gives this chocolate cake more flavour, it also helps give the inside of the chocolate cake a little more structure so that, when you underbake it just like you would a real flourless chocolate cake, the cake sinks and settles, but not too much, so it doesn't become overly dense like some other recipes.

Jump to:

• What You Need to Make This Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake
• How to Make a Chocolate Cake With Buckwheat Flour
• Baking Tip: Volume Without Separating Eggs
• More Gluten-Free Baking
• 📖 Recipe

What You Need to Make This Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

The beauty of fallen chocolate cake recipes like this is you likely have most (or all) the ingredients you need in your pantry and fridge. Here's what you need:

• butter—I bake with unsalted butter. If using salted, you may want to adjust the amount of salt you add
• chocolate—I baked this cake with a dark chocolate that is bittersweet (70 % cocoa solids). The flavour and sweetness of the chocolate will have an impact on the sweetness of the cake so use a chocolate you like! The major ingredient is chocolate, which means you MUST use the best dark chocolate for baking because it provides both flavour, structure, and texture to this dessert. For this recipe, I used Cacao Barry Ocoa 70% dark chocolate, which is a professional quality dark chocolate that you can buy in IGA grocery stores in Quebec and online from Vanilla Food Company
• eggs—I always bake with large eggs. If you use smaller or larger eggs, this may have an impact on the texture of the final dessert
• sugar—I used granulated sugar because I find this gives the best volume when whipping the eggs.
• flour—I used gluten-free buckwheat flour. As you can see it is a whole-grain flour, unbleached
• ground almonds—you can use either ground blanched almonds or unblanched. This doesn't matter
• salt—I bake with Diamond Crystal Fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the cake may be too salty.

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

How to Make a Chocolate Cake With Buckwheat Flour

Step 1—Begin by combining the chocolate and butter in a bowl above a pan of gently simmering water (image 1). Let it all melt together, stirring often, until smooth and glossy (image 2). Set it aside to cool slightly while you whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl (image 3).

Step 2—Place the eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (image 4) and whisk them until frothy before slowly drizzling in the granulated sugar (image 5). Continue whipping until the mixture is very light in colour, creamy, and ribbony (it forms a ribbon when dripped onto the surface as in image 6).

Step 3—Immediately fold the dry ingredients in with a large spatula (image 7) and then the melted chocolate (image 8). The batter will be thick (image 9). Transfer the mixture to a prepared springform pan (image 10).

Tip: Because I wanted a taller chocolate cake, I opted to use an 8-inch springform pan. Make sure to take the time to prepare the cake pan properly: I buttered the pan all over, lined the bottom with parchment paper, and then dusted the sides with buckwheat flour to make sure that this cake would unmould perfectly from the sides, which it did, as you can see in the photos!

Step 4—Make sure the top of the cake is smooth before placing it in the oven (image 11). Bake the cake until it domes on top and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan slightly (image 12). The cake will fall and crack as it cools (image 13). This is normal!

Note: Like with flourless chocolate cakes, it's best to let this cake cool completely and then sit overnight before cutting into it. The cake will sink and settle, and the top will crack a little, and the texture inside of the cake changes as the flavour improves. This recipe makes a great make-ahead dessert. I stored it unwrapped overnight, but feel free to store it under a cake dome. I served this moist chocolate cake with a thick layer of whipped cream and lots of berries. It's the perfect dessert to celebrate summer.

Baking Tip: Volume Without Separating Eggs

A lot of flourless chocolate cake recipes have you separate the whites from the yolks so that you can whip the whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the batter to lighten the mixture. I hate that, and I bet you do too.

Rather than beat the whites separate from the yolks, I opted to make this chocolate cake like I would make a génoise cake, whipping the whole eggs with the sugar until it's at the ribbon stage, a foam so stable, light, and thick that it forms a "ribbon" when drizzled off the beater onto the surface of the whipped mixture. This stable foam is perfect for providing enough rise to this easy gluten-free chocolate cake recipe. No separating of eggs is required!

More Gluten-Free Baking

Check out these other gluten-free baking recipes if you are looking to bake more desserts without gluten without compromising on taste and texture:

If you tried this recipe for the best buckwheat chocolate cake (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

📖 Recipe