Get ready for a fudgy, soft and delicious chocolate pudding cake that is gluten, egg and dairy free. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosures.
I love chocolate. I love pudding. So naturally if you combine these two chocolatey desserts into one single dessert, you’ll most certainly have something special. Right?
So that’s what I did, as inspired by a recipe for pudding cake in one of my favorite cookbooks, Oh She Glows by Angela Liddon. Angela makes the best recipes – seriously!
So many of the recipes you find here at Good For You Gluten are inspired by her. (Please note Angela is not a dedicated gluten-free blogger, so not all her recipes are gluten free.)
When I first set off to make this cake, it looked like a mess. Seriously, a mess. But this cake embraces the mess and somehow turns out to be one heck of a chocolate cake if you ask me!
I actually think we can learn a lot from this cake if we’re willing to embrace the mess and dig deep to find what’s really inside.
What You Need
To make this recipe, you’ll need a few key ingredients:
Oat Flour: Oat flour is a definite as your gluten-free flour of choice. You can get gluten-free oat flour by Bob’s Red Mill. Remember to use only GF oat flour because oats, while naturally gluten-free, are notoriously cross contaminated with wheat during processing.
Flaxseeds: Flaxseeds make a wonderful egg alternative and give this dish added texture, moisture and healthy fats. Bob’s Red Mill also makes flaxseeds you can use in this gluten-free chocolate pudding cake recipe.
Sugar: Of course you need sugar, because it’s a cake and sweetness is a must. You can use coconut sugar as Angela instructs, or swap out regular sugar instead as I do.
Cocoa Powder: You’ll give this cake its chocolate richness when you add cocoa powder to the mix. I use Navitas cocoa powder, but any gluten-free cocoa powder will work just fine.
Non-Dairy Milk: To make this cake totally dairy-free, use a non-dairy milk alternative like a soy, almond, cashew or coconut milk. I use Silk Cashew Milk (unsweetened) and love it!
Chocolate Chips: To get that ooey gooey rich chocolate pudding texture, you’ll want to be sure to add chocolate chips to the mix. Keep it dairy-free when you use Enjoy Life chocolate chips.
Coffee: The rich coffee flavors and aroma are alive and well in this gluten-free chocolate pudding cake recipe. I keep Mount Hagen instant coffee on hand and found it easy to brew up a bit of coffee for this recipe. Use decaf if you prefer.
Of course you need a few other key baking ingredients like vanilla extract, baking powder, oil, salt, etc.
How to Make It
I can’t wait to show you how easy it is to make this chocolate pudding cake.
Step 1: Make Your Flax Egg
You can make the flax egg by combining 1 tbsp of flaxseeds with 3 tbsp of water and allowing them time to gel together.
You can use a regular egg instead. Please note, however, that I have not tested this recipe with a regular egg as so many of my friends are egg-free that I’ve become accustomed to baking without eggs these days.
Step 2: Combine Dry Ingredients
You’ll then want to combine your dry ingredients, including the oat flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips, in one bowl.
Step 3: Combine Wet Ingredients
In a second bowl, you’ll want to combine the wet ingredients including the non-dairy milk, oil and flax egg. Then you’ll mix everything together until well combined and add it to your 8×8″ square baking dish.
Step 4: Add Topping Ingredients
On top of the batter, you’ll sprinkle the remaining sugar and cocoa powder.
Step 5: Add Hot Coffee Mixture
Next, you’ll pour the hot coffee mixture all over the top of the cake. The cake will look like a hot mess, but trust me, it works and this is how your pudding will come to be.
Step 6: Bake
You’ll then bake the cake for about 27-30 minutes until cake is set and bubbly on top. Here is what this beauty looks like right out of the oven.
Steps 7 & 8: Cool & Add Powdered Sugar
Allow it time to cool before adding a light dusting of powdered sugar, if desired. Dig in!
The end result is a soft lava-like cake that oozes with chocolate pudding. I love it served right out of the oven, but it tastes great even after a few days in the fridge.
Beware, the cake is highly addictive.
Related Recipes
Are you a chocolate lover? Try some of the following recipes too.
- Chocolate chip applesauce cake – a family favorite recipe from my grandmother-in-law, Bubu (Bubu is also famous on this blog for her dill pickles)
- Chocolate chunk cookies – these soft-baked cookies have extra chocolate chucks in ’em.
- Devil’s Food Cake – death by chocolate is a thing with this rich cake.
Gluten-Free Chocolate Pudding Cake
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 1.5 cups gluten-free oat flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp Kosher salt
- 1/3 cup non-dairy chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup non-dairy milk (almond or cashew milk)
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
Cake Topping
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1.25 cups hot water or coffee decaf ok
- 1 tbsp powdered sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease an 8x8 square baking dish and set aside.
- Make flax egg by combine flaxseeds with three tablespoons of water. Mix together and set aside for five minutes until mixture turns into gel.
- In a large bowl, combine oat flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips.
- In a second bowl, combine non-dairy milk, oil, vanilla extract, and flax egg.
- Add dry ingredients to wet mixture and combine well, mixing by hand until ingredients are all well incorporated.
- Add batter to baking dish, then evenly sprinkle the batter with the reserved 1/3 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.
- Pour the hot water or coffee over the entire cake. Don't worry, it looks like a mess but it works!
- Bake for 27-30 minutes until cake is set and bubbling on top. Cool for a few minutes before digging in. Once cooled, you can top with optional sprinkle of powdered sugar.
Notes
Nutrition
Has anyone tried it with dairy milk and a real egg? I don’t keep flax on hand.
oh my goodness super yummy!! I twist the recipe with a little bit by adding some sour cream, a few unsweetened coconut flakes, and some extra dark chocolate chips, and I used brown sugar instead of white. it worked perfectly.
Yay thanks for sharing. I’ve never heard of cottage pudding!
We learned to make this, although in a full gluten version, in home economics.class in high school in the 1950s. We knew it as “Cottage Pudding”. I’ll definitely have to give it a try.