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Gluten-free Flourless Chocolate Cake

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This gluten-free flourless chocolate cake is a rich chocolate cake topped with fluffy vanilla whipped cream. The top of the flourless cake has an almost brownie-like texture and flavor, while the inside is super moist and fudgy.

Slice of Flourless Chocolate Cake with whipped cream on a white plate with a fork

This is a great dessert choice for if you need to make a gluten-free dessert without having to buy special ingredients. With only 4 ingredients, all that you can grab easily at your local store, this easy flourless cake is great to whip up and enjoy!

I’ve served this flourless cake at Christmas and Valentine’s Day as well as regular dinners where we had friends over. My family and our guests all raved about how delicious this is. 

Is it the prettiest dessert? Nope. Is it delicious? YES!

Homemade Flourless Chocolate Cake with chocolate chips in bowl beside it

 

Add this to your next special evening with guests or just with family and you will not be disappointed!

This recipe comes from Martha Stewart online, you can see her version here, topped with powdered sugar. 

Let’s talk about what you need and how to make this flourless cake.

Ingredients for flourless chocolate cake

Notes on ingredients for this flourless chocolate cake:

  • Chocolate: The chocolate is the star of this recipe, so I recommend using a good one! Some people like using bittersweet chocolate, but I really prefer semi-sweet chocolate. You can chop your own bars of chocolate or use semi-sweet chocolate chips like I did. I often make with Guittard semi-sweet chocolate chips.
  • Butter: I prefer using salted butter. It has better flavor.
  • Eggs: There is no subbing the eggs in this – they’re important for giving this lift, and the incredible texture. You’ll be separating yolks and egg whites. I prefer using this egg separator to perfectly separate eggs without breaking any yolks or getting any shells in there. I’ve had this one for probably 20 years, so it’s worth investing in one!
  • Sugar: Just plain white sugar is all you need for this!

See, just 4 simple ingredients for the flourless cake portion! You probably have all of these on hand already too!

How to make flourless chocolate cake:

Preheat the oven to 275°. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9″ springform pan. Set aside.

greased springform pan

Place butter and chocolate in a large, microwaveable bowl and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each 30 seconds, until completely melted. Let cool slightly.

Whisk in egg yolks until smooth.

In medium or large bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, and continue beating until glossy stiff peaks form.

Whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Here’s a pic:

bowl with melted chocolate mixture and egg white mixture added and a whisk

 Then gently fold in remaining egg whites. Here’s a pic:

Whipped eggs added to chocolate mixture

Pour batter into the prepared springform cake pan, and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

Here’s what it looks like in pan before baking:

Unbaked flourless chocolate cake in pan

Bake at 275° until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and is set in the center, 45-50 minutes.

Baked Flourless Chocolate Cake in springform pan on cooling rack

Cool completely on a wire rack; remove sides of pan.

While you can buy Cool Whip topping, I highly recommend you make sweetened homemade whipped cream to top slices of this cake with. It’s quite easy too! 

For the whipping cream, you’ll want to grab a quart of heavy whipping cream, some powdered sugar and some pure vanilla extract. 

How to make homemade whipped cream:

To a mixing bowl, add the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and pure vanilla extract.

bowl with cream powdered sugar and vanilla

Use the whisk attachment on your mixer or hand mixer to beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. I usually add the powdered sugar a bit at a time. 

If not using right away, cover and chill until serving.

bowl full of Homemade Whipped Cream

Serve this flourless chocolate cake at room temperature with sweetened vanilla whipped cream.

Some people like to sprinkle a bit of cocoa powder over the top too, and you can do that if you want it more fancy.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with whipped cream on white plate with fork

A little story behind this flourless cake recipe:

It is quite rare that I get to enjoy a meal or dessert that someone else prepares for me in their home.  Most of my friends and family, knowing how sensitive I am to gluten, don’t even attempt to cook or bake for me, and that is totally fine.  However, it’s a real treat for me when, once in a while, someone that understands cooking and baking gluten-free (and being careful for cross-contamination) will make something to share with me!

When our family was in Montana for Thanksgiving one year, we drove out to a friend’s ranch near Red Lodge, Montana.  I wish I had snapped a pic of that beautiful area there, with the breathtaking snow-covered mountain ranges all around.  Our friends that live there are truly beautiful people as well, the most generous and kind-hearted people I know.  Their warm hospitality and seven smiling children make anyone feel at home.  We are continually inspired by their stories of adopting precious children from around the world.

Amanda’s thoughtfulness extended to surprising me with serving an amazing flourless chocolate cake that she made just for our visit.  Her oldest daughter helped her make some fresh whipping cream to serve alongside this decadent dessert.  This combo of rich, gooey gluten-free chocolate cake and fluffy vanilla whipped cream, combined with the additions of thoughtfulness, surprise and friendship, made this the best dessert I enjoyed all year long. I left Matt and Amanda’s house that night with a big smile, a full tummy, an extra piece of cake to take home, and the recipe in hand!

When desserts are made with love, they taste even better!

Slice of Gluten-free Flourless Chocolate Cake on white plate with fork

Looking for more flourless desserts that’ll impress? Be sure to try my flourless chocolate cookies which is one of my favorite flourless dessert recipes. My gluten-free monster cookies are also flourless and delicious!

I’ve been eyeing this flourless black forest cake from my friend Jeanine for YEARS and definitely think it would impress guests and be delicious too! 

I’m also in awe of this pavlova recipe and love all the many options for toppings!

If you make this flourless chocolate cake and love it, please come back and give this recipe a 5 star rating in the recipe card! Feel free to comment with tips or to share any successful substitutions you made.

Gluten-free Flourless Chocolate Cake Recipe:

Yield: 8 servings

Flourless Chocolate Cake {Gluten-free}

Flourless Chocolate Cake {Gluten-free}

The top of the flourless cake has an almost brownie-like texture and flavor, while the inside is super moist and fudgy. This is a great dessert choice for if you need to make a gluten-free dessert without having to buy special ingredients.

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Additional Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 6 Tbsp. salted butter, plus more for pan
  • 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (or chocolate chips)
  • 6 large eggs, separated
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Whipped Cream

  • 1 1/4 c. heavy whipped cream
  • 1/2 c. powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Flourless cake:

  1. Preheat the oven to 275°. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9" springform pan. Set aside.
  2. Place butter and chocolate in a large, microwaveable bowl and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each 30 seconds, until completely melted. Let cool slightly.
  3. Whisk in egg yolks.
  4. In medium or large bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, and continue beating until glossy stiff peaks form. Whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
  5. Using a spatula, gently fold in remaining egg whites.
  6. Pour batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
  7. Bake at 275° until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and is set in the center, 45-50 minutes.
  8. Cool completely on a wire rack; remove sides of pan.

HOMEMADE WHIPPED CREAM:

  1. To a mixing bowl, add the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and pure vanilla extract.
  2. Use the whisk attachment to beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
  3. If not using right away, cover and chill until serving.

Slice cake and serve with the homemade whipped cream. Enjoy!

Notes

Dairy-free adjustment: Use a dairy-free, buttery flavored substitute like Earth Balance sticks in this recipe. Note that I have not tried this yet, but think it will work! Also be sure your chocolate is dairy-free if needed.

Please note that if your springform pan is narrower than the 9" one I used, your cake will be much thicker, lofty, and will take longer to bake.

This recipe originally from Martha Stewart.

I hope you and your family enjoy this flourless chocolate cake gluten free as much as my family did! 

Pin this to your gluten-free desserts board on Pinterest:

I originally shared this recipe in February 2013, in my first year of blogging! Here’s an old photo from 2013:

Flourless Chocolate Cake on Cake stand

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Jean

Monday 2nd of October 2023

100000/10 this is a keeper. I followed to a tee except I ran out of chocolate chips… I only had 5.5 ounces. Made everything the same though, in the oven for 50 mins. Sprinkled some powdered sugar once cool. My husband inhaled the cake!! He said this was “fancy restaurant quality cake”. Many thanks for a wonderful recipe!!

AnnMarie

Sunday 7th of November 2021

A friend made this for me….and it was DELICIOUS! I’ll soon be making it myself! Thank you.

Angela

Friday 16th of July 2021

This looks great! Is it possible to make it a day in advance? I’m trying to get a leg up on a dinner I’m hosting tomorrow. If so, should I just wrap in plastic? Thank you for your help!

EC

Tuesday 8th of June 2021

Holy moly. I never leave recipe reviews, but I just made this cake for the first time and tried a little bite (I’m having GF company for dinner tonight, can’t serve a new recipe without tasting it first!) - and I would never have believed something with no flour would be so delicious! Perfect fudgy brownie-esque flavour and consistency, slight bit of crust on top … I haven’t even whipped up the cream yet and it’s already perfect! Thanks for a fabulous recipe! (Also, I use Sally’s Baking Addiction recipes a lot, and seeing her comment here tipped me away from a different recipe I was considering. Good thing too because it couldn’t possibly have been better than this turned out!)

Marine

Tuesday 1st of June 2021

Hi Michelle, this looks great! I want to make this but in a mini cake version, how long do you recommend I cook it for ? Thanks, Marine

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