Sweet and tender Coconut Flour Cake made with a combination of coconut & tapioca flour. You only need one bowl and eight ingredients to make! Gluten Free + Paleo + Nut Free
I know this sounds like a huge exaggeration when I say that I cannot get over how much I love this coconut flour cake but….I CANNOT get over how much I am in love with this coconut flour cake. I’m talking heart eyes, watering mouth, and just-one-more teensy-slice of cake kind of obsession.
I was sad for a hot minute thinking I’d have to wait for Mike’s birthday coming up in September because I wanted an excuse to make more cake. Then I remembered that I am adult and I can make a cake on a random Tuesday night if I want because I pay my own bills and do what I want. #adultAF
Right then – let’s make a cake!
Coconut Flour Cake
For as delicious as this cake is it’s easily one of the easiest and most straight forward paleo desserts that I’ve got here on A Saucy Kitchen.
If you’re used to paleo baking then these ingredients are nothing out of the ordinary: coconut oil, coconut flour, tapioca flour, maple/honey etc.
Making the cake is really just a matter of mixing together your wet ingredients and the sifting in the dry. It’s all mixed and prepped in one bowl before transferring it to a greased/lined cake tin. Bake at 350 and then sit back and wait. If you’re anything like me it’s the waiting that’s tricky – though worth it in the end.
The end result is a cake that’s perfectly tender and moist and just the right amount of sweet. It’s good enough to enjoy a slice as is without any additional toppings. That being said it’s also great with a dollop of coconut cream slathered over the top with a load of seasonal berried piled on top.
If chocolate is more your thing then you can quickly whip up some of this paleo chocolate frosting – it’s perfect for piping and is also nut/dairy free!
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Coconut Flour Cake
Sweet and tender Coconut Flour Cake made with a combination of coconut & tapioca flour. You only need one bowl and eight ingredients to make! Gluten Free + Paleo + Nut Free
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup | 120 ml coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup | 170 grams honey or 160 grams maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon | 5 ml vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup | 56 grams coconut flour, sifted if lumpy
- 1/2 cup | 55 grams tapioca flour*
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Optional Topping
- 1 cup coconut whipped cream
- mixed berries
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease or line an 8 inch round cake tin. Set aside.
- Beat the eggs in a medium sized bowl. Add the vanilla, the honey (or maple syrup), oil and vinegar to the eggs. Mix thoroughly.
- Add in the coconut flour, tapioca flour and baking soda. Whisk to combine.
- Pour the batter into your prepared cake tin. Smooth over so it's evenly spread in the pan. Place in the bottom third of the oven and bake for 28-30 minutes or until cooked in the centre. To check for doneness prick the centre of the cake with a knife or toothpick - if it comes out clean it's done.
- Carefully remove the cake from the tin and transfer to cool on a wire cooling rack.
- Once cooled you can serve as is, drizzle with a touch of honey or frost as you like.
Notes
- You can use arrowroot starch or potato starch in place of the tapioca.
- Nutrition info is for 1 out of 10 slices before adding any frosting/toppings.
- Recipe for a paleo/vegan Chocolate Frosting
Anna says
Hi Sarah
I did the cake twice and I like it. The cake is really tasty and spongy the only issue that both times I did it, it turned jelly like on the bottom. First time I did with tapioca starch and second time with potato starch as I though the issue was tapioca. Do you know what went wrong? Have you had this issue before?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Anna!
Rubbery cake bottoms can be so frustrating! Hopefully I can help troubleshoot this for future cakes. A few of things that could have cause the jelly-like bottom and how to fix it:
1. Often times rubbery/jelly cake bottoms can happen when there is too much liquid in the recipe. In this case – I’m certain that I’ve got the right balance of wet/dry ingredients as I’ve made this cake dozens of times. However, depending on how you measure and weigh out your ingredients, you could potentially end up with not enough dry ingredients. A kitchen scale is the best way to ensure that you measure out the exact right amount of flour needed as 1/2 cup of coconut or tapioca flour can end up being a lot more or a lot less than 56 g depending on the day. If you already use a kitchen scale then ignore me here!
2. You might need to mix the cake batter a bit more. A dense bottom on a cake can also be an indicator that the fat (in this case coconut oil) sank to the bottom because it wasn’t fully mixed in. Next time you make this, prep that batter as you normally do and then let it rest about 5 minutes. You’ll likely notice the batter looks thicker because the coconut flour will be soaking up all that moisture. After letting it set and just before baking, whisk up your batter one more time to ensure everything is well and fully mixed.
3. The cake was left to cool too long in its tin. After baking you want to let the cake cool a few minutes in the tin and then flip it over to cool on a wire rack. If the cake sits too long in the tin without air flow getting all over the sides and bottom then it can start holding on to the extra moisture and make things feel a bit too moist and wet.
4. You might need to get fresh baking soda. Baking soda + vinegar fizz up together in this recipe to create a modest rise. Baking soda that’s old and no longer reacts and can make for dense baked goods. To test if your baking soda needs to be replaced: add a small amount of baking soda in a small pour and pour some vinegar over the top. If the baking soda fizzes it’s still good. If it doesn’t fizz or only slightly fizzes – it’s time to replace it.
I hope this helps!
Anna says
Thank you for your tips. I did leave the cake for more that half an hour in the tin and thought that could be the issue and will try to wait and mix the batter more it was quite liquidy. Tips 1 and 4 wasn’t the issue as I used scale and fresh baking soda. I definitely will be making it again as my husband love the cake.
Sarah Nevins says
I wonder if it might be a good help to let the batter rest a bit, mix it again to make sure that none of the ingredients have separated and then add the batter to your cake tin. So basically just before baking the batter gets one more good stir. I’m going to think more on this though and see if I can come up with any more problems/solutions!
Chloe says
This cake is amazing. I have an extremely limited diet and my choices when it comes to flours are: coconut flour, potato starch, and that’s it.
Turns out you can make an awesome cake with those two! After some disasters with coconut flour, I was not expecting the texture to be so soft and for it to hold together so well.
Substituting potato starch for tapioca worked perfectly, I used melted butter to try reduce to coconut taste and I added some lemon zest for flavour. Will definitely be making this again. I can see infinite flavour variations already!
Sarah Nevins says
Yay! I’m so glad to hear that! Thanks for sharing about the potato starch! I’ve had another similar comment in the past from somebody else who also used potato instead of tapioca starch successfully so I’ve added a note in the recipe about substituting it if needed.
Love the idea of adding lemon zest too by the way – sounds lovely!
Thanks so much for letting me know what you thought!
Avril says
Hi Sarah – thanks for this recipe – it looks great! I want to bake this to take to a dinner tonight. I cannot find tapioca flour or tapioca starch. Can I use 100% coconut flour?
Also – so you add dedicated coconut to the cream topping?
Many Thanks
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Avril! If you can’t find tapioca you can also use arrowroot starch or even almond flour. Potato starch will also work but then it’s no longer paleo. Corn starch might also work, but I’m not positive – it might make it a little drier. I don’t recommend using all coconut flour though because then it will certainly come out too dry.
As for the topping, I just used whipped up coconut cream but you can sprinkle in some desiccated coconut if you’d like to add some texture! Hope that helps!
chloe says
I am in love with this recipe!
To test out this recipe, I used a 12 cm cake tin, and halved all ingredients, except for honey which I quartered (for less sweetness). I substituted corn flour for tapioca flour, and baking powder for baking soda (for more rise as per one of the below comments), and it turned out amazing! The centre rose and cracked nicely like a banana muffin. I might try baking soda next time for that neat flat top like in your photos.
This recipe is so easy to follow, so forgiving (I measured everything using cup or teaspoon rather than by weight), and it’s gluten free with no refined sugar!
One question, with the tapioca flour, is it cassava flour, and NOT tapioca starch?
Thank you for this (and many other) amazing recipes!
(sorry for leaving both a comment and a review, hoping for an answer to my above question)
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Chloe! I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much!
To answer your questions: tapioca flour and tapioca starch are almost always going to be the same thing. The names are usually used interchangeably and sold by both names. I say almost because tapioca starch can sometimes (but not often) refer to cassava flour – usually if you’re buying it from stores that sell mostly Caribbean/ South American foods.
While cassava/tapioca come from the same plant, tapioca flour/starch is extracted from the root while cassava flour is the whole root. So with this particular recipe you want to make sure that you’re using tapioca flour/starch.
I hope that helps!
M says
Hello, can I replace eggs with Chia Seed .?.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Mary! If you’re looking for an egg free version of this cake I recommend checking out this recipe as it’s made specifically to be egg free: https://www.asaucykitchen.com/paleo-cake/
Dee says
Thank you for the recipe! I substituted potato starch for the tapioca because it was all I had on hand and this was fantastic! I cut small circles out of the baked cake and used it to make strawberry short cakes! Delicious!
Sarah Nevins says
Love that idea! Perfect for this time of year! That’s really helpful to know about the potato starch – thanks so much for coming back to let me know what you thought!
Sheryll says
My cake didn’t rise. Was my tin too big or the oven too hot. It was barely 2cms high. It cooked in 20 mins in a 180oC fan bake oven. The Kumara icing is delicious.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Sheryll! What sized pan did you use? The cake isn’t going to rise a ton here but 2 cm does sound low. If you plan on making it again you could also try using baking powder instead of baking soda for a more obvious rise. Baking powder isn’t always paleo though (it often contains cornstarch) so just keep that in mind if keeping paleo is important to you.
Danielle says
Hi. I couldn’t find where the contact info is. I was wondering if there is a way to make a chocolate version of this cake.
Sarah says
Hi Danielle! As of now I don’t have a chocolate version of this cake (yet) but you might like the cake portion from this recipe: https://www.asaucykitchen.com/chocolate-hazelnut-cake/ It’s similar in ingredients but it uses a little bit of almond flour instead of tapioca. Hope that helps!
Angel says
I was wondering if I could use rice flour instead of tapioca flour
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Angel! I haven’t tested this using rice flour so I can’t say for sure but I do think it would end up changing the overall texture of the cake. In general you normally only use about 1/2 the amount of rice flour as you would need for tapioca. Changing the amount of dry flours would change the ratio to liquids and might not have the same result in the end. If you do try it please let me know though. Sorry I couldn’t be more help here!
Tricia Nelson says
I am going to double this recipe for a birthday. Do you think I could get away with subbing a couple flax eggs? Thank you!
Sarah says
Hi Tricia! If you’re interested in making this without eggs I highly recommend using this egg free version: https://www.asaucykitchen.com/paleo-cake/ This one as it is won’t work without eggs without making a few other changes first.
Edna says
I tried and I love it. Great taste. Now, I am doubling the ingredients as the original recipe was small for my family with 5 members.
Sarah says
Thanks Edna!