This quick and easy Chocolate Avocado Cake is deliciously light, moist, and a little fudgy. With a delicate crumb, and thick luscious chocolate avocado frosting, its naturally sweetened with no added sugar and is simple to whip up in your food processor.
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Recipe Highlights
- 5 to 10 minutes of prep for this Avocado Cake, throwing all the ingredients into a food processor that does all the work for you
- Baking with avocados instead of butter or oil creates a moist and fudgy cake that won't dry out
- Its an excellent way to use up cheap avocados when they're in season to create a yummy chocolate dessert
- Its full of protein, fibre and good fats from the avocado making it filling and light at the same time
- Its naturally sweetened with no added sugars. Good bye sugar highs!
- It keeps for a week in the fridge and tastes as good as the day it was made
- That chocolate avocado frosting is so good you'll find it hard to put the spoon down!
- A great way to satisfy chocolate cravings in a healthy way
- You can't taste or see the avocado and you wouldn't even know it's there
Using avocados in baking is a great way to add richness and moisture, whilst creating a sugar free chocolate cake that is still light with a soft crumb.
This is definitely not a heavy or dense cake.
I also love making my Chocolate Avocado Pudding for dessert as its light and fluffy has no sugar and is a perfect way to keep after dinner cravings at bay.
Avocado Cake Ingredients
This is a simple avocado cake recipe. There's no fancy layers with multiple tins, special ingredients, or piping bag required. It's a cake you can easily make on a Sunday afternoon in between jobs around the house.
key Ingredient Notes
- Avocados: 1 use about 3 medium to large avocados for this recipe (roughly 4 to 5 small). Make sure the avocados are ripe as hard avocados will be stringy and won't blend in as well. I love using Hass avocados as they have a creamy and buttery flesh, but any ripe avocados will work. Check out these Chocolate Avocado Truffles for a quick and easy dessert also made in the food processor.
- Cocoa Powder: Unsweetened cocoa powder works best and adds a rich chocolate flavour to the cake. As this is one of the main flavour ingredients, it pays to use a good quality cocoa powder.
- Almond Flour/Almond Meal: Sometimes almond flour and almond meal are referred to as the same thing. The best almond flour/almond meal to use is the coarser variety. Avoid buying fine almond flour as it will make the cake too dense. You can make your own almond meal by grounding whole almonds with the skin on in a food processor, or you can buy it from the supermarket.
- Sweetener: I used Monkfruit Raw Earth Brown Granulated Sweetener which is a natural granulated sweetener that measures like sugar. You can use any type of granulated sweetener that measures like sugar like stevia or the white versions of monkfruit. I don't recommend substituting with liquid sweeteners as the quantities will be different.
- Vanilla Essence: this adds additional flavour but can be left out if you don't have it, or you could substitute with other flavourings like spices or zests.
- Sea Salt: salt balances out all the other flavours and enhances the overall taste
- Baking Powder: make sure your baking powder is still good to use. If older than 6 months, I recommend buying a fresh one as it will have lost its leaving powder and the cake may not rise properly.
- Sugar Free Maple Syrup: this is used in the frosting so silky smooth consistency can be achieved. Alternatively a powdered sweetener could be used. Just make sure to avoid using granulated sweetener as is might make the texture of the frosting too grainy.
How To Make
- Add all of the ingredients to make the avocado cake into a food processor
- Blitz on high for 1 minute or until all ingredients are combined to form a chocolate cake batter.
- Spoon the cake batter into a round cake tin lined with baking or parchment paper
- Bake for 50 minutes at 180C/360F then remove from oven to let cool to room temperature before frosting.
- Clean the food processor and add the frosting ingredients, blitzing until smooth and silky.
- Use a spoon or butter knife to spread the frosting generously over the cake.
Recipe Tips
Avocados: Avoid using more than the recommended quantity of avocados in this recipe as it will affect the way the cake cooks and it may not cook in the middle.
Swap vanilla essence for instant coffee or espresso: When making this cake, I often swap vanilla essence for the same amount of instant coffee dissolved in water. It adds a rich coffee flavour to the cake.
Don't skip the salt: We all know that avocados taste better with salt, and this chocolate avocado cake is no different. Adding a little bit of sea salt in the cake batter as well as the frosting makes a big difference and brings out all the other flavours.
What Type of Cake Tin to Use: I used one round 20 cm/8 inch springform cake tin. You could also use a 9 inch round tin, or a 7 inch round tin, but cooking times may be slightly different.
Add orange zest to the frosting: Another way to customize the frosting is to add the zest of half an orange to the frosting for an intense flavour. If add the coffee flavour to the cake, I probably wouldn't add the orange zest to the frosting. I find it works better using one or the other.
Decorative toppings: shaved or grated sugar free chocolate bar, crushed walnuts, and even fresh blueberries work a treat as the nestle in the frosting and provide a hit of juicy sweetness.
Storage: I like to store this cake in the fridge in an air tight cake container. It will keep for 5 days.
How To Get Silky Smooth Chocolate Avocado Frosting
Make sure that you use ripe avocados. You can tell if an avocado is ripe if when you press your thumb on the outside of it, you can feel a little bit of "give".
A Food Processor or High Speed Blender is a must to get silky smooth chocolate avocado frosting. Pulse until all the grainy bits become smooth, spooning down any frosting from the sides until smith.
Top Tips
TIP 1: remove the frosting from the food processor and place into a bowl and put into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up before slathering onto the cake.
TIP 2: Make sure the cake is completely cooled before putting on the frosting.
If you love chocolate cake, check out some of my other Sugar Free Chocolate recipes:
- Sugar Free Chocolate Fudge Cake
- Black Bean Chocolate cake
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Chocolate Sweet Potato Muffins
You might also like this Fudgy Chocolate Date Cake with Chocolate Rum Ganache.
Chocolate Avocado Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups almond flour (or almond meal)
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¾ cup tap water
- 1 cup mashed avocado - (about 1 ½ Medium avocados)
- 1 cup granulated sweetener that measures like sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
Chocolate Avocado Mousse Frosting
- 1 cup mashed avocado
- ¼ cup unsweetened cacao powder
- ⅔ cup sugar free Maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F) and line 1 round 8 inch/20cm springform tin with parchment paper/baking paper.
Cake
- Mix ingredients together: Add 3 cups almond flour (or almond meal), ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, ¾ cup tap water, 1 cup mashed avocado, 1 cup granulated sweetener that measures like sugar, 3 medium eggs, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon sea salt and 2 teaspoons vanilla essence into a food processor and blitz on high for 1 minute or until all ingredients are combined to form a chocolate cake batter. (You may need to stop and restart the food processor after 30 seconds to scrape the mixture down from the sides of the bowl to ensure its all thoroughly mixed in)
- Add mixture to cake tin: Remove blade from food processor, scraping cake batter from the blade into the tin. Spoon out the rest of the cake batter from the bowl into the cake tin, smoothing over with the back of a spoon
- Bake: Bake for 50 minutes at 180C/360F then remove from oven to let cool to room temperature. Remove cake from tin and place on a plate for frosting. (Make sure it is completely cool before frosting otherwise it will slide off)
Frosting
- Prepare Frosting: Whilst cake is cooling, make the Chocolate Avocado Frosting. Add 1 cup mashed avocado, ¼ cup unsweetened cacao powder, ⅔ cup sugar free Maple syrup and ¼ teaspoon sea salt to food processor and blend until smooth and creamy scraping down the sides to make sure it is all processed evenly.
- Frost Cake: Use a spoon or butter knife to spread the frosting generously over the cake. (TIP: it helps to refrigerate frosting for 1 hour before adding to the cake to make it a little firmer, but you can definitely skip this step and just add the frosting to the cooled cake and it will stay on)
Notes
- Avocados: 1 use about 3 medium to large avocados for this recipe (roughly 4 to 5 small). Make sure the avocados are ripe as hard avocados will be stringy and won't blend in as well. I love using Hass avocados as they have a creamy and buttery flesh, but any ripe avocados will work.
- Cocoa Powder: Make sure to use unsweetened cocoa powder as using regular cocoa powder or chocolate powder will make the cake too sickly sweet.
- Almond Flour/Almond Meal: Sometimes almond flour and almond meal are referred to as the same thing. The best almond flour/almond meal to use is the coarser variety. Avoid buying fine almond flour as it will make the cake too dense. You can make your own almond meal by grounding whole almonds with the skin on in a food processor, or you can buy it from the supermarket.
- Sweetener: I used Monkfruit Raw Earth Brown Granulated Sweetener which is a natural granulated sweetener that measures like sugar. You can use any type of granulated sweetener that measures like sugar like stevia or the white versions of monkfruit. I don't recommend substituting with liquid sweeteners as the quantities will be different.
- Baking Powder: make sure your baking powder is still good to use. If older than 6 months, I recommend buying a fresh one as it will have lost its leaving powder and the cake may not rise properly.
- Sugar Free Maple Syrup: this is used in the frosting so silky smooth consistency can be achieved. Alternatively a powdered sweetener could be used. Just make sure to avoid using granulated sweetener as is might make the texture of the frosting too grainy.
- Avoid using more than the recommended quantity of avocados in this recipe as it will affect the way the cake cooks and it may not cook in the middle.
- Swap vanilla essence for instant coffee or espresso in the same quantity. Or alternatively, use the zest of half and orange for flavouring.
- Don't skip the salt. It really does matter and if you leave it out the flavours will be out of balance
- Cake Tin: one round 20 cm/8 inch springform cake tin
Nutrition
Note: Sugars contained in this recipe are from naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables or other natural sweeteners. Calories have been calculated for your convenience using My Fitness Pal and are based on the ingredients listed in the recipe card.
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madeline says
this was a 5 out of 5 recipe
Madeline Kocher says
I loved your cake keep macking more!!!!!
Patricia Smith says
I’ve made a lot of chocolate cakes and cupcakes over the years but this is now my favourite. It’s rich but, for sugar-free, I loved it!