Flourless Black Bean Chocolate Cake (gluten-free!)

a slice of double chocolate black bean cake on a white plate.

4.86 from 145 votes

Flourless Black Bean Chocolate Cake (gluten-free!)

Simply the best black bean cake I’ve ever tried. This fudgy, tight-crumbed, soft cake will make up for all the black bean baking failures you’ve ever had. No one will believe there's a whole can of black beans in it!

Prep Time30

Cook Time40

Course: Dessert

Servings: slices

Calories: 310kcal

Author: Erika Kwee

Equipment

2 6" cake pans Other options: 8" or 9" cake pan, 8x8" or 9x9" pan

Ingredients

For the cake

1 15.5 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed* or 1.5 cups cooked black beans (~270-290g)
3/4 cup granulated sugar 150g
4 large eggs 200g
5 tbsp melted butter or oil of your choice (vegetable, canola, grapeseed, avocado, a mild olive oil or refined coconut oil all work) 70g
1 tbsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp cocoa (Dutch-process preferred) 26g
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Instructions

Make the cake

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line 2 6" round cake pans** with parchment paper.
In a high speed blender or food processor, puree the beans, sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla until completely smooth.
Add the cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda directly to the blender and blend until smooth.
Divide batter equally into prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the top springs back and an inserted tester comes out clean with just a few crumbs. Let cool for 5 minutes before flipping the cake onto a cooling rack. Make the frosting as the cake cools completely. (I recommend this chocolate Greek yogurt frosting!)

Video

Notes

*If using from-scratch black beans cooked with no salt, add 1/4 tsp kosher salt to the cake batter. You may sub chickpeas, butter beans, cannellini beans, kidney beans or red beans for the black beans.

**If baking in an 8" or 8x8" pan, the bake time will remain around 30-35 minutes. If baking in a 9" or 9x9" pan, start checking for doneness around 25 minutes, but it will likely be done closer to 30 minutes.

I've tested this cake with both olive oil and butter. I slightly prefer the flavor and texture of butter, but oil will achieve very similar results. Make sure to use a mild olive oil so it doesn't overpower the flavor. If you choose another oil like coconut oil, I always prefer using a refined coconut oil to remove any coconut flavor.

This cake originally came from here; since the website has now been taken down, I wanted to reshare it here.

Nutrition