This moist, delicious sweet potato chocolate chip cake is easy to make and is totally vegan, gluten free and suitable for the low fodmap diet.
I'm going to straight up admit that gluten free baking is not really my area of expertise. I don't really know any coeliacs/gluten intolerant people so it isn't something I've ever needed to do on the regular.
Recently however, Damian has been giving the low Fodmap diet a try (it is SUCH a ballache of a diet but needs must...). The elimination phase requires you to cut out basically everything that contains gluten (and just about everything else as well it feels like!), so I've come up with a few gluten free and low fodmap friendly bakes so he can still have a little bit of joy in his diet.
This sweet potato chocolate chip cake is both vegan and gluten free, as well as being suitable for the low fodmap diet. It uses a base of ground oats and almonds instead of flour which makes it soft and moist. It is bound with cooked mashed sweet potato, maple syrup, almond milk and full fat tinned coconut milk.
There is no extra fat added to this cake other than the fat from the coconut milk so don't swap this out for another kind of milk or it might not work as well.
This is not an overly sweet cake - it is sweetened just with maple syrup; so a healthy dose of chocolate chips provide a bit of extra sweetness. (And the more chocolate chips the better in my opinion!).
This is a great cake for snacking on and because it is a bit more nutritious than regular cake you don't need to feel guilty about having two slices!
I adapted it from this muffin recipe by The Vegan 8; you should definitely check out their lovely blog!
How To Make Vegan And Gluten Free Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cake:
(For ingredients and full instructions see the recipe card below)
*For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.*
Start by making your sweet potato mash – Take one medium-large sweet potato and prick it a couple of times with a sharp knife. Microwave for around 10 minutes, turning it over halfway through, until it is soft. You can also bake it if you prefer; but it takes longer.
Allow to cool a little then peel off the skin, place the flesh in a bowl and mash. Measure out 120g/1/2 cup of the mash for the cake and reserve any left over for another use. (I give it to my dog, he loves it.).
(If you are measuring the potato by weight, not cups (which I always recommend!) then there is no need to mash it as you will be blending it in a minute anyway.).
(You only need one sweet potato - two are pictured as I nicked this photo from my vegan sweet potato bread with pecan streusel post).
Tip your oat flour/ground oats (see below for instructions on how to make it) into a large bowl along with ground almonds, baking powder and salt and mix it well with a balloon whisk so no lumps remain.
Place your cooked sweet potato in a blender along with tinned full fat coconut milk (no substitutions!), almond milk (or another thin plant milk, or just water is fine), maple syrup (or you can use agave) and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well, the batter should be very thick. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Scrape the batter into a 23cm/9inch square greased and lined cake tin and spread it level. Bake until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a couple of moist crumbs but no wet batter.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin before turning it out and slicing into squares. It MUST be completely cold before you cut it otherwise the texture will be too wet.
How Long Will It Keep?:
I find that this cake doesn't keep particularly well - about 3-4 days max in an airtight container. Left for too long, particularly if the weather is warm, you may find that it goes mouldy.
How To Make Oat Flour:
You can purchase ready ground oat flour; but it is really simple to make your own. You just need to blitz rolled oats in a blender until they are very finely ground; it takes all of about 30 seconds.
I just weigh out the 215g of oats that I need for the recipe, grind them up in the blender, tip them out into a bowl then blitz up the wet ingredients as per the recipe (no need to clean the blender first).
If you tried this recipe why not tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess
Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cake (Vegan, Gluten Free, Low Fodmap)
Ingredients
- 215 g (2 cups + 2 Tbsp) finely ground oats/oat flour
- 230 g (2 cups) ground almonds
- 4 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 120 g (½ cup) cooked, mashed sweet potato
- 200 ml (½ + ⅓ cup) full fat coconut milk (tinned, NOT the drinking variety)
- 100 ml (⅓ cup + 1 Tbsp + 1tsp) unsweetened almond milk (or another thin non-dairy milk)
- 200 g (½ cup + 2 Tbsp) maple syrup
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 150 g (5.3 oz) dairy free chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Grease a 23cm/9 inch square cake tin and line with baking parchment.
- Place the ground oats and almonds, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and whisk until well combined.
- Place the cooked sweet potato in a blender along with the coconut milk, almond milk, maple syrup and vanilla extract and blend until smooth.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well until smooth; the batter should be very thick. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and spread it level.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin. It must be completely cold before serving otherwise the texture will be too wet.
- Store in an airtight container for up to three days.
Heather
Absolutely delicious! I made this for a big family BBQ, my son’s girlfriend is following a FODMAP diet and my son is vegan so it suited everyone, and everyone LOVED it! There was none left, and requests for the recipe.
A tip for baking... after 30 mins the skewer still came out gooey, so I turned the oven down to 150/160 for a further 10 mins or so.
Looking forward to making it again!
Katrina
Hi! How do you get or make ground almonds for the recipe?
hannahhossack
Hi Katrina, I just buy them from the supermarket. You can also get them online.
Katrina Skaar
Thank you!!
Jorge
Thank you for this delicious recipe. My wife is on the low FODMAP diet and she loved it!
Cheers from Los Angeles!