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    Whip & Wander » Recipes » Desserts

    Published: Jul 31, 2018 · Modified: Jul 31, 2022 by Jenni · This post may contain affiliate links.

    Harry Potter's Sticky Chocolate Birthday Cake (Gluten-Free)

    This page may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure policy for details.
    Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe
    three green cake plates with slices of pink frosted gluten free chocolate cake
    a pink frosted chocolate cake with green lettered icing on a gluten free chocolate cake with a dark blue green towel, an envelope, and a cake server resting nearby
    a stack of harry potter books with a big gluten-free chocoalte birthday cake frosted in pink icing
    a slice of chocolate birthday cake with pink icing on a green plate with a fork, sitting next to a harry potter book resting on a dark teal towel
    a harry potter book sitting next to a slice of harry potter's sticky chocolate birthday cake on a green glass plate
    a pink frosted chocolate cake with green icing writing on top resting on a wooden cake stand with a dark blue green towel underneath

    a pink and green iced chocolate birthday cake sitting on a wooden cake stand with a harry potter cook, a cake server, and a dark teal down nearby

    "Anyway — Harry, a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."

    From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing. - Rubeus Hagrid, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

    Today is July 31st, which means that it's Harry Potter's birthday. So, it's only fitting that I close out a month of Harry Potter recipes with a big, sticky chocolate cake just like the one Harry received from Hagrid on his 11th birthday. My version of Harry Potter's Sticky Chocolate Birthday Cake is the perfect homage to the magic and whimsy in the Harry Potter books with a gluten-free twist.

    A chocolate birthday cake with pink frosting sitting on top of a stack of harry potter books

    a pink frosted cake that says hapee birthdae harry in green icing sitting on a tree stump with a dark blue green towel, a cake server, and an envelope

    Harry Potter's Sticky Chocolate Birthday Cake is Ugly Delicious

    This might be the ugliest frosting job I've ever done on a cake. Let's be honest, Hagrid's decorating skills left something to be desired. But, I was always confident that the contents of Harry Potter's Sticky Chocolate Birthday Cake were bound to be delicious, so who really cares if it's pretty? Give me a fork. This is my official go-to chocolate cake recipe for celebrations and thankfully, it can be decorated to be as pretty or as whimsical as you like. For this particular cake, I chose to honor the traditional messy and misspelled red and green icing that Hagrid decorated with on top, but left the sides fairly naked because cake > frosting in my books.

    a hand cutting into a pink and green frosted birthday cake on a tree stump

    a hand holding a cake server under a piece of sliced birthday cake which is decorated in pink and green frosting

    The part where I make an absurdly confident assertion about a baked good

    Though I've had many tasty slices of gluten-free cake before, texture-wise you could still always tell that you were eating a gluten-free baked good. That may be fine for those who have long since gotten used to the slightly-grainy texture that most gluten-free desserts contain, but just never stacks up for the connoisseurs of a good old fashioned Betty Crocker mix. I feel confident that you could serve Harry Potter's Sticky Chocolate Birthday Cake to the most discernable of gluten-eaters and they would have no clue they were eating a totally grain-free, gluten-free, refined sugar-free cake. It's that good.

    The elements of a moist and fluffy gluten-free bake

    I use three types of grain-free, gluten-free flour in this cake recipe: Almond flour, coconut flour, and arrowroot flour. Are they all necessary? Yes. Atleast if you want to properly fool those pesky sweet gluten-eaters. The bulk of this cake is made up of almond flour, but the coconut flour and arrowroot flour both play important roles in giving the cake the structure and fluffiness of a traditional cake and softening the sometimes gritty texture of almond flour, so I highly recommend you don't skip either one.

    This recipe contains a small amount of apple cider vinegar. Do you remember those fun volcanos from science class that were made from baking soda and vinegar? They bubbled up and created lots of fluffy froth. Using apple cider vinegar in this recipe is more or less the same concept, except it results in a fluffier cake instead of a frothy explosion.

    The other element that really helps the cake obtain a great bake is coconut sugar. Though honey is my favorite refined sugar-free sweetener for some desserts, it often encourages a denser bake. Therefore, coconut sugar is my preferred sweetener in this recipe because it helps further provide structure (the fluffy air pockets you get on a traditional cake) and helps lock in moisture. I have routinely let this cake sit for 2-3 days in storage bags in the fridge before ever getting around to frost it and it was still fluffy and moist when we finally ate it.

    a dark green and blue towel with a harry potter book and a slice of chocolate cake on a green plate sitting on top

    a green glass plate with a slice of chocolate cake and a fork sitting next to a harry potter book on a wooden surface

    A note for special diets

    The actual cake layers on Harry Potter's Sticky Chocolate Birthday Cake are gluten-free, grain-free, refined sugar-free, and friendly for Paleo diets. However, you'll want to pay attention to the frosting adjustment if you want the entire dessert to stay completely Paleo.

    I use two different frostings in this: a fluffy chocolate coconut whipped cream filling that is completely Paleo friendly and a creamy, whipped frosting on top that utilizes honey and butter. Because butter is not strictly Paleo, you can easily make a swap for palm shortening instead if you prefer.

    Alternatively, if you are not following a paleo diet and want to make this extra easy, in the words of Ina "Store-bought is fine." I recently remade this cake in order to update the photos and utilized Simple Mills gluten-free vanilla frosting and chocolate frosting instead.

    three green glass plates with slices of chocolate cake with pink frosting on a wooden tray

    a pink and green frosted sticky chocolate birthday cake with a harry potter decorated theme

    LOOKING FOR MORE HARRY POTTER-INSPIRED RECIPES?

    You’re in luck! You can find all my Harry Potter-inspired recipes and other magical content linked HERE.

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    a pink and green iced chocolate birthday cake sitting on a wooden cake stand with a harry potter cook, a cake server, and a dark teal down nearby

    Harry Potter's Sticky Chocolate Birthday Cake (Gluten-Free)

    ★★★★★ 5 from 6 reviews
    • Author: Whip & Wander
    • Prep Time: 20 minutes
    • Cook Time: 25 minutes
    • Total Time: 45 minutes
    • Yield: 10 slices 1x
    • Category: Dessert
    • Method: Oven
    • Cuisine: British
    • Diet: Gluten Free
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    Description

    This recipe for Harry Potter's Sticky Chocolate Birthday Cake is the perfect homage to the magic and whimsy that J.K. Rowling offered the muggle world with her books with a gluten-free twist.


    Ingredients

    Scale

    For the cake layers:

    • 3 cups almond flour
    • ¼ cup coconut flour
    • ¼ cup arrowroot flour
    • 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    • ¾ cup coconut sugar
    • 2 tsp baking soda
    • 1 tsp sea salt
    • ½ cup coconut oil, liquid
    • 1 (13.5oz) can coconut milk
    • 4 large eggs, room temperature
    • 2 tbsp raw honey
    • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
    • 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

    For the creamy chocolate whipped cream filling:

    • 1 (13.5oz) can coconut cream, refrigerated for atleast 12 hours
    • 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
    • 1 tbsp coconut sugar

    For the buttercream frosting:

    • ½ cup unsalted butter (or palm shortening for Paleo), softened
    • ½ cup raw honey
    • food coloring dyes (omit for Paleo)

    *See alternative easy frosting options in the notes below


    Instructions

    For the cake layers:

    1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (177 C). Grease 3, 7-inch cake pans with coconut oil and line with parchment paper and set to the side.
    2. Add the almond, coconut, and arrowroot flours, cocoa powder, coconut sugar, baking soda, and salt to a large mixing bowl. Whisk dry ingredients together and then set to the side.
    3. In a medium mixing bowl, add the coconut oil, coconut milk, eggs, honey, vanilla, and vinegar. Whisk ingredients together until well-combined and then transfer the wet ingredients into the large bowl of dry ingredients using a spatula.
    4. Transfer the cake batter evenly to the three prepared cake pans.
    5. Bake for 24-26 minutes, or until it passes the clean toothpick test.
    6. Allow each layer to cool completely before frosting and assembling.

    For the creamy chocolate whipped cream filling:

    1. Add the coconut cream, cocoa powder, and coconut sugar to a food processor or stand mixer and mix on medium-high until fluffy and well-blended. It's extremely important that your coconut cream is fully cold, otherwise it will not whip up properly.
    2. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use, then separate half of the mixture onto the top of the bottom cake layer and the other half onto the top of the middle cake layer.

    For the buttercream frosting:

    1. Cream butter and honey in your food processor, a stand mixer, or a mixing bowl with a hand mixer on medium-high until the mixture lightens in color and becomes creamy.
    2. Separate the frosting into 2 portions: one for the cake body and one for the cake lettering. Add food coloring dye to your preferred shade of red and green in each frosting portion.
    3. Once the cake portions are assembled, frost the top of the cake in the red frosting and pipe the birthday message onto the cake with the green frosting. Because this is such an intentionally messy cake design, I don't even bother filling the frosting into a proper pastry bag. I add it to a ziplock and snip the tip to pipe the letters.

    Notes

    Nutritional information on Whip & Wander is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site.

    The actual cake layers on Harry Potter's Sticky Chocolate Birthday Cake are gluten-free, grain-free, refined sugar-free, and friendly for Paleo diets. However, you'll want to pay attention to the frosting adjustment if you want the entire dessert to stay completely Paleo. I use two different frostings in this: a fluffy chocolate coconut whipped cream filling that is completely Paleo friendly and a creamy, whipped frosting on top that utilizes honey and butter. Because butter is not strictly Paleo, you can easily make a swap for palm shortening instead if you prefer. Alternatively, if you are not following a paleo diet and want to make this extra easy, there are many great pre-made frosting options. I recently remade this cake in order to update the photos and utilized Simple Mills gluten-free vanilla frosting and chocolate frosting instead.


    Nutrition

    • Serving Size: 1 slice
    • Calories: 555
    • Sugar: 33 g
    • Sodium: 572 mg
    • Fat: 42 g
    • Saturated Fat: 30 g
    • Carbohydrates: 47 g
    • Fiber: 5 g
    • Protein: 7 g
    • Cholesterol: 98 mg

    Keywords: gluten-free chocolate cake, harry potter

    Did you make this recipe?

    Tag @whipandwander on Instagram and hashtag it #whipandwander

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Danielle says

      August 14, 2018 at 11:00 pm

      What a fun cake! You can never go wrong with a classic chocolate cake really.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
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