A healthy cake recipe that’s vegan and gluten-free. Chickpeas are used making this cake is bursting with fibre and protein. Try this simple gluten free cake recipe even if you’re not very good at baking.
It’s topped with a cashew coconut frosting and fresh fruit. This chickpea strawberry cake is easy to make even though it uses aquafaba.
This gluten free cake recipe is suitable for plant-based, oil-free, grain-free, gluten-free and general whole foods diets. The main cake is suitable for nut-free diets but you will have to leave out the cashew nuts in the frosting. These can be replaced with just coconut for coconut whipped cream or you can use chocolate avocado frosting.
Chickpea Strawberry Cake Video
Play on YouTube or No music Video or Fast Version
This gluten free cake smells beautiful as it bakes with the fragrant coconut and a hint of strawberry. This recipe is oil free as I’m using coconut flour and no refined oils. You can add some oil with a high smoke point if you are less concerned with a healthy cake.
The healthy dairy free frosting uses half a can (15oz / 400ml) of coconut milk blended together with enough cashews to make a thick icing. I didn’t add any sweeteners as I didn’t think it needed it but you might want to adjust for your taste. Cashew nuts and coconut do add some sweetness.
Unfortunately the chickpea cake lost all of its red colour during the baking. After finishing the shooting I realised the way to make it have some colour from the beetroot is to save the beetroot juice and sprinkle on randomly once baked and before icing.
This gluten free cake has just a hint of strawberries and you taste more the strawberries on top. I did want to use strawberries in this cake as during testing I found without fruity tones it was just missing something.
I always like to add a bit of lemon or lime juice to my healthy cake recipes to cut through the sweetness. You can use either lemon or lime for this, but I often use lime.
My chickpea cake is high in protein and fibre but free of oil and only contains a small amount of sweetener. Use whatever sweetener you like. I used maple syrup and just a small amount as I don’t like it too sweet.
Chickpea and Gram Flour are the Same
Chickpea/gram flour can be sourced from most supermarkets, health food shops or from Asian supermarkets. It helps add lots of protein and fibre to this cake and gives structure. It’s important as without this it would just be too wet to hold properly – trust me I tried several times. Chickpea flour is often quite inexpensive from a normal or Asian supermarket.
You might want to cut this healthy cake in half and ice the middle. I think that would look very good but I just wasn’t in the mood for trial and error as this was the 6th time I made the cake on the day of shooting.
My chickpea cake is actually quite robust so could easily slice in half. Or just be made into two sandwich tins.
Chickpea Strawberry Cake
A healthy cake recipe that's vegan, gluten-free and full of goodness. Chickpeas are used so this cake is bursting with fibre and protein. No eggs or flour are used in this nutritious cake recipe.
Ingredients
Chickpea cake
- 1 Can Chickpeas, 15oz / 400ml
- 1 cup / 160g Strawberries
- 110g / 1 cup Coconut Flour
- 1 cup / 90g Chickpea / Gram Flour
- 6-12 tbsp Sweetener. like Maple or Date syrup
- 4 tbsp Flax Seed soaked in 12 tbsp Water
- 1 Lime, juiced
- 1 medium Beetroot
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
FROSTING
- ½ can Coconut Milk
- 2/3 cup / 100g Cashew Nuts
- 8 Strawberries, or more
- 20 Blueberries, or more
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 375f / 190c.
- Drain the chickpeas but save all the juice.
- Grind the flax seeds and soak in water for 5 minutes.
- Place everything for the cake into a food processor and blend until combined.
- Wisk the chickpea juice with an electric whisk for 5-6 minutes until stiff peaks are formed.
- Gently fold in the cake batter into the chickpea juice aquafaba (whisked chickpea juice).
- Spread the cake into a 7″ lined tin.
- Bake for 50 minutes, then a knife should come out clean.
- Blend the cashews and coconut milk together. Use a brand of coconut milk that is separated and drain off 3/4 of the water.
- Once the chickpea cake has cooled remove from pan, cover with the frosting and decorate with fruit.
- Store the gluten free cake in the fridge and enjoy within 5 days.
Notes
Equipment: 7″ springform pan, Oven, Food Processor, Greaseproof/parchment paper, Electric Whisk, Bowl and Blender.
Nutrition Information
Yield
12Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 265Total Fat 12gSaturated Fat 5gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 6gCholesterol 0mgSodium 149mgCarbohydrates 33gFiber 6gSugar 13gProtein 9g
Always use unsalted chickpeas when making the aquafaba for this recipe.
Has anyone made this yet? I love that it has chickpea flour in it and is gluten free. It looks totally yummy!
I’ve made it twice – I should try it more! The only change I would say to make is to cut it in half and ice the middle
How much a medium beetroot? In ounces or cups??
About 200g or 7oz, hope that helps!
thanks a lot for the recipe of the chickpea strawberry cake.
Why is beetroot necessary ? Should this be raw beetroot ?
Can I just drop it ?
It’s really just to add a bit of colour and I like to hide veggies in food. Either raw or cooked is fine just as long as it’s not in vinegar.
Totally fine to leave it out 🙂
I watched the video and the beetroot appeared to be cooked and the strawberries looked frozen. I got some prepared beets at trader joe’s but I will use fresh strawberries since I am in southern california. Do I need to alter the liquid?
Hi there, yes the beetroot was cooked and I used frozen strawberries as it was the winter in the UK when I first made this. I would use the exact same amount of berries once the stems are removed as I used the whole berries with the juice that came off after a short defrost. I added strawberries on top but just for decoration as they didn’t taste that good out of season!
If I wanted to make a small layered smash cake would this frosting work for the layers? I have never made a layered cake before, or my own frosting for that matter, but I am trying to make a healthy plant based cake for my little guys birthday!
I only have chickpeas cooked from scratch. Can the water they were cooked in be substituted for aquafaba? If so, how much should I use?
Hi there, you sure can (just make sure it’s not salted) I’ve just emptied a tin of chickpeas and checked the drained weight. About 115ml of aquafaba is what you get in a normal 400ml tin. Hope that helps
I can’t eat coconut. Can I substitute the coconut flour for more chickpea flour?
I would add something ground up with a fat content to replace the coconut. Like another nut or seed 🙂
Hi great recipes. I can’t eat berries. Would it taste good with bananas instead..? Thank you.
I think that would work great as the strawberries are just a subtle taste. Haven’t tried it myself but let me know how it turns out
I only had canned chickpeas that had salt. I went ahead and made the cake. I’m hoping it turns out OK still.
I think it will be, a touch of salt does add to the taste. Next time if you have salted I would soak in water for a bit to remove some of the salt
What can I replace the coconut flour with? I can’t have nut flour either.
How about buckwheat ground up?
Hi! I don’t have flax seeds, but I do have chia seeds. Can those be substituted? I also had flax seed meal but doesn’t seem to be the necessary consistency as shown in the video. Thanks!!
Hi there, yes chia can be used in place or flax meal – but use 1/2 the amount in the ingredients as it’s been ground up 🙂