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A beautiful and incredibly delicious pear chocolate olive oil cake! This healthier paleo chocolate pear cake recipe is gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and dairy-free!
It doesn’t matter whether you serve this cake at a birthday party, dinner party with friends, or a cozy coffee afternoon with the family. It will ALWAYS make quite an impression. Because it’s not only incredibly delicious, moist, and chocolaty, IT ALSO looks stunning. Compliments are guaranteed!
Close your eyes and imagine a moist, gooey chocolate cake with delicate flavors of cardamom and cinnamon. Still here? Now, take it a level up and add a thin layer of pear and chopped hazelnuts resulting in an even moister and fruity experience with beautiful nutty flavors.
Top-notch! There’s no better way to describe this chocolate pear cake!
Paleo & Gluten-Free
Making brownies gluten-free is easier than you think. Use almond flour, almond meal or ground almonds instead of wheat flour. You can even go for ground hazelnuts.
This cake tastes somewhat similar to these moist Paleo Brownies! 😉
Almond flour can be relatively expensive and hard to find in smaller grocery stores (depending on in which country you live). Therefore, I highly recommend making your own homemade almond flour.
As this recipe is paleo-friendly, it’s not only gluten-free but also refined sugar-free, and dairy-free, made with olive oil and coconut sugar. If you don’t care about paleo and are only on the look for gluten-free chocolate cake, feel free to use the appropriate substitutions listed in the note section of the recipe card.
Gluten-Free Olive Oil Cake
Olive oil in a sweet cake? 🤔 Yes, that’s right! This chocolate cake is made with olive oil. Don’t let that fact scare you away because it really does taste incredibly delicious.
But if that’s a little too much for you to take in, you can substitute the olive oil with coconut oil or margarine (not Paleo-friendly). Otherwise, I’d say give it a try! 😁
Chocolate Olive Oil Cake Recipe – Step-by-Step
This step-by-step guide will help you along the way – definitely recommended if you’re a baking beginner! The exact quantities and everything else you need to know for the recipe can be found in the recipe card below.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line an 8-inch (20cm) springform pan with parchment paper and grease with some coconut oil.
- Melt the chocolate over a water bath or in the microwave.
- Mix egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl of a stand mixer. Add melted chocolate and olive oil, mix until combined. Stir in almond flour, ground cinnamon, and cardamom.
- Whisk egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form.
- Fold into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan.
- Half the pear, remove the core and stem, thinly slice and arrange beautifully on the batter. Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts.
- Bake for 50 minutes (until a toothpick comes out mostly clean). Remove from the oven, place on a wire rack, and let it cool completely in the springform pan.
- Indulge!
The recipe is adapted from the talented Renee Byrd’s Will Frolic for Food “Flourless Chocolate Olive Oil Cake with Cardamom, Pears, and Hazelnuts”!
Recipe FAQ & Tips
How long does this cake stay fresh? Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. → Although this chocolate cake tastes best when eaten within the same day.
Sugar: This chocolate cake is made with less sugar than regular chocolate cake. Thus it’s less sweet and healthier. Feel free to use up to ¾ cup (140g) coconut sugar for a sweeter cake!
Coconut Sugar Substitution: Use ½ cup (100g) brown sugar instead of coconut sugar! → Be aware; brown sugar is not paleo-friendly!
Olive Oil Substitution: Use ½ cup regular or dairy-free butter. → Butter or margarine (even if dairy-free) are not paleo-friendly! Can also be substituted with virgin coconut oil for a paleo-friendly option.
More Chocolate Recipes You’ll Love:
- Paleo Brownies
- Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
- Vegan Chocolate Pie
- Healthy Avocado Chocolate Mousse
- Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Did You Try This Recipe?
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📖 Recipe
Pear Chocolate Olive Oil Cake (Paleo)
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Ingredients
- ¾ cup (135 g) dark chocolate chips sugar- & dairy-free
- 3 organic eggs egg yolks and whites separated
- ½ cup (95 g) coconut sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup (110 g) extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup (100 g) almond flour
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 small pears thinly sliced
- ⅓ cup (50 g) hazelnuts roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line an 8-inch (20cm) springform pan with parchment paper and grease with some coconut oil.
- Melt the chocolate over a water bath or in the microwave.
- Mix egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl of a stand mixer. Add melted chocolate and olive oil, mix until combined. Stir in almond flour, ground cinnamon, and cardamom.
- Whisk egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. Fold into the batter and pour into the prepared springform pan.
- Half the pears, remove the core and stem, thinly slice and arrange beautifully on the batter. Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts.
- Bake for 50 minutes (until a toothpick comes out mostly clean). Remove from the oven, place on a wire rack, and let it cool completely in the springform pan.
- Indulge!
