Rich, delicate chocolate cake is layered with freeze-dried strawberry vanilla frosting and topped with chocolate-covered strawberries. The perfect dessert for just about any special day.   

A cake that looks – and tastes – like a chocolate-covered strawberry sounds too good to be true, right?

This Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Frosting and Chocolate-Covered Strawberries may just make your dessert dreams come true! Best of all, it’s gluten-free, dairy-free, AND refined sugar-free too. 

To create this decadent, moist chocolate cake, dark chocolate pieces are melted down along with coconut oil and stirred with some coconut sugar and vanilla extract.

Gluten-free flour, baking soda, and baking powder to give it a nice rise. It’s then poured into mini springform pans and popped into a hot oven to bake. 

The perfectly pink frosting only requires two ingredients: I take a jar of vanilla frosting and mix it with powdered freeze-dried strawberries.

It still tastes homemade and is definitely a time-saving trick as opposed to making your own dairy-free frosting from scratch.

To top it off, chocolate ganache is poured down the sides for a dramatic effect.

Add a few chocolate-covered strawberries as decoration and you have one beautiful cake that is perfect for a birthday, bridal or baby shower, or any other worthy celebration! Hope you love this one!

Key Ingredients for Chocolate Strawberry Cake

If the idea of making your own cake from scratch intimidates you, just know that I will never steer you wrong! Grab these ingredients from the grocery store and follow my recipe step-by-step to get the desired result. 

• Dark Chocolate: @hukitchen is dairy-free and refined sugar-free and a must-have in my pantry for baking and snacking!   
• Coconut Oil: Opt for refined coconut oil if you don’t like the taste of coconut. Either way, the dark chocolate will mask any coconut flavor. 
• Coconut Sugar: This adds a caramel-like, slightly nutty taste to the cake. 
• Egg: I haven’t tried this cake with an egg alternative like a flax egg. Let me know if you try it and it works out! 

• Nut Milk: Any type of nut milk will do. I look for store-bought brands with minimal ingredients, such as @malkorganics or @threetreesfoods. 
• Gluten-Free Flour Blend: Baking gluten-free desserts is complicated enough which is why I often rely on gluten-free flour blends. I like Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Flour. 
• Vanilla Frosting: In my opinion, if you’re going through the effort to bake a cake go ahead and buy a jar of frosting! There are some great dairy-free frosting options these days like this one from Miss Jones. 

• Freeze-Dried Strawberries: A few blitzes in the food processor blender and you have strawberry dust! Stir into the vanilla frosting for that gorgeous pink color.  
• Coconut Cream: Adding a bit of coconut cream to the ganache creates the most luxurious, pourable consistency. Coconut cream is the thick layer on the top of a can of chilled coconut milk. 
• Dark Chocolate-Covered Strawberries: This makes for a fun topping! Since you’re already making this elaborate cake, go ahead and buy some chocolate-covered strawberries at your local bakery or grocery store! 

Step by Step Instructions for Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Frosting 

To start, preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare two 4-inch cake pans. I lined my spring-form pan with parchment paper. 

Bring water to a simmer in a small pot and place a heat-safe bowl on top.

Add the dark chocolate pieces and coconut oil to the bowl and slowly melt, stirring often, until just smooth.

Off the heat, whisk in the coconut sugar and vanilla and set aside to allow the mixture to fully cool.

Once cool, whisk in the eggs and nut milk. Note, adding the eggs too soon when the mixture is still warm may curdle the eggs! 

To a medium-sized mixing bowl add the gluten-free flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and gently stir to combine.

Pour the chocolate mixture into your dry ingredients and whisk until a smooth batter forms.

Pour the batter into your prepared cake pans and bake for 23 minutes or until there is no more wobble in the center and a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow the cakes to cool in the cake pans on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before removing them from the pan.

While the cakes are cooling, make the strawberry frosting and chocolate ganache.

Stir your powdered freeze-dried strawberries into the vanilla frosting until smooth.

Combine the ganache ingredient in a saucepan over low heat, stir until smooth, then set aside to cool.

Frost the cooled cakes, drizzle with chocolate ganache, and top with chocolate-covered strawberries and any other decorations. Serve and enjoy!

More Delicious Cake Recipes:

• Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Vanilla Cake with Raspberries
• Upside Down Gluten-Free Molten Lava Cake
• Chocolate Cake (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Refined Sugar-Free)
• Healthier Carrot Cake Bars
• Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake