Coffee Swirl Cake (gluten-free/dairy-free!)

Calling all coffee lovers! This coffee swirl cake recipe is not your average coffee cake. While traditional coffee cake is to be served alongside coffee, this snack cake contains a small amount of ACTUAL coffee- giving it a delicious, lightly sweetened, coffee flavor. It’s gluten-free, dairy-free, and paleo friendly!

coffee swirl cake

ingredients needed:

Almond and Tapioca Flour: This is one of my favorite paleo flour combinations when it comes to baking! The almond flour gives the cake a light, airy, and fluffy texture, while the tapioca is a binding flour to hold everything together.

Organic Maple Syrup: For natural sweetness.

Applesauce: I used applesauce in replace of oil in this recipe. It gives it a light and airy texture!

Eggs: you need 3 whole eggs for this recipe.

Instant Coffee: For the coffee flavor, I used instead coffee granules. With the instant coffee, I was able to control the amount of liquid in the cake rather than using regular brewed drip coffee. You’ll need 2 tablespoons of instant coffee (regular or decaf) along with 1 tablespoon warm water to create a coffee concentrate.

Vanilla Extract: always!

Baking Powder and Baking Soda: for leavening.

Dairy-Free Cream Cheese Frosting: You can use whatever cream cheese frosting you know and love, homemade or store bought! I used 4 ounces of softened dairy-free cream cheese combined with 3 tablespoons of maple syrup for sweetness and it was perfect.

Cinnamon: for sprinkling on top!

coffee swirl cake vs. traditional coffee cake

If you didn’t know already, traditional coffee cake doesn’t contain any actual coffee. Who knew?! It is a snack cake to be served alongside your coffee.

A few months ago, a random idea popped into my head to make a coffee flavored cake. Not a traditional coffee cake, but one that captures the taste of real coffee. Personally, I love the taste of coffee. Plain black coffee, lattes, flavored coffees, you name it. This idea sent me into a deep dive researching all sorts of different coffee cake recipes. And I found that there were very few coffee “flavored” cake recipes. Because of this, I figured my recipe would be a hit or a huge miss.

Luckily for me, it turned out to be a hit! I absolutely love the way this recipe turned out. It has a light, fluffy texture and a lightly sweet, subtle coffee flavor. I paired it with a dairy-free cream cheese frosting and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon on top. I hope you love it as much as I do! πŸ™‚

coffee swirl cake

Coffee Swirl Cake

Lexi Finke
Calling all coffee lovers! This coffee swirl cake recipe is not your average coffee cake. While traditional coffee cake is to be served alongside coffee, this snack cake contains a small amount of ACTUAL coffee- giving it a delicious, lightly sweetened, coffee flavor. It's gluten-free, dairy-free, and paleo friendly!
5 from 3 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 8 servings
Calories 177 kcal

Equipment

  • 8×8 inch square baking pan OR small rectangular baking dish (8×6 inches)

Ingredients
  

Cake Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup applesauce
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups almond flour
  • 2 tbsp tapioca flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 2 tbsp instant coffee I used decaf but either will work
  • 1 tbsp warm water

Frosting Ingredients:

  • 4 oz dairy-free cream cheese softened
  • 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
  • sprinkle of cinnamon for topping

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  • In a mixing bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: eggs, maple syrup, applesauce, and vanilla extract.
  • In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients: almond flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Once combined, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently mix.
  • Combine 2 tablespoons of instant coffee and one tablespoon of warm water to form a small amount of coffee concentrate. Take about 1/2 cup of the combined batter and add it to the coffee mixture to make a small amount of coffee flavored batter.
  • Now you should have two bowls: one of the regular batter and one of the coffee flavored batter. Next, line a lightly greased baking dish with a piece of parchment paper.
  • Alternate adding a scoop of each batter to the baking dish until all the batter is used. If your batter is thick, gently bang the pan on the counter to flatten. Take a skinny knife or a toothpick and to swirl the batter before baking.
  • Bake the cake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees F or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  • Remove from the oven and let cool completely before adding the frosting.
  • For the frosting, use your favorite cream cheese frosting! I topped mine with 4oz softened dairy-free cream cheese combined with 3 tbsp maple syrup.
  • Sprinkle with cinnamon and enjoy!

Notes

See above gallery photos for step by step instructional photos!

Nutrition

Serving: 1sliceCalories: 177kcalFat: 10gProtein: 5gCarbohydrates: 19g
Keyword coffee cake, coffee cake with actual coffee, coffee flavored cake, coffee snack cake, coffee swirl cake, gluten free coffee cake, paleo coffee cake, snack cake recipes
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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