Gluten Free Halloween Cake

It was a dark and stormy night…and I was creeping through the kitchen to bake up a spooky fright! Well… maybe not a fright, but definitely this gluten free Halloween cake! If you couldn’t already tell, Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, or Samhain is my favorite holiday. It combines some of my favorite things: dressing up, spooky/Gothic aesthetic, and chocolate of course! Now, this lovely holiday has evolved over the years into what it is today, but it originated with the Pagan celebration of Samhain (pronounced Saw-wen). It was the Pagan’s end of the year celebration before the start of the new darker part of the year on November 1st. It was believed that on the night of the 31st of October, that the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead would become easy to cross over, thus allowing ghosts and ghouls and other spirits to come and terrorize the living.

Now, with the pandemic still going on and parents taking every precaution to keep their families healthy, everyone is trying to find different ways of celebrating this year. In my hometown, we are very well known for having a large Halloween parade every year that allows everyone to show off their costumes. And living in a town so entrenched in drama and theatre, there are some pretty amazing ones! This year we won’t be able to enjoy that, but we still plan on dressing up to attend our video calls with friends and family.

This gluten free Halloween cake is a huge monstrosity of a pastry; four full layers of chocolate and pumpkin with sugary buttercream to top it off. I won’t even need the store-bought Halloween candy. I’ll be too full of this cake and too close to slipping into a food coma.

If you enjoyed our spooky Halloween cake and want something else delicious to sink your fangs into, check out our Mini Red Velvet Bundt Cakes, our Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart, or our Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting!

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Gluten Free Halloween Cake

Interweaving layers of chocolate and pumpkin in the spooky cake!

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Cooling Time30 minutes mins

Total Time2 hours hrs

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Keyword: baked, buttercream, cake, cake decorating, charlotte cake, chocolate, dessert, fall, gluten free, halloween, layer cake, pumpkin

Servings: 16 people

Calories: 429kcal

Author: Kendra Farber

Cost: $20

Equipment

• Electric mixer
• Cake pans

Ingredients

For the Pumpkin layers:

• 2 1/2 Cups gluten free 1-1 flour mix
• 3/4 Cup white sugar
• 1 Tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tsp salt
• 1 Tsp baking powder
• 1 Tsp baking soda
• 1/4 Tsp ginger
• 1/4 Tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 Tsp allspice
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 Cup canola oil
• 3/4 Cup milk
• 3/4 Cup pumpkin puree
• 1 Cup brown sugar

For the Chocolate layers:

• 3/4 Cup salted butter softened, room temperature
• 1 2/3 Cup white sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 Tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Cups gluten free 1-1 flour mix
• 2/3 Cup cocoa powder
• 1 Tsp baking soda
• 1/4 Tsp baking powder
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• 1 Cup water
• 1/3 Cup buttermilk

For the Buttercream Frosting:

• 2 1/2 Cups salted butter softened, room temperature
• 6 Cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 – 1 Cup milk
• food coloring

Instructions

For Your Cake Layers:

• First, make your cake! Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit and generously grease 4 nine inch round cake pans ( you can also line them with parchment circles to more easy removal) and set aside. For the pumpkin layers: in a medium bowl, combine the egg, oil, milk, pumpkin, and brown sugar whisk until fully combined. Add in the flour, white sugar, spices, baking powder and soda, and salt and whisk to combine. Pour batter into 2 of the greased cake pans.
• For the chocolate layers: in a medium bowl, combine the eggs, butter, water, buttermilk, white sugar, and vanilla and whisk until fully combined. Add in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda, and salt and whisk to combine. Pour batter into the other 2 greased cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean.

  Let the cakes cool for at least 25 minutes.

For the Buttercream Frosting:

• While cakes are cooling, make the buttercream frosting. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and powdered sugar. Add in 1 cup of the powdered sugar at a time to prevent it from flying everywhere. Then add the milk and continue to beat until it reaches your desired spreadable consistency. Add any flavoring you want (example: vanilla extract) and also any food coloring. With the Halloween theme in mind I chose black and orange!
• For assembling the cake, layer chocolate, then pumpkin, chocolate, then pumpkin to give the striped effect. Use the buttercream for filling between each of the layers and then to cover the entire cake. Then the best part…decorating!

Tag @sisterssansgluten on Instagram if you snap a photo of your cake!