This past weekend we celebrated our son’s first birthday! It was so special to be able to have all four grandparents and 3 of his 7 great-grandparents at the party! After the all-day project I tried to tackle for my daughter’s 3rd birthday cake last fall…I was ready for something much more simple. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought, “I can totally do that and it won’t even be hard!!” So, the idea certainly was NOT original. Many of you asked for the recipe after I posted the pic so I thought I’d do a post on it. It is the same cake recipe I posted here and also the recipe I used for our daughter’s princess party cake here. BUT, this time I made it completely dairy-free as well! I will include the dairy-free frosting recipe below as well as the cake recipe. Enjoy!
Chocolate Construction Cake
Cake Ingredients (for ONE 8″ round cake* about 1 1/2″ thick–the cake pictured was two cakes stacked on top of each other):
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup arrowroot
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup cacao powder or cocoa powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup honey
3 eggs
1/3 cup melted coconut oil (if you aren’t avoiding dairy, you can use melted butter here)
2/3 cup almond milk
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Cake Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8″ round cake pan with parchment paper.
2. Combine coconut flour, arrowroot, almond flour, cacao, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a bowl and whisk to combine.
3. Add honey, eggs, coconut oil or melted butter, almond milk, lemon juice and vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix well. (I use an electric hand mixer.)
4. Pour cake batter into parchment paper-lined cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 17-22 minutes. Remove from oven when toothpick inserted comes out clean. Try not to overbake!
5. Cool completely and frost cake with chocolate coconut whipped cream frosting (below), if desired.
Chocolate Coconut Whipped Cream Frosting
Frosting Ingredients (I doubled the recipe for the two cakes stacked on top of each other):
1 can coconut milk (I prefer the Thai Organic coconut milk as it seems to be thicker when it separates than non-organic)
1 Tbsp. cocoa
1-2 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
Directions:
1. Put can of coconut milk in fridge for a few hours or a day or two. (Do not shake the can.)
2. Do NOT shake can, but open it with can opener.
3. Scoop out top “cream” layer with a spoon into a bowl. (For me it ends up being 1/3 – 1/2 can.) Save the liquid at the bottom of the can for something else.
4. Whip the cream until it becomes the consistency of whipped cream. (The first time I made it I actually had to add some of the watery liquid to thin it out a bit.)
5. Add cocoa, honey, maple syrup and vanilla if using and whip to combine. Add more sweetener or cocoa if desired!
6. Spread on cooled cake and decorate however you like!
*The cake I think is pretty self-explanatory. Just dig out a corner of the cake with a fork and pile the crumbs in another part of the cake. Place your construction toys wherever you like!
Shared at Allergy-Free Wednesdays!
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KKUYK
May 17, 2025 -
KYUKYUKYU
Shawn Doyle
Aug 23, 2017 -
How many calories in a slice? I’m doing Paleo, but still watching my overcall calories/macro intake.
Kathryn Moore
May 27, 2017 -
Can I sub another flour for the almond flour? My mother-in-law has an allergy to nuts.
Valan
Sep 21, 2015 -
Can you substitute the honey with stevia for a sugar free option?
Megan
Dec 12, 2013 -
My son made this today for my birthday..(I supervised). I have to say the frosting is Delicious!! We followed the directions exactly though we did find we had to add about 10 minutes to the cook time as it had not firmed up in the middle. After cooling the cake and removing it from the pan I noticed a funny almost “fishy” smell..?. The texture was great, however the cake had a funny taste..almost metallic? 🙁 Any ideas of what it might be? I so wanted it to work and will plan to try to make it again.
Megan
Dec 11, 2013 -
Is there something I can sub for arrowroot?
Jen @ The Unrefined Kitchen
Dec 11, 2013 -
Tapioca flour/starch works great too 🙂
Megan
Dec 11, 2013 -
Yay! Thanks!
Laura
Nov 22, 2013 -
I made this cake last month for my wedding and it was DEVOURED!!!
I iced it with a butter cream icing, and had 3 tiers, 3 layers in each tier except the top layer only had 2 layers. I just used the icing in between the layers. I did run out of coconut oil and had to use butter, which worked just fine. I only have a gluten allergy, so butter works fine for me. I also used skim milk instead of almond milk. It was just what I had on hand at the time.
The best part is that I baked the cakes early in the week and iced them all on Wednesday and Thursday for my Saturday wedding. They lasted and still tasted great by then. And I have never seen a wedding cake go so fast!
Thank you so much for the recipe 🙂 And all my wedding guests thank you too!
Jennifer
Feb 17, 2014 -
That is so exciting! I’d love to see a picture!!
Carlye
Aug 8, 2013 -
For the cake recipe, is it possible to substitute maple syrup for the honey? In addition to not being able to eat wheat, I have fructose malabsorption so am unable to process the honey.
Jennifer
Aug 10, 2013 -
I would think it should work though I haven’t tried it. They are both liquids so I don’t see why not!
Salixisme
Jul 22, 2013 -
That is just so cute! I had never thought about putting plastic toys as decorations on a cake!
And it is always useful to have a birthday cake recipe…
Kristen
Jul 9, 2013 -
This looks so cute! Could I replace the almond milk for coconut milk? I just don’t keep almond milk in the house but I keep coconut milk around. Thanks!
Jennifer
Jul 9, 2013 -
Yes that should work great!