Dairy-Free & Lactose-Free Cake Recipes

If you've been eyeing local cornmeal at your farmers' market, snap it up to make this cake. Cornmeal is ground from hard dried field corn (not the same type you nibble off the cob). And when it's freshly milled, it tastes—apologies in advance—cornier than what you can typically buy at the grocery store. This recipe was created to showcase the cornmeal from Davis Farm in Stonington, Connecticut, which has been growing the same variety of flint corn since the late 1600s. Serve with macerated berries or whipped cream. Read more about this recipe here.

This decadent, omega-3-rich cake was inspired by flourless Passover nut cakes. It's better if it sits overnight so the marmalade or jam can mellow with the chocolate and soak into the cake.

Sweets not your thing? This cake, a specialty of northern Italy, is almost savory, flavored with rosemary and pine nuts, and gets just a touch of sweetness from plumped raisins, with no added sugar. Chestnut flour tends to clump together, so for the best texture don't skip the sifting step. This recipe is part of Brooke Siem's Grandmother Project. Learn more about this recipe and other recipes Siem learned to make in the article How Cooking Connected One Chef with Grandmothers Across the World.

Serve this chocolate angel food cake with low-fat frozen yogurt and fresh fruit.

This light and heavenly sponge cake is lower in saturated fat because it is made with olive oil instead of butter. Dusted with a light coating of powdered sugar and surrounded by a champagne-laced fruit sauce, it's definitely a dessert worth serving at your next dinner party.

This strawberry and rhubarb upside-down cake recipe highlights how delicious strawberries and rhubarb taste together. If you can't find rhubarb, substitute an equal amount of any kind of berry or even fresh figs. This upside-down cake still tastes great the next day when the juiciness of the fruit has had time to marry with the moist olive oil cake.

This low-sugar angel food cake recipe gets sensational flavor but no additional carbs from shredded citrus peel. Fresh fruit on top adds nutrients.

This gluten-free, healthy snack uses almond butter and apples, but feel free to swap for other nut butter and fruit combinations, such as peanut butter and banana.

Grilling luscious seasonal fruit is the perfect way to end an outdoor celebration. Here, peaches soften and caramelize over a moderate fire before melding with a fruity red-wine sauce and toasted slices of (store-bought) angel food cake.

Warm cake topped with perfectly sweet strawberry sauce, what could be better?

Cherries have a natural affinity with almonds; here they unite in a delicious upside-down cake.

Add berries for unexpected little bursts of jam-like flavor in these little desserts. Tender and light, the cupcakes are fat-free and have only 135 calories each.

Your favorite combination of dried fruit makes these fruitcake slices special.

Layers of hazelnut-and-chocolate meringue meld with refreshing raspberry sorbet. This cake should be made the day before serving.

This chocolate cake is sophisticated, rich, moist and even a bit gooey, with a slightly crusty top. If you have grappa, use it instead of the rum. The cake can be served once it's completely cool, but for the best flavor and texture, make it the day before you plan on eating it. Serve with a sprinkling of confectioners' sugar or a dollop of whipped cream.

This pudding-like gluten-free coconut cake recipe gets its amazing flavor and texture from pureed oranges. Sour oranges (aka Seville oranges) are ideal in these healthy coconut cakes because of their acidity and thin skin, but most citrus fruit will work. Coconut flour is high in fiber and absorbent, making it a great choice for moist desserts. Almond flour adds fabulous texture and nutty flavor. Look for gluten-free flours in natural-foods markets.

A very thin slice of this dark fig and nut cake, redolent of orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg, is all you need at the end of a meal.

Haroset is a fruit-and-wine concoction eaten during the Passover Seder and said to represent the mortar that the Israelites used to build Pharaoh's temples. Here's a flourless cake that uses those flavors to create a dessert perfect for Passover--and with a luscious, thick, Italian sauce (pronounced zah-bahl-YOH-nay).

Caramelized apple slices are the perfect complement to the rich walnut cake.

Kahlua and espresso add rich flavor to this glazed mocha chiffon cake.

Almond-coconut meringue layers are topped with mango sorbet in this pretty frozen torte.