Vegan Chocolate Cake!
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A delicious, fudgey, and insane three-layer vegan chocolate cake!
Vegan chocolate cake
So, LOOK HOW AMAZING THIS CAKE LOOKS! I couldn’t resist saying that. I am not trying to blow my own trumpet here, but I just adore how this cake looks in all the photos. It also tastes amazing.
This cake, is completely and utterly deliciously VEGAN. Don’t worry, it also tastes amazing for non-vegans.
There is so much stigma around vegan food – and it bugs me. There is no reason that vegan food can’t be delicious – and this cake proves it! Look at ittttttttt!!!
Vegan recipes
I have a friend that is one of those people who is skeptical, but even he admits that the vegan recipes I have made for this blog are ‘bl**dy delicious’ and he always wants another slice. This particular one? He didn’t even realise it was vegan until I told him.
This recipe is based on my vegan Biscoff cupcakes and my vegan vanilla cupcakes, but morphed into chocolate, and made into an irresistible three-layer chocolatey fudgey delicious showstopper.
There was basically no reason as to my the sponges from my other vegan recipes couldn’t be made into a chocolate version, by simply using cocoa powder in place of some of the flour, and then increasing it all to make it into a cake!
Two layer cake
I did originally make this as just a two-layer cake, but the sponges aren’t that high in depth – so three looked much better, and just means you get even more delicious in every slice! You can make it just two layer if you prefer though – notes below!
Keeping it simple
I am personally not vegan myself, but I do often think that some recipes are quite daunting, because of all the extra ingredients that you don’t tend to have lying around the house. For this cake, I tried to reduce this massively.
A classic chocolate sponge uses five ingredients, this uses seven. I really don’t think that’s too bad – and the only thing I think people will tend to not have is the white wine vinegar – but this is really cheap to buy so no worries!
Cocoa powder
The recipe itself is just an increased amount as I say from the vegan cupcakes, but then using a dark and delicious (and vegan) cocoa powder gives it such a dark and fudgey taste.
I use the Dr Oetker fine dark cocoa powder (that does have a warning of ‘may contain’) but otherwise, does say it’s suitable for vegans. There are many others you can also buy however!
Frosting
For the deeeelightful chocolate frosting, I used the same recipe that I use on my dairy & gluten free chocolate cake recipe. It’s increased to make it enough for a three layer cake, but otherwise its the same.
Chocolate
On my the dairy free recipe though, I received a very negative and nasty comment about ‘how I was trying to poison people by telling them to use chocolate.’ I will say this again, MOST DARK CHOCOLATES ARE DAIRY FREE.
I use Callebaut chocolate, but I often find that a large percentage of supermarket own dark chocolate is also vegan, and it’s so cheap! So no, I am not trying to poison anyone.
Vegan butter
I use Stork block, Vitalite, or other dairy free spreads – and they all work well. When making it, it does make a veeeery soft frosting, but adding in the chocolate firms it up eventually as the dark chocolate will harden.
Enjoy!
This cake is so fudgey, so delicious, and epic. My vegan chocolate cake! X
Vegan Chocolate Cake!
Ingredients
Vegan Chocolate Cakes
- 550 g self raising flour
- 125 g cocoa powder
- 450 g light/dark brown sugar
- 600 ml almond milk (or other dairy free milks)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 265 ml vegetable oil
- 1.5 tbsp white wine vinegar
Vegan Chocolate Frosting
- 300 g dairy free spread
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 500 g icing sugar
- 275 g dark chocolate
Instructions
For the Cakes!
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan, and line three 8"/20cm cake tins with parchment paper on the bottom.
- In a large bowl, add your flour, sugar and cocoa powder.
- Whisk them together so they're evenly distributed.
- Pour in your milk, vanilla, oil and vinegar.
- Mix the mixture until smooth - try not to over mix however. I just use a spatula.
- Split evenly between the three tins, and bake for 30-35 minutes.
- Once baked, leave to cool in the tins for 10-15 minutes, and then move on to a wire rack to cool fully. Be careful when handling the sponges as they will be very soft and could break easily.
- Once cooled, refrigerate the cakes for 10-15 minutes before decorating to make them easier to handle.
For the Frosting!
- Carefully melt your dark chocolate until smooth. I do it in the microwave on short bursts! Leave to cool slightly.
- Beat your dairy free spread on its own briefly to smooth it.
- Add in your icing sugar and vanilla and beat again until smooth.
- Add in the melted chocolate, and beat again!
To Decorate!
- Add your first sponge to a plate/boad, and pipe/spread 1/3 of the frosting onto the first cake.
- Repeat this with the second cake, and then with the third!
- Decorate with fresh fruit, and vegan friendly sprinkles!
Notes
- This recipe will last for 3 days! Can be kept at room temperature, but fridge will do - it will just go quite solid!
- For a two layer version use:
- 350g self raising flour, 100g cocoa powder, 300g light/dark brown sugar, 400ml almond milk, 1.5tsp vanilla, 175ml vegetable oil, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar - split between two tins and bake for the same time!
- Use 2/3 of the ingredients for the decoration!
- You can use any dairy free milk, and any dairy free spread!
- I used Callebaut chocolate, but any dairy
ENJOY!
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J x
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Made this for daughters 21st birthday. She and her housemates at uni are vegan. They thought it was amazing. Comments were ‘please make it again’ and ‘the best vegan cake I’ve ever tasted’. Definitely a brilliant cake. Was very delicate when I tried to stack and cut it. Think next time I’ll leave to completely cool in tin and may even just do two tiers. Thanks Jane, as ever a brilliant cake. Not found a recipe that isn’t amazing.
Hi Jane, I love this recipe, my husband always requests it as he avoids dairy, and nobody can believe it’s vegan! 😊Just a quick question, sometimes when I make the icing it seems to immediately go quite hard and difficult to spread, let alone pipe! I can still use it but it doesn’t look as good and is hard to work with. But a few times ive made it and it’s been lovely and supple and I’ve been able to pipe it on and make it look pretty. Do you know what it might be that I’ve done wrong on the times it hasn’t worked very well? I can’t seem to think what I’ve done differently. Thank you! x
Would apple cider vinegar work instead of white wine please?! 🙂
For sure!
Hi Jane. I need to make this but as a sheet cake for a football pitch theme…can you help with quantities and timings please?
Thank you
Hi, I’m baking this and it’s taking an age to cook! (On 160C top shelf) been in over an hour and still gooey in the middle – is this right?
Hiya! What size tin did you use? and are you sure your oven temp is correct? There is no reason a cake that is quite shallow will take an hour unless something hasn’t been done correctly such as ingredient or tin changes. x
Hey I’m looking at making this recipe for our family, however one member is Vegan, the other is severely nut intolerant (as in massively allergic) any suggestion on what milk I can use?
I have found special dark chocolate online that’s free of everything (no idea what it tastes like though
HIya! Oat or soy should work fine – hope this helps! x
My son is dairy free so I’d like to make this today but without the vinegar. Can I just swap the oil and vinegar for eggs? If so how many? Thanks 😊
Hiya! Take a look at my dairy free chocolate cake recipe! Hope this helps x
Hey Jane I was hoping to make this for a baby shower but really want to cover it in sugarpaste as a finish, will it be strong enough to stand sugarpaste covering? I tried it with the vegan vanilla sponge and it was a bit of a disaster as the sponge was sooooo soft…
Hiya! This sponge is equally as soft – I would recommend chilling the sponges before decorating so they are firmer! Hope this helps! x
Can I use olive oil instead of vegetable oil?
Hiya! I wouldn’t recommend it as olive oil has a taste to it – but sunflower oil works well! Hope this helps! x
I made this for my (vegan) friend’s 30th yesterday. It was such a hit – everyone had seconds, and agreed that this was one of the best chocolate cakes they’d had. Thanks Jane 🙂
Can I use vegan milk chocolate instead of dark choc in the frosting?
Hiya! Yes absolutely you can, enjoy! x
In order to make this just an egg free cake could you still use full fat milk (instead of dairy free)
Yes absolutely you can! Enjoy! x
Hi Jane, Could I use this recipe to make a Xmas log by any chance?
i was wondering the same thing!
Hi Jane
Made this for the second time last night and so pleased with your recipe. Looks fab too
Hi Jane,
Just wondering what quantity you’d use for a tray bake? 9×13″ thanks. Total novice so trying to make it as easy as possible for myself
Thanks for this, life saver! My first attempt came out a bit dense and tasted VERY dark (imagine a 75% dark choc brownie, delicious though), and I’m looking to make a kids cake, so I swapped the second lot to half brown half caster sugar, and lowered the cocoa with an extra spoon of flour. Tasted exactly like my non vegan choc cake! Highly recommend using the superfine ‘cake’ flour for this.
Can i freeze this please
Yea you can!