Vegan Chocolate Cake (THE BEST)

RECIPE BELOW!! If I had a choice of what sweet I could have for the rest of my life, it would be chocolate. I. LOVE. CHOCOLATE. Give it to meeee. I crave it and a good chocolate cake over any other sweet. It holds a special place in my heart. Now as I’m older, I love a good bitter dark chocolate square to satisfy my sweet tooth. Gah. So good.

As we were continuing on our plant-based journey, I wanted chocolate cake. Being a novice, I tried some recipes online. They were OK, but they used apple sauce or flax egg for the egg replacer, which made the cake gritty.

I was like…”?! Why? Why are we doing this?? A chocolate cake is not supposed to be gritty. “‘WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!?!’” (in the voice of Patrick Star from Spongebob)

Anyway, I was determined to make my own chocolate cake. I wanted it to be light, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth, and overall DELICIOUSLY CHOCOLATEY TASTING. So, off I went.

It took a couple tries, but man, when I got the recipe right, I got it right. After Hurricane Laura, we had family living with us in Texas for a while because the devestation was unbelievable. My daughter’s birthday fell during this time, so lots of family got to try my best vegan chocolate cake. Y’all. It disappeared within 24 hours. I felt self conscience about it because not everyone is vegan, and my icing piping was kind of pitiful lol. But my sister and brother in law reassured me over and over: “No. This cake is seriously one of the best I’ve had — I need you to take it away because I’ve already had multiple pieces.”

It’s weird to “toot-my-own-horn” about it, but over the years this cake has proven a favorite among all eaters, and no one knows it’s vegan until someone tells them.

My kids request this cake for Easter, birthdays, Valentine’s, etc. They loveeeeee this chocolate cake. I needed to create this post so that people can print the recipe and not be scrolling on YouTube video descriptions for the recipe.

If you try this cake, please leave a review. People are more likely to try recipes if they have reviews and others besides the author are giving their opinion about it lol.

So, in conclusion, here are some lessons from Mrs. Clements (gotta let the teacher in me shine for a sec):

Lesson #1: Don’t you dare put apple sauce of flax in a cake that you’re wanting to taste light and fluffy. It doesn’t matter what you tell yourself, it wont taste the same texturally. Sorry. Don’t do it. USE AQUAFABA. It’s your egg-white replacer that give the cake some structure and spongy-lift with its protein content and egg-white qualities. It also has no taste, which is why no one can tell the cake doesn’t contain eggs.

Lesson #2: Chocolate cakes NEED a small element of coffee in it. Trust me. I’ve made both, and the flavor of the natural bitter chocolate bean is heightened to a completely different level with a splash of the bitter coffee bean. Think about it: it’s the bean marriage of the century. Don’t have a chocolate cake without it. It will be underwhelming and just generically ‘chocolate.’

I sincerely hope you try out this cake. It’s simple and can really become one of your staples like it has become for us.

J’aime la chocolate. ❤️ Enjoy, mes amis! A plus tard…

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Vegan Chocolate Cake

Yield: 20-24

Author: Camryn Clements

Over 3 years this cake has proven to be one of the MOST requested and favorites! Moist, rich chocolatey flavor, and its freshness are beyond compare. Egg-and dairy-free

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

• 3/4 cups non-dairy milk
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup coffee
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup of unwhipped aquafaba: the juice from a can of beans (I use chickpeas)
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsps baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Basic Vegan Vanilla Icing

• 1- 1lb bag of powdered sugar
• 8 Tbsps of vegan butter of choice (I like Earth Balance for its neutral flavor)
• 6-8 Tbsps of non-dairy milk of choice (see recipe)
• 1 Tbsp of vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Spray baking pan(s) or prepare cupcake tins.
2. Make the curdled milk by adding the vinegar to the almond milk. Stir and set aside until frothy (about 5 min).
3. Whisk together the dry ingredients.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients & mix until well combined, careful not to over mix.
5. Pour batter into the prepared pan. If doing cupcakes, pour 1/4 cup of batter into each cupcake.
6. Bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 18-20 min for cupcakes, 20-25 minutes for other cakes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

Make the icing

1. Whip the butter until fluffy with an electric mixer.
2. Add the wet ingredients and beat until incorporated.
3. Add the powdered sugar, a little at a time, starting at a slow speed. Continue adding sugar and increasing the speed until all the sugar is mixed in and the icing forms.
4. Spread or pipe onto cake and enjoy!

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