Vegan Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Vegan chocolate cake decorated with homemade simple candy for Halloween…

Recently I’ve been really interested in vegan baking, it’s an interesting challenge having to substitute animal based ingredients with plant based ingredients without sacrificing the taste and making sure that the bake is still fluffy and perfect.

So for Halloween I decided to bake a chocolate cake, frost it with fudgey chocolate frosting and decorate with homemade pumpkin shaped candy. And here I am sharing with you my favorite vegan chocolate cake recipe!

BAKING A VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

I have always baked cakes using eggs and milk, because this is what I have learned to do from my mother and probably the most common recipe to bake any cake. However, I found that baking a vegan cake is also very easy and can be made with very simple ingredients. My worry was that the cake won’t rise without using eggs, but if you add baking soda with vinegar that will make sure that the cake rises nicely and turns out fluffy.

HOW TO MAKE VEGAN FUDGY CHOCOLATE FROSTING

To make a rich, decadent and delicious buttercream frosting vegan, it does not mean that it has to be made with dairy. It’s still called buttercream but made without any dairy butter, and it’s ridiculously delicious! For the best vegan buttercream, I found that using coconut shortening results in a very tasty frosting and vegan butter works great as well. The reason why I like to use coconut shortening and not coconut oil, is because the frosting will not melt and turn into liquid at 24 degrees. So if you use coconut shortening, you won’t have to worry about things getting messy if you’re serving the cake in a warm room.

So to make the vegan buttercream frosting, I use coconut shortening, powdered sugar, coconut milk and vanilla extract to taste.

Below is the recipe for the vegan chocolate cake and the buttercream frosting.

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Simple vegan chocolate cake with vegan chocolate buttercream frosting

5 from 16 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Cake

Cuisine: International

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Servings: 8 slices

Calories: 583kcal

Author: Diana

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 200 grams all purpose flour200 grams all purpose flour
• 150 grams granulated sugar150 grams granulated sugar
• 4 tbsp cacao powder4 tbsp cacao powder
• 1 tsp baking soda1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp white vinegar1 tsp white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract2 tsp vanilla extract
• 250 ml water250 ml water
• 4 tbsp coconut oil4 tbsp coconut oil

For the buttercream frosting:

• 450 grams powdered sugar450 grams powdered sugar
• 100 grams cacao powder100 grams cacao powder
• 100 grams coconut shortening or vegan butter100 grams coconut shortening or vegan butter
• 125 ml coconut milk125 ml coconut milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

To make the cake:

• Preheat oven to 180c degrees. And grease 2 x 16cm cake baking tins.
• In a medium sized bowl, sift together all dry ingredients.
• Add vinegar and coconut oil, and give it a good mix.
• Add water, and mix again but make sure not to overmix the mixture.
• Pour mixture into your prepared greased baking tins, and bake until a toothpick comes out clean from the centre of the cake.
• Take the cakes out of the oven, and let them cool down on a cooling rack until they’re ready to be frosted.

To make the buttercream frosting:

• Add powdered sugar, cacao powder, coconut shortening or vegan butter, coconut milk and vanilla extract to a mixing bowl and using a hand mixer beat until it’s creamy and smooth.
• If you need to thin out the buttercream frosting, you can add 1 tbsp of milk and mix again.
• Frost the cake with the buttercream and serve,
  

Notes

Preheat oven to 180c degrees. And grease 2 x 16cm cake baking tins. In a medium sized bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Add vinegar and coconut oil, and give it a good mix. Add water, and mix again but make sure not to overmix the mixture. There will be some lumps left but that’s ok. Pour mixture into your prepared greased baking tins, and bake until a toothpick comes out clean from the centre of the cake. Take out of the oven, and let it cool down on a cooling rack until it’s ready to be frosted.

Nutrition

Calories: 583kcal | Carbohydrates: 106g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Sodium: 315mg | Potassium: 292mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 75g | Vitamin C: 0.4mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 4.2mg

Did you make a recipe?Tag @littlesunnykitchen or hashtag it #littlesunnykitchen!