Chocolate cake. Sometimes that’s all you need – a nice slab of it, nothing fancy, no fruit or mint nor hint of citrus. They say that chocolate mimics the euphoria of being in love, but how do they know that love isn’t mimicking chocolate? It could choose a worse role model.
This is my basic chocolate cake recipe, the same as the chocolate cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. It’s rich and tender and just exactly what I want when biting into a piece of cake, moistness and melt in your mouth crumbs. I top it with an extra fudgy chocolate ganache that gets it delectible gloopiness from a couple tablespoons maple syrup. In this photo, I’ve doubled the recipe to make a two layer cake and added a little bit of a creamy cocoa buttercream that I’ve been working on. Another benefit to this recipe is that the cake doesn’t dome too much so it’s perfect for layer cakes.
Chocolate Cake
Makes one 8 inch circle cake
1 cup almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular (or a mix of both)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350?F.
Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla and almond extract and mix well.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
Lightly grease an 8 inch springform pan. Pour in the batter and bake for 32 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted through the center comes out clean.
Gooey Ganache
2/3 cup almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
8 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
In a small saucepan bring the milk to a boil then lower heat to a simmer. Add the chocoate chips and maple syrup and mix with a fork. Turn heat off and mix until thoroughly melted. Let cool for about 15 minutes before using.
To assemble:
Just pour the ganache over the cooled cake and kind of tilt the cake at all angles to get the ganache to drip down the sides. Refrigerate to cool and set the ganache.
I made this over the weekend and it is amazing!!! I topped it with coconut peanut butter frosting. Mmmm!
I made this for my roommate’s birthday and frosted it with a vegan German frosting because he said his Mom made cakes like that growing up and it was his favorite. The cake texture was perfect and it was strong enough to hold two layers and a dense frosting loaded with pecans and coconut. Even after a few days it hadn’t collapsed, crushed or slipped around. Most vegan chocolate cake recipes seem to be the same ingredients, but we agreed this was the best! I managed to make it a surprise by hiding and frosting it in my room so that was extra awesome.
About how many cupcakes do you think is get from this recipe?
my partner made this for me for my birthday. he had never made a cake before. it turned out awesome.
This is possibly the best cake recipe I’ve ever tried. We ate it far more quickly than we should have!
I made this today for my wife’s birthday today, and it came out great! I can’t wait to light the candles and let her try it!
Also, for her birthday dinner, I am making your “Chickpea Cutlets (double batch)! She is going to lovvvve it!
Isa, thank you for all you do for vegans! :o)
Lovely cake! Just baked it today, can’t wait to eat it all! yumm
I’ve made it and it was awfull! But as I know that Isa’s recipes CAN’T be wrong I’ve made it again and it is awsome 🙂
I hate to ask you for everything. But any chance I can get the cocoa buttercream recipe as well. Would like to recreate your cake in the pic. Thank you
Hello! We are a family of cake lovers and I have to thank you for this delicious recipe! I have made it today and it’s absolutely scrumptious! We are not vegan, but I am trying to feed my family healthier and reduce milk product in our diet. So thank you, thank you, thank you!
Doesn’t semi-sweet chocolate have whey/milk fat in it?
I tripled the recipe for a big, heart shaped pan for valentines day. Made the ganache with 70% cocoa and stunned about 30 of my office mates that you can bake a moist, delicious cake without animal fat. They were shocked and amazed.
Yay, glad you had a successful V-tines day!
This is a DELICIOUS cake!!! You can’t even tell it’s vegan. You can buy vegan chocolate chips at Costco. Get the Costco brand chips. WAY cheaper than the other vegan brands. You get way more and the are tastier too!
Made this cake again today to celebrate our 20th dating anniversary. I licked the spoon before pouring the batter in the cake pans and it tasted a little gritty, and, after baking, realized the problem: I used white cornmeal instead of flour! I erroneously made chocolate cornbread! Luckily the recipe is easy so I whipped up another batter, this time with flour, and it came out wonderful as usual! We all had a good laugh as we celebrated our special day!
Made this today – taste is great like the cupcakes but dont find them high enough, might try an extra lot of batter when doubling it, ie tripling the batter then dividing in to two.
I use a chocolate buttercream frosting recipe that I have veganised –
250g vegan margarine, softened
2 cups (320g) icing sugar mixture, sifted
½ cup (50g) cocoa, sifted
¼ cup (60ml) non-dairy milk
For the buttercream, beat the margarine until pale and creamy. Add the icing sugar, cocoa and milk and beat until fluffy.
This makes a reasonable amount of frosting – half the amount might be enough depending on how many layers you want it for.
I used this recipe just for the cake portion then did my own vegan buttercream frosting and fondant. It was great. The consistency is terrific and the flavor is wonderful. Thank you.
I doubled the batch and baked it in two 8″ cake pans. For some reason the bottom edges didn’t set. Instead, when I turned the cakes out of the pans, they had completely disintegrated into goo. The rest of the cake was fine, though. Any idea why?
Just sounds underbaked.
Maybe a stupid question, I plan to make this for my sons birthday the day before- after I’ve put it in the fridge for the ganache to set should I leave it in the fridge until we eat it or bring it back out? Or should I do the ganache on the day, sorry I’m a cake novice and can’t afford to do a practice run!
No prob, and not a stupid question! You can leave it in the fridge, but have you got some tupperware to keep fridge scents out of the ganache?
I’m suuuuper-late to comment but, I just made this cake last night, a double batch (gotta have two layers!), and it was the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had! I know it’s “just” a chocolate cake–no frou-frou–but daaaamn it’s perfect in its simplicity! So moist, so satisfying. I made it for a dinner party, and started giving pieces away before I’d tasted it myself. Then once I tried a slice (and another…) I was mad that I’d given away so much. 😉 Isa, people often say that when you cook for guests you should use recipes you’ve tried before, but to me that’s no fun. I do have a small list of cookbook authors whose recipes I can generally trust to use for dinner parties, etc. without testing them first. You are always at the top of that list! 🙂 Thanks.
BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE. I made this a few weeks ago for my non-vegan co-workers for a birthday party. All of them doubted that a vegan cake could taste good and I’m so glad I proved them wrong (with your much-appreciated help)!! This is my new go-to cake recipe. Thank you!
Simply delicious! The cure for PMS.
*bows extravagantly* THANK YOU! Just checked the ingredients against VCTOTW and as they are equal I’m guessing that means not ont can I make the BEST chocolate cake EVER based on those amazing little cupcakes BUT I can make most any cake from VCTOTW on an 8inch pan and make a layer cake? If that is true then you have just answered all my prayers.
How is it that this is even better after a night in the fridge, pre-portioned?! It is amazing. Thank you.
Made this for my mother in law’s 70th birthday, made 2, sandwiched and crumb coated with your chocolate buttercream from VCTOTW and fondant iced then decorated. Told nobody it was vegan. They ALL loved it. Every one of them. Very very proud 🙂
This cake really is amazing. My son is allergic to egg. We make it a lot!
Perfection! I’ve made this recipe twice and both times I’m ashamed to reveal how much of it I ate. It ‘s not too moist that it’s mushy or dense and not too dry that you blow crumbs when you try to eat it. The only warning is that I would line the pan with parchment next time. I usually grease and flour as my mom always did, but it stuck to the pan and I had to pry it out with a salad tosser.
I just made this and it was the best thing I’ve ever tasted.
Made it twice in three days for my daughter’s first bday. I made cupcakes out of the batter. Everyone was saying how delicious they were and couldn’t believe it was vegan! THANK YOU!
Mine turned out tasting a bit floury, and bland. Any tips?
Tasty, quick, reliable… I’ve made this many times and it’s always well received 🙂
made this last night NOM NOM NOM- I subbed avocado for oil , trying to cut down
BEST chocolate cake!! If you havent made this, MAKE IT.
Isa, do you think I could omit the chocolate and have a vanilla cake instead? I really liked how this cake came out but need a vanilla layer cake to impress… what ya think?
Hi Isa! I tried this cake. the taste was yum yum yum..but I had a problem.. My cake was falling apart. I changed the all purpose flour to spelt flour, and I used coconut sugar. Do you think the problem was because I used spelt flour? I’d like to use spelt, but maybe you may know what I ought to add to make the cake not fall apart..? Thanks.. =-)
I just made this. I doubled the recipe to make two layers and made it into a black forest cake by putting cherry jam and whipped coconut cream between the layers with more coconut cream and cherries on the top. It was amazing! The cake is so moist & rich but not dense. It’s perfect, I’ll defintely make it again!