The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake

A vegan Chocolate Cake that's tall, dark, moist and oh so scrumptious. The recipe comes together in one bowl and couldn't be easier to make. On top goes a creamy dairy free buttercream chocolate frosting crammed with gooey melted chocolate and cocoa.

Oh, chocolate cake. So inviting with those layers of soft, fluffy, delicious cake sandwiching soft, fluffy, delicious vegan chocolate frosting. And yet so forbidding that you can almost feel your pants pinch your waistline angrily when you so much as steal a look at this hunk.

Well, I am here to tell you that if you want to eat a slice of chocolate cake, you should eat a slice of chocolate cake. Especially THIS chocolate cake.

Yep. Not just because a little indulgence is good for the starved soul. Not just because veganized versions of desserts tend to be healthier without missing on any of the flavor. And not even because you are deep in those doldrums that nothing but chocolate can pull you out of.

No, cut yourself a slice of this decadent two-layer cake because you just feel like eating it. Then savor every chocolatey bite, let it linger in your mouth, and let every tastebud revel in that deliciousness before you swallow it. Then give yourself a pat on the back for having had the guts to enjoy your scrumptious reward. You deserved it!

This vegan chocolate cake recipe has been a long time in the making.

I've shared with you variations of chocolate cake on this blog, like this scrumptious vegan Oreo cake and this vegan Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake. Then there are these delicious little vegan chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream that I made more times than I can count for Jay's classmates in elementary school, especially on birthdays.

This chocolate cake has all the deliciousness of those recipes and then some more.

It is tall and dark and has a moist, delicious crumb with a creamy, dreamy chocolate buttercream frosting. It's so good that you might want to make it all for yourself and eat it before the day is out. But if you want to share it also makes a great birthday cake or wedding cake for anyone who loves chocolate, and who doesn't?

Table of Contents

• What we love about this vegan chocolate cake
• Ingredients
• How to make vegan chocolate cake
• More vegan cake recipes
• Vegan Chocolate Cake
• Reviews

What we love about this vegan chocolate cake

• It's chocolate cake, for goodness's sake. What's not to love?
• The crumb is so soft and fluffy, it melts in your mouth.
• It is insanely chocolatey. There's cocoa powder in the cake and both cocoa powder and melted chocolate in the frosting. The frosting is not cloyingly sweet with just two cups of confectioners' sugar. You can use more but I love to taste the chocolate rather than the sugar, and two cups does the frosting perfect justice. If you don't want to use sugar and want to sweeten your frosting naturally, with maple syrup, I have a hack for you in the tips.
• It is super easy to make. The batter comes together in one bowl, making cleanup a breeze.

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake:

• 3 cups all purpose flour (unbleached is best)
• ⅔rd cup cacao powder or cocoa powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 ¼ths cup sugar (you can use maple syrup in this cake if you want to stay away from artificial sugars)
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules (optional)
• 16 tablespoon or 1 cup vegan butter (you can use oil instead. Use any unflavored vegetable oil but not coconut oil please because the flavor would not work well here)
• ½ cup vegan yogurt (optional, you can use non-dairy milk, including soy milk or oat milk. Yogurt, however, adds a lovely tenderness to cake so use it if you can. I use my homemade cultured cashew yogurt.)
• 1 ¾th cups water
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (always use pure vanilla extract please)

For the chocolate buttercream frosting:

• 1 cup vegan butter (16 tablespoon or 2 sticks)
• 2 cups powdered sugar or confectioners' sugar (can use maple syrup)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional, but highly recommended)

How to make vegan chocolate cake

Dry ingredients: Start out by sifting your dry ingredients into a bowl--the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. This does two things. It adds more air into your flour, which makes the cake lighter, but it also helps remove any lumps in the flour and other ingredients so everything integrates nicely. Next whisk all the ingredients.

Wet ingredients: Now just dump in the wet ingredients: sugar, yogurt, water, vegetable oil, pure vanilla extract and apple cider vinegar. You can also add an optional teaspoon of instant coffee granules at this point if you like. I love coffee in chocolate--this small amount brings out the chocolate flavor without really making it taste like coffee. But you can leave it out if you don't want to use it.

Whisk everything quickly until integrated but as always, when working with wheat flour cakes, don't overmix because you don't want to develop the gluten.

Bake and cool: Divide the batter betweeen two parchment-lined, oiled and floured 8- or 9-inch cake tins and bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the cake to loosen it. Then place a dish on the top of the cake pan and invert it quickly. Carefully flip the cake once more and let it continue cooling on a rack, right side up. Repeat for the second cake.

Frosting: Always wait until a cake is completely cool to frost it or the butter in your frosting will melt and run all over the place. As cake tops usually bake up slightly domed, you can prepare the cake for frosting by making the top flat-- to do this just use a long, serrated knife, positioned flat, to cut off the domed part, and reward yourself, the baker, by eating it. You can just skip this step as it's purely cosmetic.

To make the frosting, beat half a cup of cocoa powder with two sticks of 16 tablespoon of softened, room temperature (not melted) vegan butter. Add a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and two cups of powdered sugar, half a cup at a time, and beat in until smooth and creamy. You can use more or less powdered sugar based on how sweet you want the frosting to be.

This frosting is perfect by itself, and you can use it at this point. But to make it extra chocolatey I melt a cup of semisweet chocolate chips in a double boiler and whisk it into the frosting at the end.

You can use maple syrup in your frosting instead of powdered sugar. If the frosting becomes grainy, place it in the refrigerator for about half an hour. Then add the melted chocolate and beat it again with a hand mixer and it should become creamy again.

More vegan cake recipes

• Vegan White Chocolate Raspberry Cake
• Vegan Lemon Yogurt Bundt Cake
• Vegan Banana Cake With Peanut Butter Frosting, Whole Wheat
• Vegan Lemon Pound Cake
• Vegan Strawberry Cake