Chocolate Cardamom Cake with Whipped Frosting

This chocolate cardamom cake is a showstopper with cardamom spice and whipped buttercream chocolate frosting. A delicious vegan and dairy-free cake recipe perfect for your special events, holidays, birthdays or just I-want-cake days. Makes layers or a sheet cake.

Chocolate Cardamom Cake with Whipped Chocolate Frosting.

Chocolate cardamom cake. It’s cake time! And not just any cake, but a showstopper with cardamom and whipped chocolate frosting.

My favorite aspect of this cake is how airy it is, thanks to the rather clever use (so full of praise for myself haha) of plant milk and the combination of baking soda and baking powder..

And the frosting is an old family recipe, soft and creamy, like melting fudge.

Now before we dive into the recipe, I’d like to invite you to sign up for my free chocolate course. Five lessons hit your inbox with detail on how to create your own simple healthy chocolate desserts.

Okay, so back to this recipe…

How To Serve A Chocolate Cardamom Cake

This cake is a classic, aside from the cardamom twist, and really fits all seasons – holiday for sure, but also great for spring and summer brunches, especially if you lighten the frosting and dot the top with berries.

Here I tossed on some sprinkles and gold stars, and everyone at our house felt like it was a party.

But why cardamom, you ask?

Does Cardamom Go With Chocolate?

Oh my, yes! In this cake especially it leaves a flavor in your mouth that is so pleasing yet so indescribably that you will be saying “now what is that flavor?”…

Can Cardamom Be Used in Baking?

Yes! Although cardamom is often thought of as a season for Indian savory dishes, it is often used in Nordic countries in their dessert recipes.

How To Use Cardamom

It is best to buy pods – available in spice section of grocery store – and crush them, remove seeds and grind them. Or you can use ground cardamom for a less robust flavor. Cardamom is expensive however, like saffron, but well worth it and one bottle lasts a long time.

How Do You Make A Super Moist Chocolate Cake From Scratch?

Sure! This is a wonderful made-from-scratch chocolate cake recipe. Just mix up dry ingredients, mix up wet. Add wet to dry, and bake.

What Does A Cardamom Cake Taste Like?

It tastes like a deep fresh chocolate cake, with a hint of some spice that at first is unidentifiable. I believe it boosts the flavor of the chocolate.

Tips to Make Whipped Chocolate Frosting

It’s easy to make this frosting.

One tip is in the blend of butter and shortening. Shortening is not typically healthy, but I use organic brands such as Spectrum or Nutiva, both made with healthier ingredients such as red palm and coconut oils. Nothing like the processed ingredients in more main stream shortenings, such as say Crisco.

Another secret to wonderfully whipped frosting is to use a sieve to sift the dry sugar and cocoa powder into the butter and shortening mixture. That ensures that the cocoa clumps break up.

Also be sure to use a quality cocoa or cacao powder. I have my favorite brands listed in my Amazon Fav Ingredients store here.

Finally, don’t forget the coffee. You won’t taste it, it just elevates the taste of the chocolate.

Consider These Other Chocolate Recipes

• Sugar Cookie Truffles
• Chocolate Spice Truffles
• Vegan Cookie Dough
• Easy Truffles Recipe
• Protein Ball Recipes
• Crunch Bars
• Vegan Fudge
• Dark Chocolate Zucchini Loaf
• Soft Granola Bars

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Chocolate Cardamom Cake with Whipped Chocolate Frosting

A showstopper of a chocolate cardamom cake with spices and whipped buttercream chocolate frosting. This recipe makes two layers that are seven or eight inches around. If you double the recipe, you can get four nine-inch layers and make a four-layer cake.

5 from 8 votes

Print Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free

Keyword: birthday cake, cake from scratch, cardamom cake, chocolate birthday cake, dairy-free, healthy chocolate cake, vegan cake

Does it keep?: 1-month in freezer

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Servings: 10

Calories: 351kcal

Author: Dee Dine

Ingredients

Large bowl - dry ingredients

• 1 cup cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour
• 2 cups organic cane sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp vanilla powder (or extract but then add it to the wet ingredients)
• pinch of salt

Small bowl - wet ingredients

• 2 2/3 cup almond milk
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

For the Frosting

• 1/2 cup vegan butter
• 1/2 cup organic shortening (or use butter instead)
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (vegan brands have no bone char)
• 1/3 unsweetened cocoa powder or cacao powder
• 2-4 tbsp dairy free milk or full fat coconut milk from a can (I used cashew milk)
• 1 tbsp cold coffee
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Prep

• Add the apple cider vinegar to the milk and set aside.

  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

  Rub coconut oil (refined to avoid a coconut flavor) on the inside of two 8-inch round pans.

  Dust the oiled pans with cacao or cocoa powder

Make the cake

• In a large bowl, stir the dry ingredients together. Yes, this recipe does require the sugar be added to the dry ingredients, a departure from most cake recipes.
  
• Mix up the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
  
• Blend the batter until smooth, then divide evenly between the two baking pans, tapping them on the counter to level the mixture.
  

  Bake 35 minutes or until tester is clean.
  
• Let the layers cool in the pans about 15 minutes, then run a knife around the inside, turn each over onto a cooling rack and tap until it falls out.
  

  Let them cool completely on the racks before frosting.
  

Frosting:

• Use a hand-mixer to combine and whip up the butter and shortening in a large bowl.

  Stir up the sugar and cocoa in another bowl. Pour it into the butter and shortening bowl via a fine sieve if you have one. You can just dump it in but pushing it through a fine sieve will break up clumps.
• Use a hand-mixer to blend up the mixture, and add in the vanilla and coffee.

  Then, add the milk 1 tbsp at a time, blending between, until you have a frosting texture.
• Cover the bowl with a soaking wet paper or cloth towel if not ready to frost immediately.

  Blending this frosting "whips" it into a fluffy texture, however feel free to use a mixer instead if you'd like.
• Assemble cake by stacking layers, frosting each.
  

  Or, to replicate our cake pictured, slice each layer lengthwise to make a 4-layer cake. I also piped rosettes of the same frosting and sprinkled with my favorite vegan sprinkles...

Notes

Nutritional information is for cake only.

Nutrition

Calories: 351kcal | Carbohydrates: 91g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Sodium: 50mg | Potassium: 195mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 430IU | Calcium: 136mg | Iron: 2.4mg

Dee Dine

Dee Dine is founder of Green Smoothie Gourmet, a plant based recipe blog, and author of the recent cookbook, Crazy Healthy with 4 Ingredients . On this blog you’ll find incredibly easy recipes with hidden veggies for anyone wanting to eat healthier, regardless of diet. Dee has graduate degrees in sciences and  journalism. More about Dee Dine here.