This delicious dairy free chocolate cake is made without eggs, or oil. The texture is super moist, and can be served to anyone as a holiday or birthday cake or even cupcakes.
This dairy free chocolate cake recipe is easy to replicate, and the ingredient list is full of simple items you probably have in your kitchen right now. Instead of eggs, I use a veggie puree and lemon juice in milk. And it's wonderful frosted with my Fudge Frosting and Cookie Dough Frosting and Fluffy White Frosting.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This cake is dairy-free. It is free of eggs and milk, and is completely plant-based. It's also gluten-free if you use a gluten-free baking flour, and free of oil which makes it a lighter texture.
The cake is delicious. The flavor of this cake is a deep chocolate, and will surely satisfy a need for a dessert. So much better than a boxed mix!
So easy to make and clean up. With no eggs, don't worry about germy dishes, and the ingredient list is under ten, so you can have a cake on the table in less than an hour.
Ingredients
flour - use all purpose or a gluten-free mix or even oat flour, although you'll need to increase flour to 2 cups.
sugar - use organic cane sugar if you can for the flavor.
cocoa - use unsweetened, dutch process or cacao powder.
milk + lemon juice - a mixture that helps the cake rise.
pumpkin puree - used here as an oil and egg replacer.
unsweetened apple sauce - used here as an egg replacer.
Supporting ingredients: baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla, brewed coffee
Steps to Make
Preparation. Preheat your oven, measure out ingredients, activate milk by adding lemon juice and stirring, coat pans with butter and dust with cocoa powder, sift together flour and cocoa.
Step 1: To the medium bowl, add the flour and cocoa mixture, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Use a hand mixer or just a spoon or whisk to combine these dry ingredients.
Step 2: In a larger bowl, add sugar and wet ingredients and mix until combined.
Step 3: Add dry ingredients to the wet and mix until combined.
Step 4: Pour the batter evenly into prepared cake pans and bake.
Step 5: Let the cakes cool for a ten minutes in pans, then put cakes onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Substitutions
Sweet potato puree. You can replace with sweet potato puree, butternut squash puree or unsweetened apple sauce.
Unsweetened apple sauce. You can replace with aquafaba (liquid from a chickpea can or a flax seed egg)
Flour. Use all purpose flour, or a gluten-free baking 1 to 1 mix.
Cocoa. Use dutch processed for a darker cake, or cacao powder for a healthier option.
Recipe Tips
1. Any vegetable puree can be used instead of the sweet potato puree, or of course apple sauce can be used.
2. Three tablespoons of apple sauce can also be used instead of the flax egg.
3. Use a quality unsweetened cocoa powder with this cake, or use cacao powder. It is healthier but also more expensive.
4. Be sure to measure the flour and cocoa first, combine and then sift and re-measure. Most likely the amount will match but that's the process I follow. Sifting is important to combine the cocoa and flour well and to reduce clumps.
FAQS
How to Use Baking Strips to Make Flat Layers
Buy the baking strips here. Soak them in ice cold water while you mix up batter. Squeeze dry a bit. Mine were not too drippy but I don't think I soaked them long enough which is why I had to also press the dome of each cake at the end.
One tip: Wrap the strips around the pans BEFORE you put in the batter, but AFTER you have greased and floured the pans. Pour in the batter, bake and you will have nice flat layers.
Can I Make Cupcakes?
Sure ! I think it will fill 12 cupcake liners, more or less. Bake for 18 minutes.
What Size Cake Layer?
This recipe fills two 6-inch cake pans, which is our favorite size because then we don't have to deal with leftovers that tend to dry up. But if you want to use two 8-inch pans, just double the recipe. Alternatively, this recipe makes a deep cake using 1 (8-inch) square pan.
How to Store
Store this cake at room temperature, loosely covered and frosted. It will be okay for about 3 days before it will begin to dry out.
You can also freeze the cake before frosting it for months.
How This Cake Is Dairy-Free
You probably know eggs are the reason a cake binds and rises in traditional recipes. So I suggest using a few non-dairy things to do that instead. (BTW, I know some consider eggs not necessarily dairy but I do!)
1. To help the cake rise. Add vinegar to milk. That reacts with baking soda and helps the cake rise.
2. Egg-replacer. Use unsweetened apple sauce or aquafaba or flax eggs as an egg replacer. All replace eggs beautifully in terms of texture and flavor. You can use the aquafaba straight from an unsalted chickpea can, no need to whip it.
3. Oil-free. My dairy free chocolate cake is oil free because I used a veggie puree instead of oil. This helps make the cake lighter and of course, healthier. I used sweet potato puree but pumpkin puree or even apple sauce works (unsweetened of course).
4. Gluten-free. Want to make it gluten-free? Use a GF baking flour. I love Bob's Red Mills 1-to-1 baking flour, but their GF all purpose (red bag) works too.
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📖 Recipe
Dairy Free Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour or a GF mix like Bob's Red Mill's 1 to 1 baking flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder or cacao powder which is healthier but more expensive
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup dairy-free milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
- ⅓ cup pumpkin puree (or unsweetened apple sauce)
- 3 tablespoon unsweetened apple sauce (or aquafaba or flaxseed egg)
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon brewed coffee (optional to deepend chocolate flavor. Or leave off or add 2 tablespoon of milk instead)
Chocolate Frosting:
- 3 ¾ cups organic powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoon vegan butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 tablespoon almond milk
Useful Equipment
Instructions
Prep
- Preheat your oven to 350 F.
- Measure out apple sauce or use aquafaba (liquid from a can of unsalted chickpeas or garbanzo beans) or use a flax egg by mixing up 1 tablespoon flaxseed to 3 tablespoon of water, stir and set aside for 10 minutes.3 tablespoon unsweetened apple sauce
- Coat the inside of two (6-inch round) cake pans or 1 (8-inch square) pan with butter, coconut oil or a non-stick spray. Dust with cocoa powder. Or line cupcake pan with 12-18 paper liners.
- Sift together the flour and cocoa.1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- Activate your milk by adding the vinegar or lemon juice to it and stirring so it curdles. This creates a mixture that activates the baking soda and creates a lovely moist crumb.1 cup dairy-free milk, 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Make cake
- To a medium mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. Use a hand mixer or just a spoon or whisk to combine these dry ingredients.1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- In a larger bowl, combine the sugar and wet ingredients.1 cup dairy-free milk, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ⅓ cup pumpkin puree, 3 tablespoon unsweetened apple sauce, 2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 tablespoon brewed coffee, 1 cup organic cane sugar
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet.
- Mix with a hand-mixer or hand whisk until combined, but don't overmix.
- Pour the batter evenly into prepared cake pans.
- Bake 2 (6 inch round) cakes for 30 minutes. Bake (8-inch square) pan for 35 minutes. Bake cupcakes for 18 minutes. Or until tester comes out clean for all of them.
- Let cool for a ten minutes in pans, then put cakes onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Make frosting
- Add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vegan butter, vanilla extract and 2 tablespoon of the milk to a large mixing bowl.3 ¾ cups organic powdered sugar, 4 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder, 3 tablespoon vegan butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 5 tablespoon almond milk
- Use a hand-mixer or an electric mixer to combine. Add the remaining 3 tablespoon of milk gradually until you have a creamy consistency. You can add more or less milk, but be careful, it can turn too runny very fast.
- If your frosting seems too runny, add powdered sugar, if it too thick, add milk a teaspoon at a time. The final frosting should be spreadable.
Assemble the cake
- Frost cakes or cupcakes
Store
- To store cakes or cupcakes in the freezer for a month, pack them unfrosted in a sealed container.Once frosted, the cake or cupcakes are fine at room temperature for about 3 days and then they begin to dry out.
Serene
I never found a more delicious vegan cake. I made this six times already.
Dee Dine
Thanks for the compliment!