This chocolate tuxedo cake, a striking delicious black and white chocolate cake is made with sweet potato or pumpkin puree, no eggs and no oil. Rich and fudgy, this cake is easy to make, super moist, and perfect for every day or any holiday.
This chocolate tuxedo cake is the perfect balance of texture and moisture, rich chocolate and sweet cream filling. And yet this cake is lighter than your traditional chocolate cake primarily because instead of eggs and oil, I use pumpkin puree.
Dark cocoa deepens the contrast, and my fluffy white frosting is a sweet middle layer. If you like chocolate cake stuffed with cream, also try my hostess chocolate cupcakes and my chocolate swiss roll. And if you are in need of more party dessert ideas, consider this cake or my salted chocolate tart.
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Why You'll Love This
The center cream is special. A chocolate layer cake is fun anytime, but add to that a surprisingly sweet center surprise, and the cake becomes really special.
Healthier ingredients. Without eggs or oil, this cake is lighter and moister in texture because pumpkin or sweet potato puree take their place. Like my healthy chocolate cake with applesauce, this tuxedo cake is also higher in protein and fiber.
Super easy to make. This cake is hard to mess up. It can be made in one bowl, and keeps well.
Ingredients
flour - Use either all-purpose flour or a GF flour mix
cocoa powder
organic cane sugar
dairy-free milk + lemon juice
pumpkin puree (Or sweet potato puree or apple sauce)
unsweetened apple sauce
extras such as vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, salt
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions
1. Oil-replacer. I used a veggie puree. Any vegetable puree can be used, including sweet potato puree, or pumpkin puree. I use purees that are canned, organic, have only the vegetable in the ingredients.
2. Egg-replacer. I used apple sauce but you can also use 3 tablespoon of aquafaba.
3. Use dark cocoa. I used a quality unsweetened cocoa powder with this cake, and to deepen the contrast, I used darker cocoa.
4. Storage. Store your Tuxedo cake frosted and covered for 3 days in the refrigerator. Or freeze it wrapped in paper and sealed in a container either frosted or unfrosted.
Step by Step Instructions
For more detail, visit the complete chocolate tuxedo cake recipe at the bottom of this post, but here are general steps.
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Step 1: Prepare pans and measure ingredients
Step 2: Combine dry ingredients.
Step 3. Combine wet ingredients.
Step 4. Add dry to wet and mix batter.
Step 5. Pour batter into pans and bake.
Step 6. Make two frostings, chocolate and vanilla.
Step 7. Allow to cool, frost the bottom layer with vanilla frosting, frost the top and sides with chocolate, and decorate.
Recipe Tips
This tuxedo cake is perfect for those who want a healthier cake, or need for it to be gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan. Here are the changes.
1. To help the cake rise, add lemon juice to milk. This homemade 'buttermilk' reacts with baking soda and helps the cake rise.
2. Use unsweetened apple sauce as an egg replacer. It replace eggs beautifully in terms of texture and flavor.
3. My 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 works.
4. 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.
Decorate With Gold Dust
Since this chocolate tuxedo cake is so striking with it's contrasting colors, I thought it warranted a little more gilding. So I painted the rosettes on put on the top and sides with gold.
It's quite easy to do. Here's a quick step by step.
1. Buy edible cake gold dust, vodka and a pastry brush.
2. Stir 2 parts gold dust and 1 part vodka in a small bowl.
3. Use your brush to paint your cake rosettes or cookies or anything edible. The paint will harden with a thin crust because the alcohol evaporates, leaving the dust. The vodka is basically a vehicle to turn the dust to paint.
FAQS
Obviously, a tuxedo cake is named such because the cake and frostings are colored a contrasting black and white, just like the black and white tuxedo dress suits.
Tuxedo cake is basically a chocolate cake with contrasting colors of frosting, including vanilla and chocolate. Variations includes using a vanilla mousse or a white ganache or a cream cheese filling instead of vanilla frosting, but it all comes down to a black and white cake, just like the formal attire that men wear to weddings.
This tuxedo cake is fudgy because instead of oil and eggs, I use pumpkin puree or sweet potato puree so the texture is pure fudge cake. Add in two delicious frostings and this cake tastes like a deeply chocolatey cake.
If your tuxedo cake has a frosting filling, it can remain at room temperature for three days, a week in the refrigerator, and frozen unfrosted. If the filling is whipped cream, it must be refrigerated and frozen only.
Other Cake Recipes
If you tried this chocolate tuxedo cake recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Recipe
Chocolate Tuxedo Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour or a GF flour mix
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 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
- ⅓ cup pumpkin puree (Or sweet potato puree or apple sauce)
- 3 tablespoon unsweetened apple sauce
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Frosting:
- 3 ¾ cups organic powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoon vegan butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 tablespoon dairy free milk
White Frosting
- 1 batch my white frosting recipe or your own favorite Find my white frosting recipe here
Useful Equipment
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Instructions
Prep
- Preheat your oven to 350 F. Prepare ingredients.
- Coat the inside of two (6-inch round) cake pans with butter, coconut oil or a non-stick spray. Dust with 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 texture.
Make cake
- To a large mixing bowl, add the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 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 cup organic cane sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- Add in the curdled milk, veggie puree, apple sauce and vanilla.1 cup dairy free milk, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ⅓ cup pumpkin puree, 3 tablespoon unsweetened apple sauce, 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 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.6-inch round cake pan
- Let cool for a ten minutes in pans, then put cakes onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Make frosting
- Make both frostings, the chocolate and vanilla. You can make my white frosting recipe found here, and make the chocolate frosting listed on this card.1 batch my white frosting recipe or your own favorite
- To make this chocolate frosting recipe, add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vegan butter, vanilla extract and 2-5 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 dairy free milk
- Use a hand-mixer or an electric mixer to combine. Add the milk gradually until you have a creamy consistency. You can add more or less milk, but be careful, it can turn too liquidy very fast.
- If your frosting seems too liquidy, add powdered sugar; if it is too thick, add milk a teaspoon at a time. The final frosting should be spreadable.
- Frost cakes. To make a Tuxedo Cake, apply the white frosting to the bottom layer only, not on the sides.
- Then put the second layer on top and frost with chocolate frosting that on top and sides. Add rosettes or other detail.
Decorate Cake with Gold Detail
- Because it's a Tuxedo Cake, I painted it with gold detail. To do that, mix 2 parts gold dust and 1 part vodka in a bowl.
- Use a clean pastry brush to paint on gold detail. The alcohol quickly evaporates.
Store
- To store cakes in the freezer for a month, pack them unfrosted in a sealed container.Once frosted, the cake is fine at room temperature and covered for about 2 days and then they begin to dry out.
Julie says
Dee, or maybe this cake recipe I should play with and change the flour? Is this one more flexible to do a gluten-free flour change? I really want a birthday cake for my 45th in March, and I am limited. Let me know. Thanks love!!
Dee Dine says
This cake is forgiving - 2 cups of oat flour would also work. Or let me know if you have another flour in mind.