This 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. Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free, egg-free and delicious.
Healthy Tuxedo Cake
This 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. Can't find pumpkin puree? Sweet potato puree or even butternut squash puree is fine too, as is unsweetened apple sauce.
I use a dark cocoa to deepen the contrast in colors, and I use a vanilla frosting as the white middle layer. However feel free to customize your cake and use your favorite white filling or whipped cream instead.
Tips To Make A Healthier Tuxedo Cake
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. Use aquafaba or flax eggs or even apple sauce as an egg replacer . Both 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. 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. 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.
How to Make a Tuxedo Cake From Scratch
It's easy to make a tuxedo cake from scratch.
Step 1: Prepare pans and mix up flax eggs.
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.
How to Decorate Cakes With Gold Dust
Since this 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.
Some Tips and Substitutions for Tuxedo Cake
1. Any vegetable puree can be used instead of the sweet potato puree, or of course apple sauce can be used.
2. Three tbsp of apple sauce can also be used instead of the flax egg.
3. I used a quality unsweetened cocoa powder with this cake, and to deepen the contrast, I used darker cocoa.
How Did Tuxedo Cake Get Its Name?
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.
What is Tuxedo Cake Made Of?
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.
What Does A Tuxedo Cake Taste Like?
Well, mine 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.
What is Tuxedo Flavor?
As I said above, a Tuxedo cake is basically a chocolate cake filled with a vanilla frosting or filling and coated in a fudge frosting.
How Long is Tuxedo Cake Good for?
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.
Do I Need to Refrigerate A Tuxedo Cake?
If your center filling is frosting, you do not need to refrigerate this Tuxedo cake. If you use a cream-based filling such as a pudding or cream cheese icing however, you will want to always keep it refrigerated.
Other Vegan Cake Recipes To Try
Chocolate Fudge Cake
Fluffy Vanilla Birthday Cake
Pumpkin Bread
Dairy Free Chocolate Cake
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Healthy Tuxedo Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour or a GF flour mix like Bob's Red Mill's All Purpose Flour OR 1 to 1 baking flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or white vinegar or lemon juice
- ⅓ cup pumpkin puree (Or sweet potato puree or apple sauce)
- 3 tbsp aquafaba, the liquid from a can of chickpeas (Or apple sauce, or a flaxseed egg - mix 1 tbsp flaxseed in 3 tbsp water)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Frosting:
- 3 ¾ cups organic powdered sugar
- 4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp vegan butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 tbsp dairy free milk
White Frosting
- 1 batch my white frosting recipe or your own favorite Find my white frosting recipe here
Useful Equipment
Instructions
Prep
- Preheat your oven to 350 F. Prepare ingredients.
- Measure out aquafaba (liquid from a can of unsalted chickpeas or garbanzo beans) OR mix up flax egg by adding 1 tbsp flaxseed to 3 tbsp of water, stir and set aside for 10 minutes.
- 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.
- Add in the curdled milk, veggie puree, flax egg (or aquafaba) and vanilla.
- 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.
- 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.
- To make this chocolate frosting recipe, add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vegan butter, vanilla extract and 2-5 tbsp of the milk to a large mixing bowl.
- 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 tsp 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.
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