This mini marble cake recipe is vegan, dairy-free and has the best chocolate flavor. Perfect for 6 personal sized cocottes or 12 cupcakes. And I share here a secret tip to make vegan baking sort-of fail-proof.
Easy Mini Marble Cake Recipe
This easy mini marble cake recipe is vegan, dairy-free, egg-free and a swirl of chocolate and vanilla.
And the cakes are mini-sized. Personal-sized, as in one-cake-per-person. So you can have a whole cake to yourself and it is not even rude!
And this marble cake recipe is different than any ordinary marble cake recipe in two ways:
- It’s vegan. No eggs, dairy or even an egg-replacer. I use ACV to give it a lift.
- It’s made from one batter. No fooling with two recipes and two sets of dishes and two sets of work in the kitchen.
A Trick to Make Vegan Baking Fail-Proof (Or nearly)
Okay, so obviously I did not discover this trick first. All the serious bakers already stress it, but since I like baking fast and using short-cuts, I just never took this recommendation seriously.
Until today. And that is to sift and weigh the flour.
I used to think it’s okay if the flour is a bit off. I think the same about sugar and liquids. That’s not the best way to think of course, but my baking typically comes off okay so I didn’t pay that much attention to the experts.
But then I made this cake three times over Thanksgiving. And just on a whim, I made one batch as always, one batch with sifted flour and one batch with sifted and weighed flour. Actually it wasn’t such a whim, a cousin visiting brought me a hostess gift of a flour scale, so here we have it.
Anyway. The results were the cake with sifted flour, and the one with sifted and weight flour, was much airier. Nearly identical, actually, so perhaps sifting is enough? Well, I am going to repeat what experts say though and that is that sifting and weighing is best. Try it! Let me know if comments how you fared. Here is my sifter and here is my flour scale.
And in case you come across a recipe either here or on another blog that has no weights, here is a handy ingredient weight chart put out by our friends at King Arthur Flour.
How to Measure Flour by Weighing
My recipe wants you to measure and weigh the flour, THEN sift it into the mixing bowl. (IF a recipe ingredient lists flours as “1 cup sifted flour”, then FIRST sift, then weigh it)
To weigh flour, first weigh a container that can hold the amount of flour you need. In this case, 220mg.
Then loosely scoop flour into the container, roughly the amount you need.
Weigh the measuring cups full of flour, subtract the cup weight, and spoon more flour or less until you reach the weigh you need need.
I then dump this into my flour sifter (or you can use a hand sieve) and sift it into the mixing bowl. Easy peasy! As soon as figure out how to video, I’m going to make a video.
Also, in further reading, I am finding the consensus is that really only flour needs to be weighed to really protect a recipe. Sugar, for instance, can be a little off and not ruin anything.
How to Make This Mini Marble Cake Recipe
It’s easy. Just mix up the vanilla batter, scoop out 1/3, add in some chocolate, mix and build your marble cakes. This recipe is not gluten-free although so many of my recipes are. The reason is I wanted to test out the weighing of the flour without adding in the issue of using a gluten-free all purpose flour. I will test that soon however, and report back here.
On, and one reason I could make these mini cakes is because I happen to own six of these lovely Staub cast iron cocottes. It is a bit unusual to bake in them. Mostly people use them for soups and other savory fare. But I wanted to be different. Plus, the pots are so pretty, you can actually serve the baked cake right in the pot.
I normally put a big bowl of coconut whipped cream and fresh berries on the table and let guests help themselves. These particular pots are cast iron and sort of pricey, but there are copycats out there, that would work as well. Just be sure they can be baked in.
Mini Marble Cake Recipe Q & A
- Can I use cashew milk instead of almond milk?
- Sure. Any nut or oat milk is fine.
- Can I leave out the olive oil?
- No, but you can substitute it for a different oil, such as canola, or melted coconut oil.
- Can I skip the vinegar in this cake recipe?
- No, it reacts with baking soda and causes the cake to rise.
- What is the egg replacer in this recipe?
- There isn’t one really. The ACV gives it enough lift. I add a bit of applesauce to the chocolate batter though to help it lift as well
- How do I store these mini marble cakes?
- You can store them at room temperature in a closed container for 2 days or refrigerate for a week, or freeze for 3 months.
- Can I turn these personal cakes into cupcakes?
- Yes, the recipe makes 12. I give cupcake directions in the recipe card below.
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Mini Marble Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake Batter - Dry Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (weigh it to 220g, then sift it.)
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
Vanilla Cake Batter - Wet Ingredients
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (ACV)
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
Chocolate Cake Batter
- 1/3 of the vanilla cake batter
- 3 tbsp cacao powder
- 1 tbsp apple sauce
Useful Equipment
Instructions
Prep
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Coat each cocotte with coconut oil and dust with cacao powder.
OR, if you don't happen to have these cute little pots, line a cupcake tray with paper liners. This recipe would also make 2 7-inch layer cakes if you want, just bake for 30-35 minutes. - Into a large mixing bowl, add the ACV and milk, and set aside for 10 minutes to activate.
Make the Vanilla Cake Batter
- Sift the flour into a small bowl. Add the rest of the dry ingredients for the vanilla batter. (Obviously don't add the cacao powder or applesauce. You will add that ONLY to a third of the final vanilla batter to make the chocolate batter.)Wisk by hand the powder mixture is just combined.
- Now, add the remaining wet ingredients to the ACV / flour mixture in the large mixing bowl. Wisk until the wet mixture is just combined.Add the dry mixture into the wet mixture and again wisk until just smooth. A few small lumps are fine.
Make the Chocolate Cake Batter
- Remove one-third of the vanilla batter, and put it into the small mixing bowl you used for the dry ingredients.
- Add in the cacao powder and apple sauce and stir until smooth.
Make the Marble Cake
- Pour the vanilla batter into each cocotte until 1/2 filled. Swirl in chocolate batter into each cocotte until each cocotte is 3/4 filled. Or do the same per cupcake paper.
Put the cocottes uncovered directly onto the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick pulls clean. If you are making cupcakes, bake for 25 minutes. - Let the cakes cool in their pans until ready to remove. Use a sharp knife to run around the edges of each cocotte or serve directly in the cooled pot.If making cupcakes, let them cool and then frost with your favorite frosting.
- I generally serve these cakes as a dinner dessert, setting a bowl of coconut cream and strawberries on the table as well and guests help themselves.
Notes
Nutrition
Sponsored by @williamssonoma, however all opinions are my own.
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.
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