This is the most delicious Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake you’ll ever taste!
One of my great childhood memories will always be chocolate cake for breakfast…sigh. It was a wonderful thing! But that was in the days of Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker when mixes somehow began taking the place of homemade cakes. Now I’m not knocking the mixes, everything has its time and place, and they did come up with some pretty darn good cakes. But even as good as they were, they’re not homemade.
I came across an old recipe for a Vegan Chocolate Cake, although at the time they had no idea it was Vegan, or even what a Vegan was, but they knew what delicious was! It was a simple recipe using oil, and vinegar instead of eggs and butter….who knew?
Well evidently those bakers from the depression knew, and when they couldn’t get eggs or butter, they still came up with a recipe for the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had.
With my quest to eat healthier, I’ve been changing my dietary intake whenever possible, using Greek yogurt instead of heavy cream and sour cream, and using coconut oil instead of other oils.
So what could I do but make my favorite chocolate cake of all time, using coconut oil.
I decided to throw a fudge layer in between the layers and used coconut oil instead of butter and it was fudgelicious!
To keep the cake Vegan I finished it with mounds of whipped coconut cream…….. it was a beautiful thing!
If you’re not into whipped coconut cream you can always dust the cake with powdered sugar.
If you enjoyed this recipe you may also like these:
- The Original Pumpkin Crunch Cake
- Chocolate Valentines Cake
- Pomegranate Mousse Cake
- Chocolate Mousse Cake
Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup Coconut Oil
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups cold water
Chocolate Fudge Frosting
- 1 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup cocoa powder unsweetened
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon hot coffee
Whipped Cream
- 14 oz Coconut cream
- ⅓ cup confectioners sugar (10x)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl.
- With your mixer on low speed beat in the coconut oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the two 9″ prepared pans, coated with pan spray.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a cake skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Do not over bake the cake. It should be firm to the touch, and a cake skewer inserted in the middle of the cake should come out clean.
- Put the cake pans on cooling racks and cool for 15 to 20 minutes before removing the cakes from the pans to cool completely.
- Allow to cool completely before frosting.
Chocolate Fudge Frosting
- mix all ingredients in the bowl of your mixer and whip until well blended
Whipped Cream
- Refrigerate can of coconut cream, 8 hours or overnight. Place a metal mixing bowl and beaters in the refrigerator or freezer 1 hour before making whipped cream.
- Open the can of coconut cream, taking care not to shake it. Scoop out the coconut cream solids into a cold mixing bowl. (Reserve remaining liquid for another use)
- Beat the coconut cream using an electric mixer with the chilled beaters on medium speed for a few minutes then turn to high speed. Beat until stiff peaks form, about 7 to 8 minutes.
- Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract to coconut cream; beat 1 minute more.
Assembly
- place one layer on cake plate and add layer of chocolate fudge.
- place second layer on cake and fill in any spots in the chocolate fudge layer.
- coat sides of cake with chocolate fudge (wet the blade of your spatula while smoothing it will help)
- top cake with whipped cream, cut and serve!
georges
Made this cake at least 6 times best cake ever!!
georges
Five stars
Chef Dennis Littley
Thanks for the feedback, I’m happy to hear that you’ve been enjoying the recipe!
Sharon
I stumbled upon this recipe because I wanted to make a chocolate cake using coconut oil because I was out of butter. Im not a vegetarian so normally I wouldn’t have even thought to try this recipe, but I guess it was my lucky day because this cake is “to die for” good!! I altered it slightly by substituting the sugar with Stevia and I made one sheet cake instead of a round 2 layer cake.
Chef Dennis Littley
I’m glad you enjoyed the cake Sharon, it is pretty darn good!
Steve
Listen to the chef – don’t cook it in one tin! I did and it was a disaster! Cooked it for an hour before the skewer came out dry. Cut it in half after cooling to put the frosting in and it is like brown play dough apart from the outer half inch
Smalley
So easy to cook and tastes great!!! I just finished making it for my daughter’s first birthday cake, we were out of butter so thought we would give this a try. I am so glad we did
Chef Dennis Littley
thanks for the feedback, I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the cake!
Chef Dennis Littley
I’m very happy to hear that the cake turned out well for you!
Kitty
Pur délice! Very moist and tasty! Topped it with whipped coconut cream so it was entirely vegan and perfect. Thx!
Chef Dennis Littley
Happy to hear you enjoyed the cake Kitty!
Malorie
Hi, does it make a difference if the cake is cooked in one tin or does it have to be split in 2 tins?
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Malorie
its going to increase the cooking time if you use only one tin, and may affect the cake by having it be drier on the outside. I haven’t had much success with making one big cake as opposed to layers
Kim
Can I substitute apple cider vinegar for the white??
Chef Dennis Littley
yes you can Kim.
Patty
I made cupcakes from this recipe topped with a cream and honey icing and fresh blueberries. The cupcakes were divine and the recipe was perfect and easy. A no fail chocolate cake. Also, the cakes were slightly red. Thank you!
Vardit
Great tasting cake. Made it today for the first time especially for my vegan son, but the whole family loved it. One little problem: I refrigerated it and the frosting, as it hardened has white spots from oil separation. This in no way effected the taste of the cake and no one except for me noticed it. Did I not mix the frosting enough?
Chef Dennis Littley
it could have used a little more mixing, or possibly your coconut oil was not soft enough to blend in thoroughly.
Vardit
I live in a warm climate. My coconut oil is completely liquid. Maybe that is the problem. It had a hard time blending with the cocoa powder. I mixed it for a long time until the texture became smooth. Next time, and there will be a next time, I will refrigerate the oil for an hour or so. Thank you!
Manuela
Hi Dennis, this cake looks gorgeous! Can I substitute maple syrup with honey?
Chef Dennis Littley
you should be able to without any problems Manuela, glad you like the cake!
Kristen Y
Hi Chef,
Thank you for this recipe. Eeveryone is always amazed when I tell them there are no eggs or butter! This is my go to chocolate cake recipe! Everyone LOVES it! I am making this for a friends birthday and I grabbed a bag of Valrhona Dutch processed cocoa.I didnt realize there was a difference between the dutch processed and the natual! Should I alter anything with the mix? Would you recomend that I not use it?
Chef Dennis Littley
I’m happy to hear that Kristen, it is a chocolate wonder. You may notice less flavor with the dutch cocoa but other than that you shouldn’t have any problems, but I can’t tell you for sure since I’ve only used the Natural cocoa
Nisha
Hi Chef,
I tried your recipe for my husband’s b’day and it came out very well… thanku for the recipe 🙂
Chef Dennis Littley
You’re welcome Nisha, thank you for letting me know!
Melissa
Hi Chef Dennis,
I just made your cake for my husband’s birthday and it is the most moist cake I’ve ever made. I even used one cup of whole wheat flour (hard white). It wasn’t even a bit crumbly, and just what we were looking for. 10/10.
Thank you!
Chef Dennis Littley
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed the cake recipe Melissa, thanks so much for letting me know!
Alix
Can’t wait to try making this cake! Quick question – should the coconut oil be melted before mixing in to the cake batter and into the fudge frosting?
Thanks!
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Alix
it doesn’t have to be melted, it just shouldn’t be hard. If you leave it out at room temp it should be easy to incorporate it into the mix.
borigitana
So, if one wants to make this cake with eggs since I don’t happen to have vinegar in the house, how many eggs would I use?? I was specifically looking for a good chocolate cake made with coconut oil for my daughter’s birthday tomorrow and found yours..but have everything sans vinegar. Can I make it without the vinegar without destroying it?
Chef Dennis
I’m sorry but for this specific recipe, I don’t think leaving out the vinegar will give you the desired results and I don’t know what the equivalent of eggs for vinegar would be.