The Most Amazing Vegan Chocolate Cake

This is the most amazing vegan chocolate cake ever. It is extremely rich and moist, loaded with chocolate flavor and topped with a fabulous vegan chocolate buttercream frosting.

You simply will not believe how moist and chocolatey this vegan chocolate cake is. It’s actually more like a chocolate mud cake in that respect.

It’s so moist and delicious that NO ONE would ever guess this is a vegan cake. You will just be told over and over how it’s the best cake ever! Because it is.

The recipe is based on the classic Hersheys chocolate cake recipe and with a few small changes it was easy to veganize.

So it’s basically just that classic American style ultra moist fudgy chocolate cake that is to. die. for.

For more amazing vegan cakes check out our vegan coffee cake, vegan oreo cake and our vegan white cake.

Ingredients You’ll Need For The Cake:

Ingredient Notes

• Cocoa powder – should be natural unsweetened cocoa powder, something like Hersheys will work great.
• Instant espresso powder – can be replaced with instant coffee powder. It doesn’t make the cake taste like coffee, but it brings out the chocolate flavor beautifully. You can leave it out though if you prefer.
• Canola oil – can be replaced with vegetable oil or any other mild flavored oil that you like. If you use coconut oil then melt it first.
• Flax eggs – this recipe uses two flax eggs which consists of 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseeds mixed with 6 tablespoons of water. This can be replaced with 6 tablespoons of applesauce or any egg replacer provided it is replacing the equivalent of 2 eggs.
• Hot water – should be boiling hot water from a freshly boiled kettle. It’s added into the batter at the very end and makes for a thin batter, but this is exactly how it’s supposed to be.
• Vegan buttermilk – this works with the other ingredients to make this cake super moist. We mix apple cider vinegar and soy milk and let it curdle into a thick buttermilk. You can also use almond milk. Almond milk isn’t as thick and rich as soy milk so soy milk is the best option. Alternatively you can use any non-dairy milk but just keep in mind that some non-dairy milk won’t curdle when mixed with the apple cider vinegar. You can still use it though.

Ingredients You’ll Need For The Frosting

Frosting Notes

The frosting is our vegan chocolate buttercream frosting and works beautifully on this cake. It’s smooth and luxurious and matches perfectly with this rich, luxurious cake.

Another option would be to top the cake with our delicious vegan chocolate ganache. If you’re not a fan of sweet frostings like buttercream, then the vegan ganache is a good option as it’s just a mix of two ingredients: coconut cream and chocolate. So it’s not super sweet at all.

How To Make This Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe

You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.

• Sift all purpose flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and add white granulated sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and instant espresso powder. Mix together.

• Prepare your vegan buttermilk. Add apple cider vinegar to a measuring jug and then add soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line. Let it curdle into vegan buttermilk.
• Prepare the flax eggs. Add 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed to a bowl and add 6 tablespoons of hot water. Let it sit for a minute to thicken and become gloopy.
• Add the vegan buttermilk to the mixing bowl along with the flax eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Stir into a thick batter. Don’t over-mix.

• Add hot water and whisk it in with a hand whisk. The batter will be thin but this is exactly how it is supposed to be.

• Divide the batter evenly between two 8-inch cake pans (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with parchment paper circles at the bottom).
• Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.

• Let the cakes cool in the cake pans for a few minutes before removing from the cake pans and transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

• Frost with a delicious vegan chocolate buttercream frosting.

Recipe Tips

Spoon and level or weigh the flour. If you accidentally use too much flour then this cake won’t be as moist as it is supposed to be. So it’s ideal to measure the flour correctly. You can use the spoon and level method, which is to spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top (don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup) or weigh it out on a food scale for the best accuracy.

Baking pan sizes. This cake can be made in either two 8-inch cake pans or two 9-inch cake pans. Both options work great, the 9-inch layers are just a little thinner. Bake for 30 minutes for two 8-inch cake pans and bake for 35 minutes for two 9-inch cake pans. For a 9×13 sheet cake, bake time will be 35-40 minutes.

Recipe FAQ

More Vegan Cakes

1. Vegan Strawberry Cake
2. Vegan Victoria Sponge
3. Vegan Lemon Cake
4. Vegan Orange Cake
5. Vegan Coconut Cake
6. Vegan Carrot Cake

Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!

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