This easy vegan chocolate cake is moist, rich and decadent but also so simple to make! It’s also extremely versatile for different pan sizes.
This recipe was originally published in 2015 and was one of the first recipes published on our blog. We have given it a makeover with some new photos and lots of extra tips and tricks. The recipe itself is unchanged.
This easy vegan chocolate cake is the bomb diggity!
Not only is it super easy to make, but I’m actually convinced it is flop proof. You’re going to love the simplicity of the ingredients and how well it turns out.
It’s rich, moist, mega-chocolatey and topped with the simplest chocolate frosting that also really brings it with the chocolate flavor.
This is the easy route to popularity right here! Just whip up one of these babies for your friends and you’re it.
It’s also really flexible and you can make this cake in a variety of different cake pan sizes, as a layer cake or as a sheet cake. So basically, this cake has got a whole lot going for it.
What You Need To Make This Cake:
Ingredient Notes
- Soy milk – this can be replaced by another non-dairy milk such as almond milk.
- White vinegar – the white distilled vinegar reacts with the baking soda and causes the cake to rise. You can also use apple cider vinegar.
- Flax egg – making a flax egg is as simple as mixing 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds with 3 tablespoons of hot water and letting it sit until it becomes gloopy. If you don’t have any flaxseeds on hand, the same method can be used with chia seeds, or you can replace the flax egg with 3 tablespoons of applesauce.
- Canola oil – can be replaced with any vegetable oil.
What You Need To Make The Frosting:
Frosting Notes
We used our super simple recipe for vegan chocolate frosting on this cake. It makes the perfect amount to frost this cake in pretty much whatever size cake pans you use.
The other option for frosting is to make a half batch of our vegan chocolate buttercream frosting. The main difference in the recipe (the basic ingredients are the same) is a larger quantity of vegan butter.
The reason I recommend a half batch of the chocolate buttercream is because this is a fairly small cake, and our chocolate buttercream was created for a large two-layer 9-inch cake. So a half batch is usually sufficient for this recipe, no matter what cake pans you use.
If in doubt though you can make a full batch of the chocolate buttercream and just freeze whatever frosting you don’t use.
How To Make Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
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 sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Prepare your flax egg by mixing one tablespoon of ground flaxseeds with 3 tablespoons of hot water and let it sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add the flax egg, soy milk, vanilla extract, oil and vinegar to the mixing bowl and mix into a batter. Don’t overmix.
- Divide the batter between two 8-inch cake pans (see below for adapting this cake to different cake sizes) and smooth down.
- Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Frost with our vegan chocolate frosting or a half batch of our vegan chocolate buttercream frosting.
Adapting For Different Cake Sizes
This cake can be adapted for different cake sizes as follows:
- Three 6-inch round cake pans – bake for 20 minutes.
- Two 7-inch round cake pans – bake for 25 minutes.
- Two 8-inch round cake pans – bake for 20 minutes.
- One 9-inch round cake pan – bake for 30 minutes.
- 9×9 square cake pan – bake for 25 minutes.
- 9×13 sheet cake – bake for 15-20 minutes.
Tips For Success
- Measure the flour correctly. Measure the flour correctly using the spoon and level method – spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup. Alternatively weigh it on a food scale.
- Don’t overmix the batter. Mix the batter until it’s just mixed and then stop mixing. Tiny lumps are fine. Overmixing can cause your cake to be dense or to not rise properly.
- Bake immediately. As soon as your batter is mixed, transfer to your cake pans and bake immediately. This is not a batter that should rest. If you don’t bake right away it can cause your cake to not rise.
Recipe FAQ
If you want to adapt this cake for gluten-free then we’ve done all the heavy lifting for you already. Check out our gluten-free chocolate cake that adapts this recipe beautifully to create a perfectly moist and delicious gluten-free version.
This recipe adapts beautifully to 12 perfect cupcakes. Bake them for 20 minutes. Or check out our classic vegan chocolate cupcakes.
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay perfectly fresh for a couple of days, or covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week, though it’s at its absolute best in the first couple of days when it’s ultra fresh.
Yes, it’s freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
More Delicious Vegan Cakes
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Pound Cake
- Vegan Apple Cake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
For the Vegan Chocolate Cake:
- 1 and 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour (188g)
- 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder (43g) Unsweetened
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 Flax Egg 1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseeds + 3 Tbsp Hot Water*
- 1 cup Soy Milk (240ml) or other non-dairy milk
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/3 cup Canola Oil (80ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
Frosting Options:
- 1 Recipe Vegan Chocolate Frosting
- 1/2 Recipe Vegan Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 8-inch cake pans (see notes for different cake pan sizes*) with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper. Set aside.
- Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Prepare your flax egg by mixing one tablespoon of flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons of hot water and leave to sit for a minute or so to become gloopy.
- Add your flax egg, soy milk (or other non-dairy milk), vanilla extract, oil and vinegar to the mixing bowl and mix in. Don't overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans.
- Place into the oven to bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool in the cake pans for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Frost with our vegan chocolate frosting or a half batch of our vegan chocolate buttercream frosting.
Notes
- Measure the flour correctly. Measure the flour correctly using the spoon and level method - spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don't scoop it and don't pack it into the cup. Alternatively weigh it on a food scale.
- Flax egg. You can replace the flax egg with 3 Tablespoons of applesauce.
- Cake Sizes: This cake can be adapted for different cake sizes as follows:
- Three 6-inch round cake pans - bake for 20 minutes.
- Two 7-inch round cake pans - bake for 25 minutes.
- Two 8-inch round cake pans - bake for 20 minutes.
- One 9-inch round cake pan - bake for 30 minutes.
- 9x9 square cake pan - bake for 25 minutes.
- 9x13 sheet cake - bake for 15-20 minutes.
- Gluten-Free: If you want to adapt this cake for gluten-free then we've done all the heavy lifting for you already. Check out our gluten-free chocolate cake that adapts this recipe beautifully to create a perfectly moist and delicious gluten-free version.
- Cupcakes: This recipe adapts beautifully to 12 perfect cupcakes. Bake them for 20 minutes. Or check out our classic vegan chocolate cupcakes.
- Storing and Freezing: Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay perfectly fresh for a couple of days, or covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week. It's freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
- Nutritional information is for the cake only and excludes frosting. Nutritional information for the frostings can be found on those separate linked recipes.
- This recipe was first published in September 2015. It has been updated with new photos and lots of extra tips but the recipe itself is unchanged.
I love this recipe. So easy to bake!
Thanks Nara!
Made the vegan chocolate cake into muffins for my granddaughters third birthday, they turned out excellent.
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing Debra!
Hi, I am planning on using this delicious sounding recipe for a birthday cake. Would the finished cake be firm enough to withstand being covered with roll out sugar paste and having sugar paste characters sat on top of it fo you think?
Thanks.
Hi Sally, I haven’t done anything like that with this cake myself so I’m not 100% sure. I have heard from other readers that it is firm enough for fondant and stuff like that so I think it would be.
Thanks – I might cover it with fondant and perhaps place characters on the board around it…
Hi can I use cake flour in this recipe?
Hi Tahira, I think you can, but this is based on other readers feedback, I haven’t tried it myself.
First of all, thank you for the wonderful recipe.
Can I replace flax eggs with whipped aquafaba? Will it improve the final product. If so what can be the measurement for it?
Thank you.
Hi Evin, so glad you like the recipe, thank you! I haven’t tried aquafaba in this recipe, but the amount to use would be 3 Tbsp aquafaba. I don’t think it would be an improvement on the flax egg, just a sideways/equivalent move in this recipe, but it should work fine. 🙂
Love this cake. I’ve taken to making a batch up, crumbling it into the bottom of a big glass bowl, melting some soya custard (which we can only get in vanilla flavour) and dark chocolate together to make a chocolate custard which I pour on top of the cake crumbles, and then pouring some whipped vegan cream on top of the custard to make a beautiful chocolate trifle! 😀
That sounds wonderful!
This sounds great! Can’t wait to make it! I don’t have canola/vegetable oil — would olive oil, coconut oil, or vegan butter work best?
As long as it’s a light/mild olive oil, that would work best out of those options. Otherwise melted coconut oil. Vegan butter won’t work well.
I made this for a birthday today. The instructions are very clear, and the cake came out of the pans cleanly and beautifully, for me, the first requirement for a layer cake. I made it in two 8 inch layer cake pans, and half the buttercream icing, which was just exactly the perfect amount to generously ice the cake. The cake itself is absolutely delicious and very moist with a good chocolate flavor. The rich taste and excellent texture of the cake itself makes this recipe a winner. The icing is good also, but that is less hard to achieve in a vegan version. The cake is also very easy to make, and I like being able to do it by hand. Great recipe. I am wondering if one wanted a two 9 inch layer cake, would you just double the recipe?
So happy to hear it was a success! Yes for a two layer 9-inch cake you can just double the recipe. All the best! 🙂
Hi Alison .
First of all I absolutely love this recipe. The cake
always turns out so delicious and it has also fooled non-vegan eaters. I’ve also made the gluten free one as well which too was a success.
You say it is versatile cake and does well as a layer cake.. my question is do you think it would work if it was to be made into a two or three tiered wedding cake, with each tier having 2 or 3 layers of cake? Would definitely love to use this recipe for my best friends wedding cake.
Thank you!
Hi Sarah! So happy to hear you love the recipe! I think it could work very well as a multi layer cake for a wedding!
Can’t wait to bake my first vegan cake! Thanks a lot!
Awesome, hope you love it Debbie!
Perfect every time I make it! Extremely easy to prepare. Everybody always devours it. I will be using more of your recipes.
Thanks Yasmeen!
Question about icing the cakes!
The two layers each have a flat side and a domed side. Do you put the two layers on top of each other with the top layer’s flat side resting on the domed top of the bottom layer, or do you reverse any of the layers? I ask because your lovely cake photos show that the two layers seem to rest evenly compact with no gaps whereas my cake layers tend to stand ‘proud’ and there is a significant gap between the bottom and top layers. This does not look good.
You can always level the cakes with a knife. But the best way to do it is place the first layer upside down and then the second layer right side up.
Thanks for this – obvious, but I couldn’t work it out!
You’re welcome! 🙂
It’s fabulous and very chocolatey. However, I’m trying to cut down on sugar in my diet so next time, although the frosting tastes really good, I’m going to use pure, 100% apricot jam (just fruit and no sugar or sugar alternatives) to sandwich the two together, and maybe use some vegan cream cheese on the top layer. I also sliced it into 16 portions and froze them in pairs so that we eat it sparingly. Everyone (mostly non-vegans) who got a piece loved it and has asked for this vegan recipe. .Thank you for sharing it.
Hey Alison,
Is it okay to use rice vinegar or completely leave vinegar out?
I don’t think rice vinegar would work, you could switch it for lemon juice. It can’t be omitted entirely because it’s needed to react with the baking soda to make the cake rise.
Everyone loves it when I make it, they say it tastes like old traditional chocolate cake that you can get on the store! Its my boyfriend’s favorite as well!! Thanks a lot for your effort in the recipe 🙂
Yay! Thanks so much Nicole!