Vegan Coffee Cake

Insanely delicious vegan coffee cake. This isn’t just a cake to eat with your coffee, this is a decadent coffee flavored cake!

It was a bit of a surprise to me when I found out that folks in America call something a coffee cake when it’s meant to be eaten alongside your coffee. It doesn’t necessarily have any coffee in it.

Whereas in the UK (and South Africa, where I’m from), a coffee cake is a cake flavored with coffee.

So this vegan coffee cake, is a coffee flavored cake. Just in case you were thinking it’s one of those ‘eat with your coffee’ kind of cakes, not flavored with coffee at all.

This isn’t one of those. But you CAN eat this with your coffee of course and the coffee flavor is just fabulous! If you love cakes then also check out the most amazing vegan chocolate cake and our awesome vegan biscoff cake.

The Coffee Flavor

I was vaguely considering going the route of using filter coffee in this, but decided against it because I’ve tried that before in a cake and the flavor doesn’t come through strongly enough.

So this coffee cake has 3 tablespoons of instant coffee powder, and the flavor is there, it’s sooo there.

And this way you don’t even have to put on a pot of coffee, you just have to spoon it in, it’s too easy.

What You Need For The Cake:

Ingredient Notes

• Instant coffee powder – we used instant espresso powder which worked great but any instant coffee will do perfectly.
• Canola oil – can be replaced with any vegetable oil.
• Apple cider vinegar – can be replaced with distilled white vinegar. This reacts with the baking soda and causes the cake to rise.
• Soy milk – can be switched for any non-dairy milk.

What You Need For The Frosting

Frosting Ingredient Notes

• Vegan butter – ideally choose a vegan butter that is as firm as possible. It can either be sticks or tub-style vegan butter, but the firmer the better. Very soft buttery spreads sometimes don’t work as well in frostings as they tend to be too soft.
• Coffee liqueur – you can use any coffee liqueur. We used kahlua. If you don’t want a boozy frosting then you can replace this with non-dairy milk.
• Instant coffee powder – this can be any instant coffee, we used instant espresso powder.

How To Make Vegan Coffee 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 into your mixing bowl and add light brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and instant coffee powder. Mix together.

• Add soy milk, vanilla extract, oil and vinegar and mix into a batter. Don’t overmix.

• Divide the batter evenly between two 8-inch cake pans (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with circles of parchment paper on the bottom).
• Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
• Let the cakes cool for a few minutes before removing them from the cake pans and placing onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

• Add powdered sugar, vegan butter, coffee liqueur, instant coffee powder and vanilla extract to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth.

• When the cakes have cooled completely, frost them.
• Place the frosted cake into the fridge for an hour for the frosting to set.

Recipe Tips

Measure the flour correctly. Either weigh your flour on a food scale (for complete accuracy) or use 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.

Don’t over-mix your batter. Mix the batter until just mixed. Over-mixing the batter can affect the texture and the rise of the cake.

Bake immediately. When the batter is mixed, transfer to your cake pans and bake right away. Don’t let the batter sit for any length of time or it can affect the texture and rise.

Adapt for different cake pans. You can also make this cake in two 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 25 minutes.

Recipe FAQ

More Vegan Cakes

1. Easy vegan chocolate cake 
2. Vegan Vanilla Cake
3. Vegan White Cake
4. Vegan Lemon Cake
5. Vegan Banana Cake
6. Vegan Carrot Cake 

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

Vegan Coffee Cake

Insanely delicious vegan coffee cake. This isn’t just a cake to eat with your coffee, this is a decadent coffee flavored cake!

4.95 from 54 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Baking, Cakes, Dessert

Cuisine: Vegan

Diet: Vegan

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Servings: 12

Calories: 591kcal

Author: Alison Andrews

Ingredients

• ▢ 3 cups All Purpose Flour (375g)
• ▢ 1 ½ cups Light Brown Sugar (300g)
• ▢ 1 ½ tsp Baking Soda
• ▢ 1 tsp Cinnamon
• ▢ ¾ tsp Salt
• ▢ 3 Tbsp Instant Coffee Powder or Instant Espresso Powder
• ▢ 1 ½ cups Soy Milk (360ml) or other non-dairy milk
• ▢ 3 tsp Vanilla Extract
• ▢ ¾ cup Canola Oil (180ml) or Vegetable Oil
• ▢ 1 ½ Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

Frosting:

• ▢ 4 cups Powdered Sugar (480g)
• ▢ ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
• ▢ ¼ cup Coffee Liqueur (60ml)
• ▢ 1 Tbsp Instant Coffee Powder or Instant Espresso Powder
• ▢ 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

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Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 8-inch* cake pans with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper. 
• Sift all purpose flour into your mixing bowl and add light brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and instant coffee powder. Mix together. 
• Add soy milk, vanilla extract, oil and vinegar and mix into a batter. Don’t overmix. 
• Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared 8-inch cake pans and smooth down. 
• Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean. 
• Let the cakes cool for a few minutes before removing them from the cake pans and placing onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting. 
• Add powdered sugar, vegan butter, coffee liqueur, instant coffee powder and vanilla extract to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth. 
• When the cakes have cooled completely, frost them and then place the frosted cake into the fridge for an hour for the frosting to set. 

Notes

1. Measure the flour correctly. Either weigh your flour on a food scale (for complete accuracy) or use 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. 
2. 9-inch cake pans: You can also make this cake in two 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 25 minutes. 
3. Coffee Liqueur: You can use any coffee liqueur. We used kahlua. If you don’t want a boozy frosting though you can replace this with non-dairy milk. 
4. Gluten-Free: You can switch the regular flour for a gluten-free all purpose baking blend in the same quantity. 
5. Cupcakes: This recipe makes 18-24 cupcakes.
6. Storing: Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay fresh for 2-3 days or covered in the fridge where it will last for up to a week.
7. Freezing: You can freeze the frosted or unfrosted cake for up to 3 months. 
8. This recipe was first published in November 2017. It has been updated with new photos and the recipe itself has been increased to fit larger cake pans and adjusted for simplicity. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1Slice | Calories: 591kcal | Carbohydrates: 93g | Protein: 4.3g | Fat: 21.7g | Saturated Fat: 3.1g | Sodium: 416mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 65.8g

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? Rate it & leave your feedback in the comments section below, or tag @lovingitvegan on Instagram and hashtag #lovingitvegan