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
You can switch the regular flour for a gluten-free all purpose baking blend in the same quantity.
This recipe makes 18-24 cupcakes. Or you can check out our vegan coffee cupcakes recipe.
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.
You can freeze the frosted or unfrosted cake for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Cakes
- Easy vegan chocolate cake
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Vegan White Cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Coffee Cake
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
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
- 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.
- 9-inch cake pans: You can also make this cake in two 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 25 minutes.
- 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.
- Gluten-Free: You can switch the regular flour for a gluten-free all purpose baking blend in the same quantity.
- Cupcakes: This recipe makes 18-24 cupcakes.
- 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.
- Freezing: You can freeze the frosted or unfrosted cake for up to 3 months.
- 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.
Batter was super thick, Baked way too fast and came out dry and dense, with little flavor. Disappointed.
Hi Laura. Sorry to hear you had trouble with the recipe. Not sure why it turned out that way as we test our recipes multiple times and they turn out good. Please keep in mind that there are a lot of factors that comes with baking like over mixing the batter or the fact that all ovens are different.
It is delicious and easy to follow recipe, though I do think it is too sweet, but that’s the normal for westerner desserts! Thank you for your recipe!
Thanks for sharing Sonja!
The cakes came out nice, but didn’t get the taste of coffee at all. I used instant coffee powder (Kenco)😕
so simple and SPECTACULAR. the only issue i had was the two cakes were massive, it was difficult to stack them. maybe my pans weren’t big enough. but the taste made up for it!! dusted the top with cocoa powder *chefs kiss*
Hello! Is this sponge suitable for freezing? Thanks
You can freeze the frosted or unfrosted cake for up to 3 months.
Made this for my boyfriend’s birthday and it was perfect! Delicious sponge and frosting. We all loved it 🙂
Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Niamh. Thanks for sharing and for your great review!
I made this. Very little coffee taste, the cakes fell apart when I took them out of the tins and the frosting was insanely, disgustingly oversweet. Complete disaster. I have a recipe for vegan chocolate cake which uses just olive oil and water instead of plant milk and I’ll use that in future, substituting coffee powder for cocoa powder.
The cake didn’t taste like coffee to me; it had a slight taste of apple cider vinegar. I didn’t frost it but switched to making a vanilla cake instead. I used instant espresso and I thought it would have more of a coffee taste, but apparently not.
Hi! I made this for my 60th birthday this week and it was gorgeous!
Have you ever made this with walnuts too? My absolute favourite is Coffee and Walnut cake. I want to try this myself, but thought I’d ask first.
Great recipe, thank you!
Hi Michelle. Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe. You can definitely add chopped walnuts if you’d like. Start by adding 1/4 cup at a time and mixing it in. When you’re happy with the amount of walnuts you can bake as directed in the recipe.
Fabulous recipe. Really delicous, great texture, and taste. Thanks for sharing such a lovely recipe. xx
Glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe Jane! Thanks so much for your great review!
Made cupcakes with this recipe, result was fantastic. I will definitely make this recipe again. Cheers from Perth Australia
Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Maire! Thanks so much for your great review!
I followed the instructions exactly, but the cake came out veeery crumbly and the wet ingredients were too much for the dry i had ready. it’s delicious tho! Will make it again
Hi Ana. Thanks so much for your review. Sorry to hear it came out dry. Did you measure your dry ingredients with cups or a scale? Hope it turns out better next time!
hi
thank u for your reply. i used a scale. i need to make this again on Tuesday as someone’s birthday. Any advise pleeeeese? oh i should mention i used GF flour, but it says to use the amount…dunno what went wrong
Not sure what went wrong Ana. Make sure that the Gf flour is an All purpose GF flour and that your oven is preheated to the correct temperature. Please let us know how it turned out!
Second batch came out much better! The birthday girl is very happy with the cake and said it was delicious! Thank you!
So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Ana! Thanks for sharing and for your great review!
I made this today in two loaf tins. Both came out beautifully moist. I sandwiched both loaves together with the frosting and then used the remaining to coat the top. I’m bloody delighted with how good this is! Been looking for a vegan coffee cake (without the seemingly obligatory walnuts… I hate walnuts!) and now I’ve found one. Very easy recipe to follow. Thanks for creating this lovely cake!
That’s awesome Justine! Thanks so much for your great review!