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.
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 350Ā°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!
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Vegan Coffee Cake
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Insanely delicious vegan coffee cake. This isn’t just a cake to eat with your coffee, this is a decadent coffee flavored cake!
Ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) All Purpose Flour*
- 1 and 1/2 cups (300g) Light Brown Sugar
- 1 and 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 3 Tbsp Instant Coffee Powder or Instant Espresso Powder
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 3 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3/4 cup (180ml) Canola Oil (or Vegetable Oil)
- 1 and 1/2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Frosting:
- 4 cups (480g) Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter
- 1/4 cup (60ml) Coffee Liqueur*
- 1 Tbsp Instant Coffee Powder or Instant Espresso Powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350Ā°F (180Ā°C). Spray two 8-inch* cake pans with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.Ā
- Sift all purpose flour into your mixing bowl and add light brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and instant coffee powder. Mix together.Ā
- Add soy milk, vanilla extract, oil and vinegar and mix into a batter. Don’t overmix.Ā
- Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared 8-inch cake pans and smooth down.Ā
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.Ā
- 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.Ā
- 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.Ā
- 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.Ā
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.Ā
*9-inch cake pans: You can also make this cake in two 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 25 minutes.Ā
*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.Ā
*Gluten-Free: You can switch the regular flour for a gluten-free all purpose baking blend in the same quantity.Ā
*Cupcakes: This recipe makes 18-24 cupcakes.
*Storing and Freezing: 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.Ā
*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.Ā
- Category: Dessert, Cakes
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice (of 12)
- Calories: 591
- Sugar: 65.8g
- Sodium: 416mg
- Fat: 21.7g
- Saturated Fat: 3.1g
- Carbohydrates: 93g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 4.3g
Keywords: vegan coffee cake
Just made this because I had some cappuccino chocolate buttons (they’re the non-vegan part š® ) which needed an accompaniment. Sponge worked very well cooked exactly as instructed – like the carrot cake I found that the ‘crust’ of the sponges was quite hard/tough when slicing, but it does add some crunch texture which is good. For the icing I did as others in the comments mentioned – used half the icing sugar, and used about 30ml of espresso (from 15g ground beans) instead of kahlua. Used Flora plant based butter and it gave the perfect thickness / spreadability with a lovely coffee taste. Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
Wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing Rebecca!
Just made this cake as a tester for my son’s 21st birthday. He is allergic to egg, dairy, and all nuts. This was a hit and I will be making it again in two days for his actual birthday! Fantastic across the board. The frosting is rich, but everyone that had a piece of the tester gave it rave reviews. We are true coffee lovers and this hit the spot! Thank you!
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing Kathleen!
I have been making this cake for a while now. It is my kids favorite. I have even substituted with gluten free flower mix and it still comes out fantastic. Only alteration I do is I only use 2 cups of icing sugar. Less sugar for the kids! š Thanks for the life-saving recipe!
★★★★★
Awesome Scott! Thanks so much for the wonderful review!
Hi
Love all the recipes on this website that I have tried
One question .. I live in the Uk .. so when you use Baking Soda .. do you mean bicarbonate of soda or baking powder
Julie
Hi Christine, so glad to hear you like the recipes. Baking soda is bicarbonate of soda. š
Thank you
I baked this coffee cake today and it is a winner, I used gluten free self raising flour, 1/4 spoon of bread soda and the other ingredients. For the frosting I used vegan cream cheese, liquid coffee extract, vegan butter and icing sugar. This is my best ever āVegan, gluten free Coffee Cakeā Delish!
ā
★★★★★
So glad it was a success! Thanks for sharing!
I used this recipe as a base for a cardamom cake, halved the ingredients to make a 9-inch layer cake and replaced the 3 tablespoons of instant coffee with 1 tablespoon (or 1/2 tablespoon for the halved recipe) of cardamom. It was very good, and everyone in my family liked it.
I’m not a fan of the icing, but I “diluted” it with cream cheese to get a less sweet one and it turned out great. I will definitely be making more cakes in the future
★★★★★
Finally a vegan cake recipe that uses things that are actually affordable and easy to get. I was thinking about replacing the coffee in the cake with cardamom and the kahlua in the frosting with espresso, do you think it will work?
I think espresso instead of kahlua would work great in the frosting. I’m not sure about the cardamon, I’m sure it would be a good add but likely not in the same quantity as the coffee used, you would have to experiment to find the right amount.
Hi, could I use melted dairy free margarine instead of the oil tia
Hi Jane, I haven’t tested it that way but I think it should work.
Since your lemon cake was such a hit, when I needed a vegan coffee cake, I knew this would be the place to come!
If I can’t get hold of kahlua, are there any other flavours you’d suggest to go with coffee cake?
(I’m making this as a gift, I personally like coffee but not coffee flavoured things, so I don’t have experience of flavour combos with this cake)
Oh I just spotted you have a non alcoholic coffee buttercream with your cupcakes. Awesome!
Hi Cindy! Yes the buttercream from the cupcakes would work great here too! Hope it goes well!
I forgot the oil whatās gonnna happen now š„ŗš„ŗš„ŗššš
It might just be quite dry! You could still possibly serve it with custard or something to make it more moist. š
I love this cake as a sandwich! Thank you š do you think I could also use a loaf tin? After something a bit more easy in these complicated times š x
★★★★★
Hi Claire! You probably can! I haven’t tested it that way though. All the best! š
Hello Iād love to try this cake ! But can I use regular coffee instead of instant coffee? thank u in advance !!
Hi Mari, instant coffee definitely works best in this recipe.
Hi Alison, I love your cakes. I am interested in making a spice cake layered with apple compote. Is there any way to adapt this recipe? If I were to take out the coffee and amp up the spices? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Hi Kate, that could definitely work, another option is to look at our gingerbread cake which is already spiced up. All the best! š
Hi there,
This looks amazing, can I replace the canola oil with something else like applesauce?
Hi Leona, I haven’t tried it, but that does usually work fine as a replacement for oil! All the best! š
Hi there š if I wanted to leave out the alcohol would I need to replace this with something else or just omit ? Thanks!
Hi Donna, you would need to replace it with something, extra non-dairy milk would work well. š
Great recipe! I doubled it and added 1/4 cup of dutch cocoa powder and replaced 1/2 cup of the milk, I used Almond, with Kahlua. And added 2 t of baking powder. Then I made a syrup reduction only about 1/2 cup with Kahlua and poured it over the cake prior to inverting it. A little denser than my traditional Kahlua/chocolate cake but very tasty. Was making this for a friend at work who is vegan!
I tried another vegan chocolate cake recipe and it was lacking in flavor so I had to throw it away and then found this! Thanks!
★★★★★
Sounds great Jane, thanks so much for sharing and the wonderful review! š