Dairy Free Chocolate Cake

4.95 from 20 votes

Fudgy, moist and beautifully textured dairy free chocolate cake. Perfect as a 2 or 3-layer cake smothered in vegan chocolate buttercream.

Prep Time15

Cook Time30

Total Time45

Course: Cakes, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegan

Servings:

Calories: 312kcal

2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
¾ cup Cocoa Powder (63g) Unsweetened
2 cups White Granulated Sugar (400g)
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Dairy Free Buttermilk (240ml) 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice + Soy Milk or Almond Milk up to the 1 cup line
½ cup Canola Oil (120ml) or Vegetable Oil
6 Tablespoons Applesauce
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 cup Hot Coffee (240ml)

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Prepare three 8-inch cake pans or two 9-inch cake pans* by spraying with non-stick spray and lining the bottoms with circles of parchment paper. Set aside.
Sift the all purpose flour and unsweetened cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix together.
Prepare the dairy free buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding soy milk or almond milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line and letting it curdle.
Add the dairy free buttermilk to the mixing bowl along with the canola oil, applesauce and vanilla extract and mix into a thick batter.
Add in 1 cup of hot coffee and whisk it in with a hand whisk. The batter will be thin and this is correct.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans.
Bake for 30 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 transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Frost with vegan chocolate buttercream frosting and decorate with vegan chocolate shavings (optional).

Flour. Weigh your flour for accuracy or make sure you measure it correctly using the spoon and level method. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife.
Dairy Free Buttermilk - is ideally made with lemon juice + soy milk or almond milk. Other non-dairy milks like coconut milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc may not curdle when mixed with lemon juice but can still be used if this is what you have on hand.
Applesauce. The applesauce can be switched for 2 flax eggs (6 Tablespoons of Ground Flaxseed Meal mixed with 6 Tablespoons of hot water).
Coffee. You can either use filter coffee or just add 1 teaspoon of instant coffee to a cup of boiling hot water. If you want to omit the coffee altogether then you can just use a cup of hot water.
Cake pans. This cake is very versatile, you can make it in three 8-inch cake pans OR two 8-inch cake pans, if you're doing two 8-inch pans the cake layers will just be thicker. You may need an extra 5 mins baking time if you're doing it in two 8-inch pans. If you're making it in 9-inch cake pans then make it in two layers.
Storing. Store leftover cake covered at room temperature for 3-4 days or covered in the fridge for 7 days.
Nutritional information is for the cake only, the nutritional info for the frosting is listed on the frosting recipe page.
Recipe adapted from Ina Garten.