The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake- A quick and easy recipe, made in 1 bowl! This really is the best chocolate cake ever, vegan or otherwise. It’s super moist, rich and full of chocolate.
My birthday was a few weeks ago, so what did I do? I asked my mom to watch all 3 kids for a few hours so I could create and photograph the BEST EVER Vegan Chocolate Cake. Pretty great birthday if you ask me! 😉
For some reason, every time I get a vegan piece of cake out (such as at Whole Foods or elsewhere), I am disappointed. The frosting is usually yummy, but the cake part is either 1. strange tasting OR 2. super dry, not moist at all. Seriously disappointing.
I’ve also made a few of the vegan chocolate cake recipes out there, but even those weren’t quite moist enough or perfect enough for my taste. So I did a little thinking and experimenting and I finally came up with the best, most perfectly moist and delicious vegan chocolate cake recipe!
The frosting is a mouthwatering, ultra rich chocolate buttercream. I recommend using earth balance vegan buttery sticks, I haven’t found another brand that tastes quite as good.
If you are looking for a lighter alternative, check out this Chocolate Cake with Cashew Vanilla Frosting. There is nothing “light” about this Chocolate Cake! It is a full on indulgent recipe. And I’m okay with that.
What is the secret to a super moist vegan chocolate cake?
A couple of things make this cake super moist. The applesauce helps (don’t worry, you can’t taste it). But the BIG secret is to add a cup of boiling hot water to the cake batter right before baking. It makes such a difference!
The batter will appear runny when you add it, but don’t worry, that is completely correct and exactly what it should be like. It results in the most moist, delicious chocolate cake I’ve ever tasted!
If you are craving a chocolate fix about now, or are new to being vegan and miss good tasting cake, give this recipe a try! It’s easy to make and hard to mess it up.
OR if you are wanting to try something other than chocolate, give this Vegan Lemon Cake a go! It’s one of my most popular dessert recipes, and impresses people every time I make it.
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Recipe inspired by Add A Pinch.
The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup canola oil OR melted coconut oil
- 2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 cups vegan butter, softened baking sticks preferred
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4-1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
Instructions
For the Chocolate Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease two 9-inch cake pans. I also line them with parchment rounds and lightly flour for easy removal of the cakes later.
- Measure 1 cup unsweetened almond milk and add the tablespoon of vinegar to it. Stir slightly and set aside to curdle.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk well to combine.
- Now add the oil, applesauce, vanilla and almond milk/vinegar mixture. Mix on medium speed with a hand mixer (or stand mixer with the paddle attachment) until well combined.
- Lower the speed and carefully pour in the boiling water, continuing to mix into the cake batter until combined. The batter will seem very runny at this point; that is how it should be, trust me!
- Divide the batter evenly between your cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. After 10 minutes of cooling in the pan, carefully remove the cakes from the pans and let cool completely before frosting.
For the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Add the cocoa powder to a large bowl (I just wipe out the cake bowl and use it for the frosting). Whisk well to remove any clumps.
- Add the softened vegan butter and mix with a hand mixer until creamed and well combined.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and half of the almond milk, and mix until combined. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Mix starting on low, and turn to high. Mix until fluffy and combined.
- If the frosting seems too dry, add more milk, a tablespoon or two at a time. If the frosting seems too wet and doesn't hold it's shape, add more powdered sugar until it thickens up.
- Frost the cake using an icing spatula or just a butter knife.
Video
Notes
- For cupcakes, fill liners half full and bake for 20-25 minutes. The whole recipe will yield approximately 24 cupcakes.
- Double the recipe to make a 4 layer cake, or cut in half to make a 1 layer round cake. You can also make a bundt cake, simply bake for 45 minutes. Or a 9 x 13 inch cake, baking for about 35-40 minutes.
- Don't like a lot of frosting? Cut the frosting ingredients in half. The recipe as written makes enough for thick layers of frosting.
- Nut allergy? You may substitute soy milk or another milk for the almond milk, any non-dairy milk will work here.
- No applesauce? Substitute 2 flax eggs (2 tbs ground flax + 5 tbs water), whipped aquafaba or another egg replacer such as Bob's Red Mill (2 eggs worth).
Making the cake now and have an important question: it indicates 1 teaspoon salt. Is this correct? No cake I have ever made of any type has more than 1/4 teaspoon. Please let me know thanks!
Yes, that’s correct!
Hi Nora,
I want to try your recipe for my daughter ‘s birthday. I always bake for my kids birthdays but since she is allergic to eggs, dairy and nuts I have been buying cupcakes for her but this year I invited too many kids ( 30) and their parents…So I want try your recipe, do you any suggestions about how to multiple the amounts of ingredients or should I just make 3 of this?
Thank you!
Hi Melissa! If you double the recipe, you should end up with about 48 cupcakes, or a few more. I just made cupcakes out of this and it worked really well! Of course you could triple it if you need even more than that. That’s a lot of cupcakes! 🙂 Happy baking! I would suggest using cupcake liners, and spray them with oil so that the cupcakes can be easily removed from the paper.
This was the first vegan cake I’ve ever made. We have a coworker who is vegan and I scoured the web to find the most promising vegan chocolate cake. All of the reviews on this recipe is what convinced me this was the one I was looking for.
I knew it was go be a success when my 16 year old son swiped some of the “scraps” that i had cut off of one of the cakes (to make it level for stacking) and he asked “are you sure this is vegan?”
My department takes birthday cakes very seriously, so you can imagine how nervous I was dishing out my first homemade cake to my team… I am very happy to say that everyone loved it and the birthday boy said it’s even better than the vegan recipe he uses.
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. I’m definitely going to keep it bookmarked.
Nora,
I just served the cake and it was delicious!! Everyone loved it!! It’s a very, rich, dense cake, so I thought I would serve a little more than a silver, to be on the safe side, but everyone wanted seconds!! The frosting was fantastic!! I used 4 cups of icing sugar and it was perfect!!
Thank you again…this cake will be a staple!!
Btw…Happy New Year!!!
Amazing recipe! I doubled it to make a 2 layer 9×13 cake. I always try to cut the sugar so in the double recipe, I put in about 2 1/2 cups of sugar instead of the 3 1/2 cups it called for. Taste and texture was perfect and we didn’t miss out on any sweetness. Definitely new go-to chocolate cake recipe! I also used regular vinegar instead of Apple cider vinegar.
Absolutely the best recipe ever! I have tried so many vegan recipes and have been utterly disappointed with the outcome, but when I tried your recipe even with some substitutes like coconut sugar and prune purée for apple sauce, I was mighty impressed with the results. Even non vegans couldn’t tell that the cake didn’t have any eggs. Thanks a ton for sharing this recipe!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the chocolate cake so much, thank you!
Hi there,
I’m new to your site and made the chocolate cake. I didn’t prepare the icing yet, but wanted to ask, once the cake is frosted, should it be refrigerated or can it sit on the counter? I’ll be serving it on Sunday(tomorrow)
The cake turned out beautifully..I can’t wait to frost it!!
Hi Diana! Welcome! 🙂 It will actually be fine on the countertop, but you certainly could refrigerate it if you want. I usually leave it on the counter. Hope you enjoy the cake!
Oh wow! I just made this a couple of hours ago, so easy to make and it turned out beautifully! Thank you so much for the recipe share. It’s my first time making chocolate cake and it’s a birthday gift for my sis. She loves it! Vegan places are a bit sparse here so I make a lot of my meals myself, to save money too. I will be checking more of your recipes for sure. Happy new year.
I’m so happy it turned out so well for you! Thanks so much. Happy New Year!
This vegan chocolate cake was SO GOOD!!! And 100% I would not have been able to tell that it was vegan. I made this cake to give to one of my vegan friends for Christmas so I wasn’t able to try an entire slice of the cake but I tasted pieces of the cake and the frosting and it was delicious. I ended up having extra frosting left over too so if you wanted to use that for something you could. The cake itself was chocolatey and it was moist like a moist, cakey brownie and the frosting was perfectly sweet and smooth. I normally don’t like frosting because it tastes just like powdered sugar but this one actually turned out tasting good and not like straight up powdered sugar. I started with 2 cups of powdered sugar just to be safe but I ended up using a total of 4 cups of powdered sugar. I had my friends try some of the cake and the frosting together and they really liked it too and couldn’t believe it was vegan. I highly recommend this cake recipe and I will definitely be making this again even if just for myself to eat cause it was so good. Thank you so much for this recipe!
I made this cake for my sister’s birthday in November since she can’t eat eggs or cow milk. My family and I loved it! I made it again a couple weeks ago for a Christmas party, but I did cupcakes that time, and they came out great too! I think this cake was the best I’ve ever made and is probably going to be my go-to when I want chocolate cake.
The only negative I’ve had is finding the vegan buttery sticks. There’s only one store within ten minutes of me that carries them, and I’ve seen them out of stock a lot. I got lucky the first time and found them a day or two later for my sister’s cake. I did end up just using vegan butter spread for the cupcakes and the frosting came out fine in my opinion.
Thank you for posting this recipe! 🙂
Thanks Courtney! I’m so glad you are enjoying the recipe! Yes, if you can’t find the vegan buttery sticks, you can use the tub of vegan buttery spread instead, it works fine really. It’s just easier to measure with the sticks. Thanks!
Scrrrrrrrumptious! I have thoroughly enjoyed this cake since I had a taste 2 months ago, and have made it several times since as a cake and cupcakes. Thank you so much gir the recipe – I lobe how easy it is.
I’m so glad!!! Thank you!
This cake is fantastic! My husband (non vegan) has made it twice for me and my family! We agreed that the cake was too rich with the full amount of cacao powder, so the second time we used 1/2 c cacao and it was even better! Frosting is what dreams are made of. We loved it using Miyoko’s Vegan butter.
I’m glad you are enjoying the cake, even with less cocoa powder! Thanks.
Hi!
Thank you, your recipe looks great!
I’m in Belgium and here we usually use real dark chocolate (and perhaps a bit of cocoa powder, but only real chocolate seems to be the norm) to bake chocolate cakes. I wonder why? Could you explain why you use cocoa powder? 🙂 wouldn’t using real chocolate make it richer?
I think I’ll try to make this cake tomorrow! So if I’m lucky and have an answer before then, great, if not I’ll see what I’ll do!
Thank you again
Sasha
Hi Sasha! I guess I’m used to using cocoa powder in my chocolate cakes, but I’m no expert on chocolate for sure! You could certainly try it, though if you used a lot of real, melted chocolate I’m afraid the cake may end up too dense and moist, instead of fluffy and moist. I would probably add much less water at the end if you use real dark chocolate in the cake. If you try it, please let me know how it turns out! Thank you!
How many cupcakes can I expect this recipe to make?
The recipe should make about 16-18 cupcakes.
Made this choc cake and a non vegan banana cake last night for group of 7 (only 1 vegan) and vote was 6 to choc 1 to banana, big win 🙂
So glad Tina! Thanks!
This cake looks super yummy! I love chocolate cake but I have not attempted a vegan version before.
Is the applesauce a critical part of the recipe? On;y ingredient I am missing.
Also what can I substitute for the vegan butter sticks in the frosting recipe?
I can’t get this in my country.
Thank you!
I haven’t tried substituting it with anything else, so I’m not sure. A couple of flax eggs might work, it is used to replace eggs. You could substitute some sort of vegetable shortening instead of vegan butter. Hope that helps!
Nora, First I should say: THANK YOU!! It’s the very first time I bake a vegan cake and OMG, it’s just amazing! I wish I could post a picture of it for you to see! I’ve decorated with strawberries and it is beautiful to the most! What a texture! Better than any other non-vegan cake I’ve baked! My guests are just thrilled and everyone asking for the recipe!! Thank you again and Happy Holidays!
You are so welcome! Thank you for this amazing comment, I wish I could see it, too. It sounds beautiful!
Dear Nora,
I wanted to bake a vegan cake for part of my Thanksgiving Dessert table…I came across your recipe and it seemed easy enough. I have a couple of vegan family members and wanted to surprise them with a cake they can have too! They absolutely loved it! And so did non vegan family members! The frosting was fantastic !! It has been requested that I make this for our Christmas Eve get together. The only thing I added was a teaspoon of instant coffee to the hot water….Wow! Gave it a nice boost (not that your recipe needed it!
Thank you for a terrific and easy vegan chocolate cake!! This will be my go to recipe!
Thank you Jane! I’m so happy to hear everyone loved the cake, that is wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing this with me.
Hi
Can I use rice milk instead of almond milk?
Thanks
Yes, any non-dairy milk will work just fine. Enjoy!
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe! My bf is vegan and i’ve started cooking for him whenever I can and I know he loves chocolate cake. I tried this recipe and he absolutely loved it and so did my family who are non-vegan and couldn’t tell the difference. I can’t thank you enough for sharing this gem. I hope you publish a cook book someday! you’re awesome!
I am excited to try your many other recipes on your website.
Merry Christmas to you and your family x0
Thank you so much, what a sweet comment!! I’m so happy you all enjoyed the chocolate cake. 🙂 I would LOVE to publish a cookbook one day, thank you! Merry Christmas to you as well!
Crazy delicious! I’m not a talented baker but this came out perfectly!
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed the cake!
Hi Nora,
I was searching for a vegan cake for my son’s 10 birthday. A special request for homemade chocolate cake. I searched around and saw “the best chocolate cake ever’ and decided to read on. You had me hooked! I did the cake with applesauce and coconut oil and it is the most gorgeous moist cake ever! I put it in a heart shaped pan so it took about 50 min to cook. I used about 2/3 of the batter and then made a few cupcakes. I did the buttercream frosting (not vegan) and it was delicious. I think that espresso powder does give it a rich fullness and makes the chocolate divine. You are right, the best chocolate cake ever!
Thank you!
Aw I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks!
Made this for a birthday. Easy to make, delicious moist cake, easy to work with icing. Made a great impression when the cake was cut and the layers revealed. A hit all around. MasterRusk
Hi Nora!
Just wanted to say THANK-YOU for sharing this beautiful and delicious recipe!
I never comment on websites but just had to let you know how delectable this cake is.
I am not vegan myself but wanted to make a special cake for one of my best friends, who is vegan. She (and our other non-vegan best friend) absolutely loved it, as did I! I’ve never baked a cake from scratch before but it turned out perfectly and is now one of my favourite cakes. I will be baking this cake for others so that they can enjoy it too!!
Thank-you again x
Thank you Michelle! I appreciate this comment SO much. 🙂 I’m so happy you all loved the chocolate cake so much and I’m glad you would make it again even if you aren’t vegan yourself. Thank you for taking the time to leave this comment, it means so much to me!
Absolutely delicious! I added raspberries per my sons request.
Raspberries sound like the perfect addition! Glad you enjoyed.