Chocolate cake. Sometimes that’s all you need – a nice slab of it, nothing fancy, no fruit or mint nor hint of citrus. They say that chocolate mimics the euphoria of being in love, but how do they know that love isn’t mimicking chocolate? It could choose a worse role model.
This is my basic chocolate cake recipe, the same as the chocolate cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. It’s rich and tender and just exactly what I want when biting into a piece of cake, moistness and melt in your mouth crumbs. I top it with an extra fudgy chocolate ganache that gets it delectible gloopiness from a couple tablespoons maple syrup. In this photo, I’ve doubled the recipe to make a two layer cake and added a little bit of a creamy cocoa buttercream that I’ve been working on. Another benefit to this recipe is that the cake doesn’t dome too much so it’s perfect for layer cakes.
Chocolate Cake
Makes one 8 inch circle cake
1 cup almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular (or a mix of both)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350?F.
Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla and almond extract and mix well.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
Lightly grease an 8 inch springform pan. Pour in the batter and bake for 32 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted through the center comes out clean.
Gooey Ganache
2/3 cup almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
8 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
In a small saucepan bring the milk to a boil then lower heat to a simmer. Add the chocoate chips and maple syrup and mix with a fork. Turn heat off and mix until thoroughly melted. Let cool for about 15 minutes before using.
To assemble:
Just pour the ganache over the cooled cake and kind of tilt the cake at all angles to get the ganache to drip down the sides. Refrigerate to cool and set the ganache.
Fork my diet, I need this chocolate cake!
Oh my gosh…that is some great cake porn…
Hand over the creamy cocoa buttercream recipe goshdarnit! Or should I look elsewhere for it? Or maybe it’s top secret…
I love that you guys are doing the blog again.. any plans for more shows?
I got the most hideous craving for chocolate cake last week. Clearly, this is a sign.
Yummmmmm.
god yes.
Gosh am I craving cake like crazy right now
I just made this yesterday for my daughter’s first birthday! Crazy! I topped it with your vanilla buttercream tinted pink. It’s my standby cake and cupcake recipe. I think I’ll go have another piece right now!
NOM!
It’s true! I rediscovered chocolate-chocolate just the other day. Very nice!
Lovely!
Why the fork didn’t I check the blog yesterday when I actually made chocolate cake?! The one I made came out fine, but this one looks amazing.
I want a piece right now!!
How did you know I was looking for (or rather, THINKING about looking for) a recipe for cake with Ganache?? This will be perfect as I already have all of the ingredients. Except… well, I don’t have a pan to put them in. Once I get that, I’ll be good to go!
fuuuuuuuck that looks good.
Well, I now know what I’m doing with the almond milk I purchased—-and, this looks amazing.
Cakey. Porney. Goodness.
I really like it with the cocoa buttercream that you are “working on”
In the meantine, until you perfect it. I want to try it with VCTOtW ‘Peanut Buttercream’ or maybe the ‘Not-Too-Sweet Raspberry Mouse’ variation between the layers.
I think I’m in love. That ganache looks AMAZING!!! Can you say sex in my mouth?!?!??!
This is my kind of dessert. Chocolate cake, chocolate icing, the end.
I like your cake.
I made this yesterday as a single round with the chocolate icing. The cake recipe is so very simple and it’s also so very delicious! And just as you said, the cake didn’t dome up in the middle, which is a great, and I’ve got this page bookmarked as I’m planning on making it again as a layer cake for my husband’s birthday. Thanks for sharing your recipe, Isa.
Hey – I ate that cake. Man it was good.
“hey say that chocolate mimics the euphoria of being in love, but how do they know that love isn?t mimicking chocolate?”
this is a great wisdom
i tried this recipe over the weekend and it was delish. i poured the cake batter into little rabbit shaped tins and had bunny cakes.
Thank you for saving me from egg-slavery. I made giant, GIANT cupcakes this evening, and I am so very, very happy. This is the second-to-last frontier of veganism for me, so I’m almost there. 🙂
What can I substitute the maple syrup with in the icing? I am sure to make this one soon – am also soon going to blog that soup that was just yummy:)
Dark chocolate is my favorite kind of chocolate. Chocolates have some natural antioxidants too.;”‘
i love to eat dark chocolate because it is very tasty and it is full of antioxidants too”:,
Cake recipes are the specialty of my best friend, my favorite ones are those exotic fruit cakes;””
That looks really tasty! I will try to make it for my boyfriend! 😀 Thanks for the recipe.
the cake recipes on the internet are all very delicious and i want to try and bake all of them _
besides the usual pain of converting cups to deciliters and tablespoons this recipe was super easy. i had all ingredients except for almond extract which i substituted with powdered sugar. i also used leftover coffee instead of almond milk (for both cake and ganache). the result— super fluffy cake that melts on your tongue. next time i’m going to use some sort of fruity sauce instead of this ganache (maybe raspberries); this a very good basic recipe that can be tweaked in many ways. 🙂
I am new to vegan baking, and am always anxious about the quality and taste of the result. This is a great vegan cake recipe, moist and fluffy cake with yummy ganache! It does not taste “vegan”. I used very rich chocolate and it was perfect. I am definitely going to experiment with a buttercream and or a raspberry sauce next time. This is a great base recipe to customize with the frostings of your choice. Thank you for sharing this!!!
So…I am trying this recipe right now and my almond milk isn’t curdling. How long should I wait? It has been about 5 minutes so far.
But! Every recipe I’ve tried from here have been absolutely FANTASTIC! The double chocolate chips cookies I end up making at least once a week because they are so tasty! Thanks girls!
It’s ok if it doesn’t curdle, it will still react with the leavener.
Today is National Chocolate Day and my husband is a big chocolate fan! He is going to be so surprised when he finds a chocolate cake sitting on the table that is fitting to our diet needs! Thank you!!!!
would it be possible to use a regular 8-inch round cake pan instead of a springform pan?
it seems like it would be fine, but i don’t know how moist this cake is.
If it’s lined with parchment at the bottom and sprayed well, then yes. But cakes have a way of sticking no matter what.
I plan on making this for my birthday which is in a few days. I am so excited to chow down on some delish vegan cake! 🙂
This must be the recipe for me. I can make the fanciest of cakes, but when making a standard chocolate cake, I always go wrong. Either they don’t rise at all, but mostly they en up looking like a bursting volcano. But since this cake doesn’t dome, it must be something for me.
I am also planning on doing it as a layer cake, my qustion is, when you double the batch, do you bake it as two individual cakes, or just pour the whole batter in a springform and then cut it in half after?
And what happens with baking time/temp if pouring in the whole batter?
I made this cake for Valentine’s Day and oh my gosh it was absolutely amazing! I did not care that I was already stuffed from the meal I had made…I needed to eat the chocolate cake. Even my boyfriend and roommate, who are not vegan, absolutely loved it! I took your suggestion about doubling the recipe, so it was a two layered cake, which was a good suggestion. It just wouldn’t have been as impressive if it was just one layer! Thank you again for this recipe. I’m definitely going to be making this again. I’ll have to control myself on how often I can make it–if I had it my way I would make it once a week!
I make this for my husband all the time , He loves this.
Is granulated sugar vegan?
Made it tonight. Used bittersweet choc for ganache, otherwise followed recipe exactly, and it was fantastic. Thank you!
This cake is simply amazing. Every bite is like heaven. And so simple to make. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
thank u sooo much for this recipe!! this cake is amazing!!!
Made this for a birthday party last night. Filled the 2 cakes with a simple raspberry sauce, and smothered in the gooey ganache. It was a huge hit! Everyone wanted to take extra home with them 🙂