The Cake Merchant

Whole Wheat Vegan Chocolate Cake

Vegan Chocolate Cake

I’ve decided to up my chances of keeping my New Year’s resolutions by making them easier this year. Let’s call them goals instead, shall we? I figured I could handle one short term goal and one long term goal.

Long term goal- phone detox. You know that moment when you find yourself on your phone, iPad, and computer all at the same time? Guilty. I’m going to start my detox by NOT looking at my phone first thing in the morning. Doesn’t sound like much, but baby steps, people. I may have to buy a real alarm clock.

Short term goal- Go vegan for a month. You can do anything for a month, right? It’s not too far of a stretch from my current diet. I wish I could say that I had a really good reason for doing it other than I’m just curious about life without cheese, but I just want to try it. Needless to say, you’ll be seeing more vegan recipes than usual on the blog, starting with this one.

And guess what? It’s a mini cake! I can’t help myself, they are just so cuuute! I healthified it a little bit by replacing half the oil with applesauce and using whole wheat pastry flour. You could also use a half and half mix of whole what pastry flour and all-purpose flour to make it less obviously whole wheat if you want to.

Vegan Chocolate CakeVegan Chocolate CakeVegan Chocolate Cake

During my vegan month, I’m going to explore other frostings outside of the margarine/shortening/so much powdered sugar your teeth hurt variety. I gather from comments and emails that most of my readers don’t like overly sweet frosting (I don’t either), but I have yet to find a good version of vegan swiss buttercream. However, I know there are other good vegan frostings out there and I can promise you that this one is not too sweet and very chocolaty. I added corn syrup to keep the frosting shiny and smooth (keep in mind that this is not HFCS) but you can sub golden syrup, maple syrup, or omit it all together.

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Whole Wheat Vegan Chocolate Cake

Yield: One 3 layer 4-inch cake or 2 layer 5-inch cake

Ingredients

    For the Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake:
  • 3/4 cup (180 ml) non-dairy milk (I used almond milk)
  • 1/2 teaspoon white or apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted coconut oil
  • 3 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup (90 grams) whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/4 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder (I used Dutch-process but natural will work)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • For the Chocolate Ganache Frosting:
  • 1/3 cup (80 ml) non-dairy milk
  • 8 ounces (224 grams) semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tablespoon brewed coffee or espresso (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon light corn syrup (optional)

Instructions

    For the Cake:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease and line 3 4-inch cake pans with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the non-dairy milk and vinegar and set aside for 5 minutes to curdle.
  3. Add the sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla extract and whisk until frothy.
  4. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine.
  5. Divide the batter equally between the 3 pans and bake for about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  6. Cool on wire racks for about 15 minutes, and then turn the cakes out onto the wire racks and cool completely.
    7. For the Chocolate Ganache Frosting:
  7. Place the chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl.
  8. Heat the non-dairy milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just begins to boil.
  9. Pour the non-dairy milk over the chocolate chips and let stand for about 5 minutes.
  10. Stir until smooth.
  11. Stir in the coffee and corn syrup until smooth.
  12. To make the ganache extra smooth, you can use an immersion blender to blend it.
  13. Put the ganache in the fridge for about 30-45 minutes or until it reaches a spreadable consistency.
    14. To Assemble the Cake:
  14. Place on layer of cake on a 4-inch cake board or a plate.
  15. Spread about 2 tablespoons of ganache on top.
  16. Do the same with the 2nd layer and place the 3rd layer on top.
  17. Place the frosted layer in fridge for 5-10 minutes to set up. This will prevent the cake from sliding around when you frost the outside.
  18. Remove the cake from the fridge and place a large dollop of frosting on top of the cake.
  19. Using an offset spatula, work your way around the sides until the entire cake is covered with a thin layer of frosting.
  20. Let the crumb coat set in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
  21. Once the crumb coat has set, spread a thicker layer of frosting on the top and sides of the crumb coat to create a smooth finish.
  22. Top with fleur de sel or sprinkles.
https://cakemerchant.com/2015/01/07/whole-wheat-vegan-chocolate-cake/

Notes:
Since these cakes are so small and I don’t want to lose any when I level the cake, I used Bake Even strips to keep the cakes flat. Using these may add a couple of extra minutes to the baking time.

You may be wondering, “Who the hell has 3 4-inch cake pans?” I don’t, actually, and I had to wash out my 4-inch cake pan in between baking each layer. If you’re not as devoted to mini cakes as I am (by devoted I mean insane), you can make two 5-inch cakes, or one 7-inch cake. You might even be able to fit it into a 6×3 inch pan, but I haven’t tried it.

Comments

  1. Oh man, I need to be better about the phone / computer / everything all at once. And not looking at my phone as I’m laying in bed trying to go to sleep!! It’s so bad!

    This cake sounds awesome – and it’s so pretty too!

    Reply

  3. I’ve been looking for a vegan chocolate cake recipe that wouldn’t use vegan butter substitute / margarine so I’m very glad I found this. The ganache frosting sounds nice too!. Thanks for the recipe.

    Reply

  4. Greetings from OZ! You could sub the sugar with Stevia (granules or tablets) and the syrup with Rice Malt syrup, (it’s fructose free ie no sucrose) For a hard icing try this :-
    1) Chocolate 1 cup of Dextrose powder (the pure no fructose kind) 1 tablespoons cocoa, (I use Ecuadorian Cacao) 1 tablespoon butter. In a bowl over simmering water add all ingredients stir until the dextrose melts. DO NOT BOIL, it will go like toffee….use straight away,for cup cakes, biscuits (cookies) cakes etc…
    2) For Blue icing, 1 cup Dextrose, 1 tablespoon cornflour, (for best results pound together in a mortar/pestle) 1 tablespoon melted butter, some hot water, colour & vanilla essence. Add melted butter, Add water slowly, looking for the consistency of wet sand, Add flavour and colour, spread over your cake,biscuit (cookie) or whatever….
    3) Pink or Red icing: (The best one) place 1 cup Dextrose into bowl over simmering water, add 1 tablespoon butter, mix well, add red colouring to your liking & flavour,(vanilla or almond, whatever you like) mix well, use straight away, BE WARNED, it sets very fast, if it sets too fast, place back over the heat….Good luck….
    Notes, Dextrose can be bought at beer home brew making shops, or some supermarkets….usually in i kilo bags, (looks like sugar, but it’s only the glucose half of the sugar, no fructose….
    NB Fructose is the half of the sugar molecule that is highly addictive & helps keep you addicted to sugary things))
    I eat mostly low fructose, & am trying to go vegetarian, then vegan, I applaud your idea…hope I get to hear how you go/went…I wouldn’t worry about the oil, as long as you use coconut oil, pure good quality olive oil or butter, (but I suppose butter is out for vegan?) you should be ok, it’s those other horrible oils that are not good for us, plant oils, canola, vegetable oils etc….yukky….
    Peace & Love,
    Sylvia x

    Reply

  5. Oh, i forgot, I wouldn’t be using applesauce, it’s just concentrated fructose, ie lots of sugar….
    Peace & Love
    Sylvia x

    Reply

  6. I tried this today. I didn’t follow the recipe to a ‘t’; I did everything except the applesauce and I added 1 tbsp. maple syrup, 1 tsp cinnamon and some chopped nuts to the batter. Tastes absolutely AMAZING but fell apart when I tried to get it out of the pan. Really fell apart, into palm-sized pieces! I’m not sure where I went wrong.

    Anyway, I spread the ganache on top of each piece and then decided I’d stack a few on top of each other. So I had little towers that were unstable as hell and looked like a tragedy.

    I had a ‘tower’ with some ‘custard’ I made – one banana and a little vanilla extract, blended with a little coconut milk and heated slightly – and it was glorious. So who cares.

    Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply

    • The applesauce is necessary to hold the cake together. If you omit it, you will need to replace it with oil. The nuts may have contributed to this as well, since this cake is not as sturdy as traditional chocolate cake, so I wouldn’t recommend a lot of add ins.

      Reply

  8. Hello! look amazing! i will try to make it today. I have a question. when you say 4-inch cake pan you mean the diameter or the hight?

    Reply

  10. UM THIS IS GORGEOUS. I WANT TO EAT THE ENTIRE THING. (Can you tell I’m hungry?)

    LOVE THE VEGAN GANACHE!!! You make it look so beautifully like regular ol’ butter-decadent frosting!!

    Reply

    • Thanks, Erika! Haha, it’s dangerous to look at food blogs when you are hungry. I had to avoid your gorgeous chilaquiles pictures!!!

      Reply

  11. I just made this cake. I used the coffee in the frosting. This cake is fantastic! I will definitely make it again. Next time I will double the frosting because it is so good I want more.

    Reply

  12. Hi, this cake looks gloriously delish!! My question is, can I bake this in one pan and if yes, what size and how long?
    Thank you.

    Reply

  13. If I want to use just whole wheat flour rather than pastry flour how would I need to adjust the recipe? Or is that even possible? Thanks for posting–looks fabulous!

    Reply

    • You can use whole wheat flour, but your cake may turn out slightly dense. I’d recommend a half and half mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour if you don’t have ww pastry flour.

      Reply

  14. Hi Natasha,
    Can u pls give me an alternative ingredient to the Apple sauce and in what measure.
    Waiting to try the recipe.. Sounds delicious
    Thanks 🙂
    Smita

    Reply

  15. hello, have you ever tried doubling the recipe to make a bigger cake? I’m thinking of using this recipe for a birthday party to feed about 20 people and I would like to use a sheet cake which is about 12X9 inch pan

    Reply

  16. Hi! I’m wondering if the frosting is thick enough to be piped? I’m wanting to use your recipe for some chocolate cupcakes.

    Reply

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