A classic vegan chocolate cake with vegan chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.
Another week in my year of cake and I decided to go back to basics with a classic vegan chocolate cake… but decided to try and get a little fancy with blooming the cocoa, mixing in cake flour and giving a go with Swiss meringue buttercream. You can check out my YouTube video to see this easy-to-follow, step-by-step tutorial to see how I pulled this all together.
In the end, I decided I’d prefer my regular chocolate cake recipe (no cake flour) and I’m not sure blooming the cocoa did much though I’d probably need to do a proper side by side comparison to really tell. Maybe I’ll try that another time. I’ve included a recipe for this cake below without the cake flour but included the blooming if you want to try it yourself!
If you end up giving this a try please tag me in your post @sachagud – I’d love to see it!
Vegan Chocolate Cake with Vegan Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Ingredients
Vegan Chocolate Cake Layers
- 1 cup non-dairy milk I use Earth’s Own Oat Milk
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups 340 grams white sugar
- 2/3 cup 120ML vegetable or canola oil
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups flour
- 1 cup hot coffee
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
Vegan Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 1 cup aquafaba liquid from a can of chickpeas
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup vegan butter softened
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 1/2 cup melted chocolate
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Instructions
Chocolate Cake Layers
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease three six inch or two eight or nine inch cake pans and cover the base with a circle of parchment paper.
- Make vegan buttermilk in a medium bowl by stirring together non-dairy milk and apple cider vinegar. Set aside for five minutes.
- In a large bowl (or bowl of a stand mixer) sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Whisk until combined.
- In the vegan buttermilk mixture add sugar, oil and vanilla, whisking to combine.
- If blooming your cocoa powder combine it with one cup of hot coffee and let rest for 2 minutes before adding to remaining wet ingredients.
- Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients beating with a hand mixer or stand mixer with whisk attachment until smooth.
- Divide cake batter evenly to the prepared cake pans, smoothing out the tops and bake for 30-45 mins. Time will vary depending on your oven and what size of pans you choose to use. I always like rotate the pans at around the 25 minute mark. I will use a toothpick to check the cakes doneness – minimal crumbs stick to a toothpick after you insert it into the centre of the cake.
- Place pans on a cooling rack and allow to cool fully before decorating.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Combine the aquafaba and white sugar in a sauce pot and bring to a full boil. Cook for 3-5 minutes allowing the sugar to completely dissolve, remove from heat and cool completely.
- Using a stand mixer with whisk attachment add the cooled aquafaba and sugar mixture whip on high speed until it is thick and glossy and has firm peaks, about 5 minutes.
- Combine cream of tartar with 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and add one teaspoon of this mixture at a time to the whipped aquafaba meringue. Once added add remaining cup of powdered sugar one tablespoon at a time.
- Add vegan butter and vegetable shortening bit by bit while continuing to whip.
- Add the vanilla followed by the melted chocolate and cocoa powder.
Assembly
- In the center of the cake board, place the first cake layer top side up.
- Spread buttercream over the cake layer.
- Place cake layer, top side down and cover cake in buttercream.
- Perform a ‘crumb coat’ if you choose by applying a thin layer of buttercream around the cake and place the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.
- Once the crumb coat is set, frost the cake with remaining buttercream and decorate to your liking.
