recipe
Vegan Chocolate Cake
Moist, deeply chocolatey vegan cake with no eggs, no dairy, and no compromise. Forgiving recipe — works on a busy weeknight or a dinner-party Saturday.
Recipe stats
- Prep: 15 minutes
- Cook: 25 minutes
- Total: 40 minutes
- Serves: 4
You’ll need
- 2 cups All-purpose flour
- 1.5 cups Sugar
- 3/4 cup Cocoa powder
- 2 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1.5 cups Plant milk
- 2/3 cup Neutral oil
- 2 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 cup Hot brewed coffee or hot water
Method
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment.
- Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Whisk plant milk, oil, vinegar, and vanilla in a separate bowl.
- Pour wet into dry. Whisk until just combined.
- Slowly pour in hot coffee, whisking constantly. Batter will be very thin — that’s correct.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack and cool completely before frosting.
Notes + tips
- Hot coffee makes the chocolate flavour deeper and the cake more moist. Hot water works fine if you don’t have coffee.
- Top with vegan buttercream, chocolate ganache (vegan chocolate + coconut cream), or a simple dusting of powdered sugar.
- Cake keeps covered at room temperature 2-3 days, refrigerated 5 days, frozen 3 months.
- Doubles cleanly for a layer cake — bake in two 9-inch pans.
Why this works
This recipe is intentionally simple. The technique stays out of the way of the ingredients. Plant-based cooking generally rewards clean execution over elaborate technique — the flavours are fresher, the texture cleaner, and the result more satisfying when you let good ingredients do most of the work.
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Recipe by the Stay Healthy Vegan editorial team. Tested in our home kitchens before publication.