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Vegan Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache. Sogt, Moist Fudgy Chocolate Layer Cake! Use sunbutter or coconut cream to make nut-free. Vegan Soy-free Palmoil-free Recipe. Jump to Recipe
Lets get on with some chocolate goodies for Valentine’s day, shall we. And Make this gorgeous vegan chocolate layer cake! I made this for our anniversary weekend and it worked like a charm to bring a huge smile on hubbs face with each bite. The cake is Moist, not too sweet and just the right amount of decadent for us.
This easy Vegan Chocolate Cake is layered with a smooth chocolate nut butter ganache glaze. I use smooth almond butter. Any smooth nut or seed butter should work. The cake ages really well and tastes best the next day as the ganache adds more moisture to it. Add fruit preserves like raspberry, apricot, blackberries between the layers. I use raw unrefined sugar in this cake, that I blend to powder in my blender before use. Use any fine or powdered sugar of choice.
This makes a big 8 inch layer cake. Don’t want the huge cake? make this individual Chocolate Layer Cake for One. No Bake.
What are your plans for the weekend?
More chocolate goodness from the blog
- Peanut or almond Butter, Chocolate Marble Cake.
- Brownies, loads of Brownies
- Vegan Almond Butter Blondies with Chocolate Chips
- Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin Cake and Cake Mix In a Jar
- Vegan Chocolate Layer Cake for One. No Bake. Made on stove top.
Some No Bake Chocolate Pies here.
These sharp and beautiful slices are by my new Kramer knife that hubbs got for me. He knows what will be appreciated!
And while you are here, please do read this National Geographic article about how the Tiger Temple in Thailand, one of the premier attractions which claims monks live in harmony with the tigers, is connected to Wildlife parts trade, drugging and abusing of these magnificent wild beings. Updates about the temple can be followed on this facebook page.
Vegan Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache
Ingredients
Cake : makes two 8 inch pans
Dry:
- 1 cup wheat flour
- 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/4 cup powdered vegan sugar, , 2 Tbsp more for sweeter - blend raw sugar to fine powder to use or use wholesome sweeeteners vegan powdered sugar
- 1/2 scant tsp salt
Wet:
- 1 1/2 cups non dairy milk, divided
- 1/3 cup non dairy chocolate chips or bar, semi sweet chips, or dark chocolate for dark/bittersweet cake
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1 tsp vinegar, apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
Glaze:
- 1/2 cup non dairy milk
- 1/3-1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2/3 cup or more non dairy semi sweet chocolate like Enjoy Life
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter or almond butter or other seed or nut butter
- Fruit preserves like raspberry, apricot, cherry (optional)
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F / 170ºc. In a bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients for the cake really well.
- In another bowl, heat 1 cup of non dairy milk and chocolate until just about hot (heat in the microwave or stove top). Whisk until chocolate is melted. Add in the rest of the wet ingredients and 1/2 cup non dairy milk and mix in until smooth..
- Add the dry to the wet and mix to make a smooth batter.
- Transfer batter to two greased or parchment lined 8 inch cake pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees F / 170ºc for 30 to 34 minutes. or until toothpick from the center comes out clean. Do not overbake as the cakes can get crusty or dry.
- Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes then remove from the pan and cool on the rack completely before adding a glaze or ganache. Cover the cakes with a towel while it is cooling to prevent drying out. To shorten the cooling time, cover the cakes with a towel or parchment or a lid and place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
Ganache:
- Heat the non dairy milk + sugar in a pan over medium heat, until just about hot. Mix well. Add in the chocolate, mix once and take the pan off heat. Keep mixing until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
- Add in the vanilla and peanut butter or other nut butter. Mix until smooth. Chill in the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes to thicken to desired consistency.
- Pour some of the ganache on one cake. Spread using a spatula to even out if needed. Let the ganache set in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes or freezer for 10.
- Add a thin even layer of fruit preserves on the other cake (optional) (warm the preserves to make them easier to spread if needed). Place this cake on top of the cake with the ganache glaze. Pour the rest of the glaze over the top cake. Spread using a spatula if needed. Let the ganache set in the refrigerator for half an hour. If you have more ganache left, pour over the set glaze for another layer. Cover the cake and let it chill for a few hours before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tips to make a great vegan chocolate cake
- Chocolate cakes can tend to dry out or get hard edges if baked too long. If your cake tends to do that, reduce the baking time by 5 mins. Ovens heat differently, the pans, cocoa/chocolate brand etc add to the iffy behavior.
- A ganache or glaze will help add moisture to the cake. Let the cake chill with the ganache for a few hours for best results of overall moisture.
- If the cake is overbaked (too dry). crumble it up, add some ganache and make into cake snack balls
- Use good quality chocolate. It adds amazing flavor and texture.
Looks delish and I plan on making this for my boyfriend’s birthday but I’m curious if you have the macros for this posted anywhere?!? That would be very helpful!
Awesome! just added below the recipe
Just made this cake for my wife’s birthday. We had a few hiccups with the recipe, but overall it tasted great.
Used two 10″ round pans (all we had)
Ended up using 1/2cup coconut oil instead of 1/4 of oil (silly mistake)
Noticed that the dry ingredients didn’t blend well. Still had small chunks of flour, chocolate powder and sugar. Looked kind and “grainy”
Didn’t have creamy peanut butter so used chunky instead
Put ganache on way too early and had it on too small of a plate (made a huge mess lol)
Even after all that it tasted pretty good. Maybe a little dry, but not too bad.
Thanks for the recipe. We will be trying this again soon once we get a few things.
hmm not sure what happened. You can use a whisk to mix in the dry ingredients into the wet. Sometimes the spatula or bowl style causes lumping. The cake dried out on over baking. Depending on your pan and oven temp, bake a few minutes less. a thick ganache also adds moisture back intot he cake even if baked a bit more. Hope the next try comes out fabulous! Serve the urrent one with some ice cream and melted chocolate for added moisture.
Hi, I made this cake and it was nice, taste wise, but texture wise, it was very dense! what to do to make it light and fluffy ?
Hmm, i am not sure. This cake should not be very dense. It should be airy enough with a moist chocolatey denseness but not a heavy dense cake. Maybe the baking soda was old? Try with new baking soda and use a bit more.
no, my baking soda was new. it rose well, just very dense.
What flours did you use? You can make the yellow cake which is very light and use 1/4 cup cocoa powder + 1 cup of flour instead of 1 1/4 cup of flour in the recipe.
here is yellow cake https://fettabbau-trim.today/2015/05/vegan-yellow-cake-recipe.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hi!
I made this cake a month ago and I absolutely adored it (I left a review too)! As it’s my 21st birthday coming up, I was hoping I could recreate this cake into a mocha because chocolate and coffee is the best combination 🙂
Do you have any recommendations on how to adjust this recipe or if it is possible without changing the texture?
Thankyou!
Happy Birthday in advance. You sure can make this into a mocha cake. Add 2 tsp instant coffee into the wet and reduce the cocoa powder to 1/3 or 1/4 cup to keep it less intensely chocolate.
In the frosting, mix in a 1/2 cup coconut cream and 1 tsp instant coffee. Chill before using.
I made this last night & it turned out pretty awesome! I think I may have overbaked it though cuz it was a little dry. Any suggestions on what I can add to ensure it’s moister?
Even my non vegan mom & step dad thought it was great & my mom is going to share it with the people who rent from her.
The ganache is what makes this cake awesome!
The ganache should leak some moisture into the cake as it chills. Or you can serve with chocolate syrup drizzled over each pieces. Chocolate chips melted with some non dairy milk. My sister does that to pretty much all chocolate cakes, frosting or not. For the next batch, bake 5 mins or so less
Okay! so I just made this cake last night and although I didn’t wait until the cake was completely cool to put the glaze on so it didn’t look the best.. IT TASTED AMAZING! It was so rich and thick (I used 2 cups wholemeal) but it was just like mud cake, so tasty and yum. Your recipes honestly never let me down, THANK YOU! Love feeding non vegans these sorts of foods because they would NEVER GUESS. Thank you again for the amazing recipe, keep it up 🙂
I baked the cake, but halved the recipe so just in case I didn’t like it I wouldn’t be stuck with a big old cake. The frosting was good, and even though I used the best quality organic ingredients, I didn’t like the cake.
What in particular did you not like or would like to improve. Moistness, more chocolatey?, more fudgy ?
Do you think i can bake it one pan instead of two, and then justo cut it un half?
you can. Use a tall pan. And bake 10 to 15 minutes longer.
Do you think i could bake it in one pan instead of two, and then just cut it in half?
You could. Chill the cake for a few hours before slicing
This cake is delicious however I did have some issues with the glaze, the consistency was very runny envelopes though I had left it in the fridge for 4 hours
Probably the nut butter, choolate or non dairy milk. If it is still thick glaze, use as glaze. or you can heat it up a bit, melt in some more chocolate chips and add some vegan butter.