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Vegan Chocolate Chip Cake Recipe. This Chocolate Chip Quick Bread is super easy and popular to everyone. Add seasonal berries, make cupcakes, add a streusel for variation. Vegan Soyfree Nutfree Recipe. GF option Jump to Recipe
If you loved the Cinnamon Swirl Cake, you’ll love this simple chocolate chip cake as well!
A simple vanilla cake batter with chocolate chips or chunks mixed in. Whats not to love! Add berries, pineapple, apple, nuts or other additions. Swirl in some nut butter. Make it into cupcakes. Loads of variations. This cake is not too sweet and more a quick bread. Add a decadent chocolate frosting or icing for dessert!
Make this loaf your own for breakfast. See GF and no oil options in the recipe notes. This quick bread is Soft, Easy, uses few ingredients and is flexible.
Try more Baked Quick Breads and Cakes
- Eggnog Pound Cake
- 1 Bowl Banana Apple Bread. Can be made into muffins
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Marble Cake
- Lemon blueberry pound cake
Gluten-free options
- GF Cashew Butter Chocolate Marble Cake.
- Gluten-free Cinnamon Roll Bread yeast-free.
- GF Carrot Banana Bread – Also grain-free.
- Sweet Potato Crumb Cake. GF
For no oil and no refined sugar cake, try this Turmeric Coconut Loaf.
Slices after sitting for a day above.
Chocolate/cocoa industry is known for rampant child labor and slavery in cacao bean farms. Thankfully, brands have been recognizing this and offering fair trade and slavery free options. See Food empowerment project’s list of companies and brands here. Most vegan brands, not all, offer ethical cocoa products.
Tips to Bake Soft, moist Vegan Cake/bread Loafs
- When baking loafs or thicker cakes, you want a thicker batter compared to cupcakes or regular cake batter. The thinner batter takes much longer to cook the moisture out and might tend to be gummy at the bottom or fall in the center.
- Many factors determine the consistency of the batter. How the flour is measured, the kind of flour etc. Start with less flour when using whole grain flours and add more as needed. Too stiff a batter will dry out faster while baking.
- Let the cake cool lightly covered with a towel or a container so that all the moisture doesnt evaporate out. This is esp helpful when baking without oil or with whole grain flours. If baking with no or less oil, add more topping such as a streusel, oats, more chocolate chips or berries. The thicker topping allows more moisture to stay in the cake.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Wet:
- 1 cup non dairy milk, , such as almond or soy
- 1 tbsp non dairy yogurt or applesauce or more non dairy milk
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, or other vinegar
- 1/3 cup unrefined sugar, , use 1 tbsp more for sweeter
- 1/4 cup oil (neutral such as organic safflower or canola), or use 3 tbsp applesauce to make oil-free
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- a few drops of almond extract, , optional but wonderful
Dry:
- 2 cups of flour, (I use a mix of unbleached all purpose(1.25 cups) and wheat(3/4 cup)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips, , I like a mix of mini and regular size vegan chocolate chips/chunks/chopped up dark chocolate
Instructions
- Line a 9 by 5 inch or smaller loaf pan with parchment or grease well. Preheat the oven to 360 deg F (182 deg C). In a bowl, mix in the wet ingredients until the sugar is fully combined.
- In another bowl, whisk 1 3/4 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add spices of choice if you like. See GF option in Notes below. (Optional: Add 2 tbsp almond flour to the dry for additional texture). At this point you can also toss in seasonal berries of choice.
- Fold the dry into the wet until just about combined. Add more flour if needed 1 tbsp at a time to make just slightly thick batter (you might not need any depending on the flours used).
- Add 1/3 cup chocolate chips and mix in. Pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top. or top with a streusel of choice.
- Bake for 50 to 55 mins. Cool for 10 mins, then remove from pan. Cool completely before slicing. Store on the counter for upto 2 days, refrigerated for upto 7 days, freeze (slices) for upto a month. See Tips above for troubleshooting.
- To make cupcakes/muffins: Bake for 22 to 24 mins for regular size muffinsBake in a brownie pan, bake for 40 mins.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this tonight. Used applesauce and canola oil and it turned out so good! I added chopped fresh strawberries and made them into muffins. The texture was perfect! So good!
awesome!
I see that for gluten free option, yiu have recommended using flax seed meal.Please let me know the reason.
Also , can i use whole wheat flour completely, if so, would it still be 2 cups or just 1 and half?
it helps binding as it will gel up when wet. You can also use chia seed meal.
For whole wheat, whole grain baking usually ends up being a bit dense. If you generally do bake whole wheat, then you probably already know that. If not, then the flavor and texture will be a bit heavy. You will also need less flour. Try half whole wheat and half all purpose and see how it turns out and see if you like the overall flavor and texture before trying all whole wheat.
The recipe works with all whole wheat flour. Start with 1.5 cups of flour and also add 2 tbsp more oil.
I looked at the GF option and i don’t get it i want to make the reg recipes but just put almond flour ( i don t have the other ones ) how much do i put. Thanks
gf baking usually needs a combination of flours to create a similar airy structure, volume and moist result as with gluten bakes. There is no gluten in gluten free flours, gluten will hold the structure of the cake as well hold the moisture in. With that missing, you need starches, volume flours, moisture (nut flours) etc added in. You can use just almond flour and potato starch. use 1/4 cup potato starch for every 1 cup of almond flour and make a thick batter and bake into a brownie pan or muffins.
Made these as breakfast muffins with coconut sugar, coconut flour and ground almonds, moist and amazing, thank you!
yay!
i made this in a 9” round cake pan and baked for 30 minutes. it’s rich, delicious, and moist! i used 2 tsp vanilla because i love it and a few extra chocolate chips for the same reason.
How tall was the final cake using a 9” round tin? I wanted to make this cake for my toddlers birthday but wondering what size tin to use to get a double-layer cake: standard 8” round or a smaller 5” round?
use 6 inch pans for doublelayer. if using 8 or 9 inch, you’ll have to double the recipe
Great blog! I made this today, but it seemed too thick when I followed the recipe exactly. I used canola oil and I used applesauce. I had to add about 1/4 cup more almond milk to thin it out. The cake turned out fantastic! Thanks a bunch. I saw someone made it with fresh peaches which sounds absolutely wonderful. I will be making the peach cake next.
maybe the flour type? glad it workedout. You can add a bit less flour to begin with and add more as needed
Made this yesterday for a family gathering and everyone (all non vegans) loved it!
I will be doing this one time and time again, thanks Richa!
yay!
I’ve made this twice now, and won’t again. I followed the directions (using the applesauce variation, which is usually fine in other recipes). The crust is too hard/chewy, even though I reduced the cooking time on the second occasion. And the cake is quite gummy.
hmm i think it may need more flour if the cake is baking gummy. how is the batter?
Or the baking powder is old. The gummy cake means it is not rising enough for airyness which is either because there is too much moisture to flour (applesaucec adds more moisture than oil), or thebaking powder is old. The gummyness explains the crust too. If it rises well the crumb is soft as well.
First of all I would like to say terrific blog! I had a
quick question which I’d like to ask if you ddo not mind. I was curious to know
how you center yourself annd clsar your head prior to writing.
I have had trouble clearing my minmd in getting my ideas oout there.
I truly do take pleasure in writing but it just seems like the
first 10 to 15 minutes tend to be lost just tryimg to figure out how to begin. Any ideas
or hints? Many thanks!
Hello 🙂
Thank you for the great recipe!!
I made them yesterday and OMG! it was soooo delicious!!
I liked this is not so sweet. and this is so moist and easy to bake!
Next time, I will try with more berries, and maybe less chocolate chips…
awesome!