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Vegan Spice Cake. 1 Bowl Super Moist Spiced Applesauce Cake with tons of winter spice flavor and Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting. Vegan Nutfree Recipe. Glutenfree option. Jump to Recipe
Holiday Baking Alert! This Moist Spice cake is all things delicious. Everyday Ingredients like Applesauce, cinnamon, ginger spices, flour, optional grated apple, some dried fruit such as dates and done.
This spice Cake needs 1 Bowl and needs minutes to put together. The cake is super delicious on its own. Top it with nuts or a streusel. The Spices develop even more flavor a day later. Use whichever spices you have. Add a vegan cream cheese frosting if you like. Make it into muffins or a loaf!
More Fall Winter Cakes
- Pumpkin Cake with Chocolate Pumpkin Frosting.
- Cinnamon Swirl Cake
- Eggnog Pound Cake
- Easy Coffee Cake – Cinnamon Streusel Cake
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Marble Cake
- Lemon blueberry pound cake
Gluten-free
- 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
How to make Vegan spice cake with step pictures
Tips to bake a Moist Vegan Cake
- Volume wet ingredients such as applesauce, pumpkin puree etc make amazing moist cakes. They also can tend to add more invisible moisture to the batter which can lead to gummy cakes. The batter will feel somewhat stiff because of these purees, but it still might need more dry to have the right amount to absorb the moisture and bake a fluffy cake. When in doubt add a bit more flour. See video for reference on how thick the batter should be.
- This ratio is more of a problem when baking a loaf than if you bake the batter into muffins or a less height cake pan. If baking a loaf, you want the batter much more stiff. Add more flour until there is good resistance.
- If your cakes are drying out too much, they might need less baking time or need to cool under a thick kitchen towel. Thick frosting layer will help return moisture to the bake as it chills.
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, Then add the wet ingredients and mix well. Use room temperature applesauce. You want slightly thick batter close to a muffin like batter than a float vanilla cake. Bake then cool for 20 minutes or so then add a frosting
Vegan Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Vegan Spice Cake. 1 Bowl Super Moist Spiced Applesaucec Cake with tons of winter spice flavor and Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting. Vegan Nutfree Recipe. Glutenfree option
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon flax seed meal
- 1/4 cup of water
- 1.5 - 1.75 cups of flour, , (I use 3/4 cup spelt/whole wheat and 3/4 cup or more all purpose), see Notes for glutenfree
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, , or coconut sugar. (2 tbsp more for sweeter)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/3 cup chopped dates, or other dried fruit or cranberries
- 3/4 cup room temperature applesauce, ( I use lightly sweetened)
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 tsp vanilla, , optional
- 1/3 cup grated apple or carrot or zucchini, , optional - Grate, lightly squeeze in a paper towel to remove exess moisture before using
Instructions
- Grease or line a cake pan or brownie pan(8 by 8 inch). Preheat the oven to 360 F (185 C)
- Mix the flax seed meal with water and set aside. In a large bowl combine 1.5 cups of flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves and nutmeg. Whisk well. Fold in the dates.
- Add the applesauce, flax seed mix, oil and vanilla if using. Mix to just about combine into a slightly stiff mixture. (Mix in grated apple if using). If batter is not stiff add flour 1 to 2 tbsp at a time and mix it. Transfer the batter in a prepared cake pan and spread it using a spatula.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick from the enter comes out clean.( 20-22 mins for muffins, 45 to 50 mins for a loaf).
- Cool the cake for 5 mins and then remove from the pan. Mix a tablespoon of maple syrup with 1 tsp of water and brush it all over the cake. Frost with frosting of choice once the cake is cooled.
- Optional Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting: Mix 6 oz vegan cream cheese(store bought or homemade, see homemade option in notes), a good pinch of salt and 1/4 cup maple syrup until smooth. Taste and adjust flavor, sweet with a tbsp of sugar if needed.
- To Store: Just the cake can be stored in a covered container on the counter for upto 2 days. With the frosting, it needs to be refrigerated if not getting consumed in a couple of hours. Refrigerate them separately for upto 4 days.
Video
Notes
Gluten-free: To make this gluten-free, Mix 1/2 cup rice flour, 1/4 oat flour(or other glutenfree flour), 1 cup almond flour, 1/4 cup potato starch. Use 1 1/2 cup of the flour and add more as needed and bake into brownie pan or cupcakes.
Oil-free: Use 2 tbsp non dairy milk and 1 tbsp applesauce.
Maple Syrup: If using maple syrup or date syrup instead of sugar, use 1/3 cup maple syrup and reduce applesauce to 1/2 cup.
Homemade Vegan Cashew Cream Cheese: Blend 1/2 cup cashews (that have been soaked for an hour then drained), 1 teaspoon or more lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt with a few tbsp of water until creamy.
Nutrition is for 1 piece
Nutrition
Calories: 194kcal, Carbohydrates: 31g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 6g, Sodium: 169mg, Potassium: 174mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 13g, Vitamin A: 5IU, Vitamin C: 0.2mg, Calcium: 53mg, Iron: 1.3mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you make this recipe? Rate and comment below!
I like to get bashed over the head by spices in bread, and so after trying it as written, I increased the cinnamon and ginger to 1.5 teaspoons each, and a “heaping” 1/4 tsp of the other spices. I also increased the applesauce to 1 cup and decreased the oil by half.
I also add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts to the dry ingredients.
SO GOOD!!! The texture is great, and the bread is super tasty if you make it exactly as is… but for me, the addition of nuts and extra spice made this my new favorite treat.
(Oh just btw I didn’t add the dates: just not my thing! I only mention in case it affects the texture.)
awesome! that much spice should definitely have a hit!
Can I use a Springform?
yes
Hello Richa,
Can chocolate frosting be used on this cake?
Yes!
Can you please share the brand of the applesauce that you used? Can I use unsweetened applesauce? How much extra sugar would I need to add to the recipe?
Also, can this be made in a donut pan? In general, what are the differences between cake, loaf, muffin and donut batters?
Any applesauce will work. with unsweetened, just add 2 tbsp more sugar. Yes you can makeit into donuts. Bake for 18 mins
Muffin batters are slightly stiff, cake batter(depends on the type), are more flowy, loaf batter for vegan loafs should be stiff and thick, donuts will usually have yeast and consistency varies
Hi Richa, can I use almond flour or meal and not use the combination of gluten free flours? Maybe add more applesauce. How long can you keep coconut, rice, or other gluten Free flour?
you can use 4:1 almond flour and potato starch( ie. 1/4 cup potato starch for every 1 cup almond flour). You will need some starch hold it together.
I just made this, this evening and the family ate it for dessert. It is a resounding success with ahh’s and Mmm’s happening with every bite.
I baked it in a loaf pan with no problems, the mixture was thick as it should have been and I made my own applesauce as the UK’s version of supermarket applesauce leaves a lot to be desired.
Thank you for an awesome recipe. It’s going on my awesome cakes repertoire 💙
yay! awesome!
Do you think I could possibly do without the chopped dates or dried fruit as I do not have any in my house! Haha
Dear Richa:
My nine year old daughter made this cake all by herself using your recipe. It is super yummy…
We also made many batches of the pumpkin truffles!!!
Much love to you for all your vegan recipes and making life truly celebratory!
Hugs and love from my daughter and myself…
gayathri
thats so awesome!! I am so happy that she made it by herself! yay!
Can your mango muffin recipe be converted to apple muffin recipe by switching mango purée to applesauce?
can u taste the apple flavor or is the taste mainly of the spices?
use this recipe batter to make the muffins. Bake for 20-22 mins. In this cake, the spices are pronounced. Use half or less of the amount. For a stronger apple flavor, add some grated apple and maybe dress with reduced applesauce. (reduce a cup for 15-20 mins with some maple/sugar so its more of a thick glaze).
Snack cakes usually turn into a meal for me, because I can polish off 3 slices easily, if not more, haha! The glorious spices are just perfect for this time of the year. I cannot wait to start baking as many cookies and cakes this year!
Also, I really love the baking tips you incorporated into the introduction of your post! Never would I have thought to cool a loaf using a wet kitchen towel to cover it. I think that really does help retain moisture! Same with how important it is to take ratios into account. I always thought that oat flour was naturally gummy, but I think my recipes just used too much applesauce or butternut squash puree! I’ll have to return to those recipes and see if adjusting ratios helps with textural quality!
yes, its hard to evaluate the batter as the purees make it stiff, but they actually have a lotmore moisture to bake out.