Vegan Chocolate Cake with Buttercream frosting

A surprise three layered garden themed decadent "Vegan Chocolate Cake" with a heavenly homemade chocolate buttercream frosting with more luscious dark chocolate as toppers. Rich, moist, fluffy with lots of chocolate is a pure indulgence. Mark my word chocoholics, "Chocolate cake will get addicted to you";)

Baked the best chocolate cake ever with the perfect combination of cocoa and mild coffee to create a chocolate lover's dream. A surprise born-day cake for my friend's daughter who is more like mine:) This little teenager is slowly converting into vegan and relishes only dark chocolate. Baking this vegan layered cake was just a piece of cake.

"The cake was delicious with perfect combination of dark chocolate and chocolate frosting. The decorations were really pretty and yummy to eat."-A (birthday girl).

I used dark dutch cocoa powder for the cake and raw organic cocoa powder for the frosting to give the different colored look. Feel free to substitute any organic cocoa powder of your choice. 

Always preferred the light and freshly whipped cream frosting for my cakes. This is my 1st attempt to make buttercream frosting (to avoid dairy) from scratch. It turned out to be awesome! Being a 3 layered cake I didn't have enough frosting to pipe as decorations. Instead, tempered dark chocolates as toppers was the fun part of creating and decorating this cake. Butterfly, fence, flowers and petals etc were the chocolaty garden themed toppers that adorn this sinfully delicious cake. For the final finishes, metallic sprinklers were used for  naming. 

PREP TIME

 10mins

COOK TIME

50 mins

TOTAL TIME

1 hour 

Category: Dessert

Cuisine: Vegan

Level: Easy

Yields: 1 round 9" pan

Requirement: Spring form pan (optional) 

You might want to check out my for more baking tips...
European Tiramisu Cake
Eggless Wheat Banana Bread
Homemade Fudge Cocoa Brownie

Nutrition Facts
Servings 10.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 183
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 8 g	12 %
Saturated Fat 2 g	9 %
Monounsaturated Fat 2g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 6 mg	2 %
Sodium 471 mg	20 %
Potassium 239mg	7 %
Total Carbohydrate 25g	8 %
Dietary Fiber 3 g	11 %
Sugars 2 g
Protein 4 g	9 %
Vitamin A	0 %
Vitamin C	0 %
Calcium	10 %
Iron	8 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

Dry Ingredients:

1. Unbleached all-purpose flour - 2 cups + 2 tablespoons 
2. Jaggery powder/ Cane sugar (organic) - 2 cups
3. Unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch) - 1 cup
4. Baking soda - 2 teaspoons
5. Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
6. Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Wet Ingredients:

1. Coconut Milk/ Almond Milk (Almond Breeze) - 1+1/2 cup  unsweetened 
2. Apple cider vinegar / white vinegar - 2 teaspoons 
3. Black Coffee - 1/2 cup (optional)*
4. Vegetable oil (canola, olive) - 2/3 cup 
5. Pure vanilla extract - 2 teaspoons

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (176 C) and prepare the 9 inch springform round cake pan by lining it with parchment paper. I like to lightly grease my pan for the parchment paper to stay in place. 
2. Mix the coconut milk and apple cider vinegar in a large mixing bowl, and let set for a few minutes to activate. Add the oil and vanilla extract and beat until foamy.
3. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, coffee powder and salt. Slowly sift over the wet ingredients while mixing with a hand-held or standing mixer. Beat until its creamy and in pourable consistency with no large lumps. Don't over mix. Now is the best part, go ahead and lick the batter (as no raw egg is added). Taste and adjust sweetness as needed although it was perfect for me.*
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and pop it in the preheated oven.
5. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Baking time may vary according to your oven. Let cool completely in a cooling rack.
   
6. While cooling, prepare frosting. The instructions for "Chocolate Buttercream Frosting" is  given below. 
7. Once the cake is cooled, using a knife cut the cake for a double or triple layer. 
8. Frost generously with buttercream frosting, adding a thick layer between the top and bottom layers. *
9. Align the layers and cover the cake completely with the frosting generously.
10.  I decorated with dark chocolate in different shapes to give it a finished look. Feel free to decorate as you desire. 
    

Notes and Tips:

1. Jaggery is not as sweet as cane sugar, so feel free to taste and adjust according to your personal preferences.
2. Black coffee is optional as you wont taste it at all. I used coffee as it brings out the depth of the chocolate make this cake taste divine. Make sure the coffee is at room temperate or cold. Feel free to sub with 1/2 cup of coconut or almond milk if you don't want to incorporate coffee.
3. Always use the bottom layer as your top layer for a good finished look.

• 
  
  Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

A simple yet perfect recipe for classic chocolate buttercream frosting that is great for frosting cakes, brownies or cookies. This frosting is versatile and you may play with its consistency. The one I always prefer is a soft but slightly stiff consistency which is ideal for spreading on the cake. A stiffer consistency is good for piping. Please check notes #2 for adjustments to get the right consistency.

PREP TIME

 5 mins

COOK TIME

0 mins

TOTAL TIME

5 mins

Category: Dessert/ Cake decorating

Cuisine: World
Level: Easy

Yields: 2.5 cup

Ingredients

1.  Vegan butter (Earth Balance)/ Butter(unsalted) - 3/4 cup, softened *
2. Confectioners (powdered) sugar - 2+3/4 cups*
3. Cocoa powder (used raw organic) - 1/2 cup
4. Salt  - 1/4 teaspoon
5. Vanilla extract - 2 teaspoons
6. Almond milk/ heavy cream/ whole milk - 1/4 cup

Instructions

1. Cream softened (room temperature) butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed or using a hand blender.

2. Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl.  Using a spatular mix the dry ingredients to avoid the mess. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/ cream and beat for 3 minutes. Check note for the consistency adjustments.

Tips and notes:

1. Butter must be softened not melted. If its hard and not in room temperature you may microwave it for 8 seconds. Add 2 more seconds if required.

2. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar or cocoa powder. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk/ cream 1 tablespoon at a time.

3. 3 cups of confectioners sugar seemed to be on the higher end for me. You may reduce 1/4 cup or adjust to your taste.