Dairy Free Chocolate Cake
This delicious dairy free chocolate cake is fudgy, ultra moist and amazingly textured. Make it as a 2 or 3-layer cake and smother it in vegan chocolate buttercream.

Prep Time | 15 minutes |
Cook Time | 30 minutes |
Servings |
people
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Ingredients
- 2 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder Unsweetened
- 2 cup White Sugar
- 1 tbls baking powder
- 2 tbls baking soda
- 1 tbls salt
- 1 cup Vegan Buttermilk 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice and Soy Milk up to the 1 cup line
- 1/2 cup Canola Oil
- 6 tbls Applesauce
- 2 tbls vanilla extract
- 1 cup Boiling Hot Coffee
For the Frosting:
- Vegan Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
For the Frosting:
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Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Prepare three 8-inch cake pans or two 9-inch cake pans* by spraying with non-stick spray and lining the bottoms with circles of parchment paper. Set aside.
- Sift the all purpose flour and unsweetened cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix together.
- Prepare the vegan buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line and letting it curdle (you can also use almond milk for this).
- Add the vegan buttermilk to the mixing bowl along with the canola oil, applesauce and vanilla extract and mix into a thick batter.
- Add in 1 cup of boiling hot coffee and whisk it in with a hand whisk.
- The batter will be thin and this is correct.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the cake pans for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Frost with vegan chocolate buttercream frosting and decorate with grated vegan chocolate (optional).
- Store leftover cake covered at room temperature for 3-4 days or covered in the fridge for 7 days.
Recipe Notes
- Weigh your flour for accuracy or make sure you measure it correctly using the spoon and level method.
- Vegan Buttermilk can also be made with almond milk if you prefer.
- Any vegetable oil will work fine here, if you use coconut oil then make sure it’s melted first.
- The applesauce can be switched for 2 flax eggs if you prefer to use those.
- You can either use filter coffee or just add a tsp of instant coffee to a cup of boiling hot water. If you want to omit the coffee altogether then you can just use a cup of boiling water.
- This cake is very versatile, you can make it in three 8-inch cake pans OR two 8-inch cake pans, if you’re doing two 8-inch pans the cake layers will just be thicker. You may need an extra 5 mins baking time if you’re doing it in two 8-inch pans. If you’re making it in 9-inch cake pans then make it in two layers.
- Nutritional information is for the cake only, the nutritional info for the frosting is listed on the frosting recipe page.
- Recipe adapted from Ina Garten.