Vegan chocolate cake with blueberries for all chocolate and blueberry lovers lovers! This dense, rich and chocolatey cake with wild blueberry cream between the layers is an easy to make delicious vegan cake for everyone. In this post I will share tips on how to make a vegan chocolate cake.
How to make a vegan chocolate cake from scratch?
Making a chocolate cake vegan is pretty simple. This is what you need:
- plant-based milk
- apple cider vinegar
- vegan chocolate
- nut butter
- coconut oil (or other neutral oil suitable for baking)
- all-purpose flour
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- light brown sugar or coconut sugar
- baking powder
- baking soda
- salt
Plant-based milk and apple cider vinegar
When baking a vegan chocolate cake, there are many plant-based milks to choose from. For this cake (and all other cakes too!) I recommend using a thick plant-based milk for coffee. We have a good quality Barista oat drink (from Fazer Aito), which I use regularly. It has a mild sweet oaty flavor which is perfect in cake batters. Also a lovely vanilla flavored plant-based milk would work really well.
One important tip is not to use cold milk so make sure your milk is about room temperature for better baking results. If the milk is too cold, it will affect the other ingredients such as the oil and chocolate.
Apple cider vinegar is used in many vegan cake batters to enhance the effects of baking powder and baking soda. If you don’t have apple cider vinegar, you can also use white wine vinegar.
Vegan chocolate, nut butter and coconut oil
To make the “butter” for this vegan chocolate cake we need to melt the chocolate and mix it together with the nut butter and oil. This “butter” mixture is what gives the chocolate cake its dense and delicious texture.
I melt vegan chocolate in a water bath and then I combine the melted chocolate with almond or cashew butter and coconut oil.
If you don’t like the flavor of coconut oil, you can use refined coconut oil, which doesn’t have a coconut flavor. Also other neutral oils work here as we’re using just a small amount. You can also use apple sauce instead of oil (the same amount).
Chocolate is what gives the cake the intense flavor so I recommend using a super delicious chocolate! I recommend these combinations:
- half 70% chocolate and half vegan milk chocolate (or any ratio you want)
- 50-60% chocolate
- 80% or 70% chocolate for a less sweet cake
All-purpose flour and cocoa powder
Using all-purpose flour and cocoa powder is a good choice when you want to cut the cake into three layers. The cake is easy to cut and it’s not too crumbly. Especially if you let it set in the fridge overnight or at least one hour.
You can of course eat the cake without cutting it into layers. In this case I recommend adding almond flour to the flour mix too. Almond flour gives the cake a little different texture, a bit more “crumbly”. I will add the tips to the recipe below.
I’ve tried both cocoa powder and cacao powder and both work well in this recipe. Cocoa powder is processed in higher temperatures than cacao powder, which makes cacao powder a bit more nutritious. Both have a deep chocolate flavor.
Light brown sugar or coconut sugar
I tested the recipe with equal amounts (150 grams) of light brown sugar and coconut sugar. Both of these sugars give the cake a lovely mild caramel flavor. Light brown sugar makes the cake sweeter and a bit more moist than coconut sugar.
If you want a sweeter cake you can also use half white sugar and half light brown sugar.
Wild blueberries add flavor to vegan chocolate cake
Wild blueberries are super nutritious berries and they add a lovely tang to the vegan whipped cream. Blueberries and chocolate make a yummy flavor combo!
If you have access to wild blueberries I recommend using them in this recipe. You can use frozen wild blueberries to make the cream and then fresh regular blueberries on top of the cake as decoration.
You can also use wild blueberry jam, which gives the cream a lovely color and also lots of additional sweetness. You can buy wild blueberry jam from IKEA.
This vegan chocolate cake is:
- easy to make
- rich and dense
- chocolatey
- also fresh and balanced in flavor thanks to the blueberries
Do you want more chocolate cake recipes?
Here are two delicious vegan cakes:
Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Cream
Vegan chocolate cake
Ingredients
Vegan chocolate cake
- 1 cup Plant-based milk for coffee Or other delicious plant-based milk which is suitable for baking.
- 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar You can also use white wine vinegar.
- 100 grams / 3,5 oz vegan chocolate I recommend half vegan milk chocolate and hald vegan dark chocolate.
- 45 grams / 3 tbsp (not heaped) nut butter such as almond or cashew butter
- 40 grams / ~3 tbsp (not heaped) coconut oil Use 3 tbsp other oil or apple sauce if you don't want to use coconut oil.
- 130 grams / 1 cup (even, not heaped) all-purpose wheat flour You can also use about 30 grams almond flour and 100 grams all-purpose flour for bit more texture.
- 25 grams / 1/4 cup cocoa powder or cacao powder
- 150 grams / 3/4 cup light brown sugar or coconut sugar Light brown sugar makes the cake a bit sweeter and moist.
- 4 grams / 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 grams / 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3 grams / 1/2 tsp salt
Decorating the cake
- 4 cups vegan whipped cream
- 1 cup wild blueberries or blueberries or 1/3 cup wild blueberry jam
- 1 cup blueberries on top of the cake
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C / 356 F. Line a 22 cm (8,5 inch) springform pan with parchment paper or you can also grease the bottom and edges of the pan
- Mix milk and vinegar together and set aside.
- Melt chocolate in a water bath. Mix almond butter and coconut oil to the melted chocolate.
- Combine all dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Mix wet ingredients to dry and pour the cake batter into the pan.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes. Make a toothpick test from the middle of the cake after about 35 min.
- The cake should be quite firm in the middle but there should be some batter left in the toothpick. If the toothpick is dry, the cake is too dry.
- Let cake cool after baking in the pan. Remove from the pan after about 15 minutes.
- The cake is easier to cut after it has been in the fridge for at least an hour. You can also leave the cake in the fridge overnight and cut it into layers when it's totally firm.
- Use a sharp large knife to cut the cake into three even layers.
- Mix whipped cream and blueberries or blueberry jam together and spread on the cake layers.
- Decorate the cake with blueberries.
ps You can follow Myberryforest also on Pinterest!
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