My vegan chai cake is as comforting and delicious as a cup of chai tea, but way more decadent! This two layer cake is super moist, deliciously spiced, and slathered in a luxurious coating of vegan cream cheese frosting. It's surprisingly easy to make, too!
A cup of chai tea is my favorite way to unwind at the end of a long day. But sometimes, when it’s been a really rough day, I need a little something sweet. That’s where this chai cake comes in. It’s decadent, cozy, and packed with all my favorite chai spices.
Jump to:
If you love my vegan spice cake or vegan gingerbread cake, you’ll probably enjoy this one too. It’s technically a spice cake, but a very different kind. While those other cakes feature molasses and are heavy on the cinnamon, this one includes some unique additions, like cardamom and black pepper (trust me, it works!) — plus a generous dose of vanilla. The result is mellow, fragrant, and oh-so comforting, just like a cup of chai tea.
This also happens to be one of the easiest layer cakes you’ll ever make. Everything comes together in a single bowl, and unlike most layer cakes, you won’t even need to break out an electric mixer. Easy and impressive!
Ingredients You'll Need
Below you'll find a list of ingredients in this recipe, with notes and substitutions. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to see the full recipe, including the amount of each ingredient.
- Flour. We're using all-purpose wheat flour, also known as white flour. I haven't tried any other varieties, so I can't say if they'll work.
- Light brown sugar. Use organic brown sugar. Conventional granulated sugars can be processed using animal bone char, so we're using organic to keep the recipe vegan.
- Baking soda.
- Chai spices. We're using a blend of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, black pepper, nutmeg, and cloves. If you have a chai spice blend that you love, feel free to substitute it in this recipe. You'll need two tablespoons.
- Salt.
- Non-dairy milk. You can use any type of milk that you normally drink, as long as it's unflavored and unsweetened. Read my guide to dairy-free milk if you need help choosing.
- Oil. Whatever neutral oil you normally like to bake with is just fine. Melted coconut oil, canola oil, and corn oil will all work.
- Applesauce. Preferably use unsweetened.
- Vanilla extract.
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Steps 1 and 2: Prepare. Preheat your oven to 350° and prepare your baking pans by greasing and flouring them, then lining the bottoms with parchment paper.
Step 3: Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk your flour, brown sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Set it aside for a moment.
Step 4: Mix the wet ingredients. Stir the milk, oil, applesauce, and vanilla together in a small container. A liquid measuring cup works great here!
Step 5: Make the batter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, then stir everything up by hand.
Steps 6 and 7: Pour and bake. Divide the batter among your two cake pans, then pop them into the oven to bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
Steps 8 and 9: Cool and frost. Let the cakes cool completely on a wire rack. Once they're cool you can remove them from the pans, fill, and frost them.
Step 10: Serve. Your vegan chai cake is ready to enjoy! Slice it up and dig in!
Variations
- Stir-in ideas. Chai spices go with so many flavors! Add some dried fruit, chopped nuts, vegan chocolate chips, or vegan white chocolate chips to the batter.
- Add citrusy flavor. A teaspoon or two of orange zest goes great with chai spices. Stir it right into the batter.
- Switch up the frosting. Instead of vegan cream cheese frosting, try my vegan vanilla buttercream or vegan chocolate frosting.
- Caramel drizzle. Garnish the finished cake with a drizzle of my vegan caramel sauce.
Frequently Asked Questions
I haven't tried making this one gluten-free, but based on my experiences with similar cakes, I think an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend would work.
Yep! Increase the bake time to 28 to 30 minutes.
This cake keeps best chilled, especially if you use my vegan cream cheese frosting, which tends to get soft at room temperature. It's also delicious cold! Store it in an airtight container such as a cake keeper and it will keep for about four days in the fridge, or up to three months in the freezer.
More Vegan Cake Recipes
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Chai Cake
Equipment
- 2 (9-inch) round cake pans
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 â…“ cups organic light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- â…” cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 batch vegan cream cheese frosting, or frosting of choice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Grease and flour the bottom and sides of two 9-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with parchment paper.
- Whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate container, such as a liquid measuring cup, stir together the milk, oil, applesauce, and vanilla.
- Add the milk mixture to the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir the ingredients together until fully blended.
- Divide the batter among the two prepared baking pans.
- Bake the cake layers for 22 to 24 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Transfer the pans to a cooling rack and let the layers cool completely before removing the cakes from the pans.
- Once the cake layers have cooled, invert one of the layers onto a plate. Remove the parchment paper, then spread the top with a layer of frosting. Invert the second layer onto the first layer, then spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake.
- Slice and serve, or chill for later.
Would you like to save this?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
I am sure this is a very good recipe as written. Also good as modified:
-local EV olive oil
-replaced 1 cup of white flour with 1/2 cup WW flour and 1/2 cup golden flax meal
-reduced sugar to 1 cup
-nearly doubled the apple sauce (home made unsweetened)
-replaced frosting with persimmon puree
Thank you for your inspiration! I learn a lot from reading through your postings!