Vegan Chocolate Party Cake

This vegan chocolate party cake has layers of rich chocolate cake with almond butter coconut filling and rich almond butter cream frosting.

Okay, I'm doing this. I went back and forth a bit on whether or not to blog this one, but I'm doing it. I baked a Star Wars wedding cake...a small wedding cake. I had a small wedding; in fact, for a few months I would've snapped at anyone that called it a wedding (I'm pretty shy and just not into all the attention that a "wedding" entails; I just wanted to get hitched). There were ten people in attendance, so I was able to bake my own cake. I recognize that most people don't have a ten person wedding, which is why I didn't put "wedding cake" in the title of this post.

My husband is a huge star wars fan, and a couple of months ago I was teasing him and mentioned that it might be funny for me to bake us a Star Wars wedding cake and blog it. I went back and forth with the idea for a bit, but in the end, a ten person wedding doesn't require all that much planning, so the day before our little event, I decided to fire up the oven and see what I could do.

The other thing that prompted this post was a chocolate cake recipe I lovingly dubbed "ugly vegan chocolate cake" during the early days of this blog (it's since been deleted). It was the first post on this blog that received any attention. I think Finding Vegan might have shared it, but at the time I was pretty clueless and was all "People are looking at my blog! What's happening!?!?!?" A number of people later told me that they made it and loved it, so I thought it was high time the recipe got a new home.

I half suspected the new cake would be just as big an eyesore as the original. Cake decorating is not in my area of expertise. I didn't do half bad though, and I figured even if there aren't many other ten person weddings, this would be perfect for, say, a smallish birthday party.

If you made the old version (a few people did), you'll find this version to be richer and denser. The cake recipe is basically the same, but somehow stacking the layers on top of each other seems to compress them, so you end up with something more torte-like. My family, who had all tried the original, approved of the new cake's texture.

When we served this at my "reception" (dinner at a nice restaurant with family), we offered the waiter a slice. He loved it and was amazed that it was vegan. That pretty much cinched the deal: I was blogging this baby. Also, he knew my blog! This was a big deal. When he was commenting on the cake, somebody at the table mentioned the blog and he was all "wait...I've seen you...in the sidebar...." Some quizzing and eventually my new sister-in-law pulling up the site on her phone confirmed that he came across my site one day while searching for a recipe. Ha! I spent the rest of the night feeling like a superstar. A little superstar. Maybe I do like a little attention after all.

5 from 1 vote

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Vegan Chocolate Party Cake

This vegan chocolate party cake has layers of rich chocolate cake with almond butter coconut filling and rich almond butter cream frosting.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Servings 12 -16

Author Alissa

Ingredients

For the Vegan Chocolate Cake

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ¾ cup spelt flour or sub all purpose
• ¾ cup cocoa powder
• 2 cups raw sugar
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 flax eggs 2 tbsp. ground flax seeds + 6 tbsp. water, whisked together and allowed to sit for at least 10 minutes
• 1 cup strong coffee
• 1 cup soy or almond milk + 1 tsp. vinegar
• ½ cup coconut oil at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the Almond Butter Coconut Filling

• 1 cup almond butter
• ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut

For the Almond Butter Cream Frosting

• 14 oz. can coconut milk refrigerated overnight
• ¼ cup vegan margarine at room temperature
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 4-5 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

Make the Vegan Chocolate Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans and one 6 inch round cake pan.
3. Stir flours, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and salt together in medium mixing bowl.
4. Whisk flax eggs, coffee, milk, coconut oil and vanilla together in a separate bowl.
5. Pour liquid ingredients into dry and blend with an electric mixer at high speed for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of bowl as needed. Batter will be very thin.
6. Pour batter into cake pans so that your 9 inch layers are of equal thickness and your 6 inch layer is about twice as thick as the 9 inch layers.
7. Bake each layer until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. This will take 20-25 minutes for the 9 inch layers, and 35-40 minutes for the 6 inch layer.
8. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely before removing from pans.

Make the Almond Butter Coconut Filling

1. Stir almond butter and coconut together in small bowl.

Make the Almond Butter Cream Frosting

1. Scoop out just the coconut cream (solids) into medium mixing bowl. Discard coconut water or reserve for another use.
2. Beat coconut cream on high speed with mixer for about 1 minute, until creamy.
3. Add margarine and almond extract. Beat until blended.
4. Add powdered sugar, about 1 cup at a time, beating between additions, until desired consistency is reached.

Assemble the Cake

1. Place one of your 9 inch layers on a cake dish. Top with about ⅔ of almond butter coconut filling, spreading in an even layer over top. Arrange the other 9 inch layer over top of filling. Spread remaining almond butter coconut filling over top of second cake layer, keeping it confined to about a 6 inch radius in the center. Place 6 inch layer over top of filling.
2. Spread almond butter cream frosting over cake, reserving a bit for decorating, if desired.
3. Decorate with colored frosting, pre-made cake decorations, and your favorite action figures, if desired.

Recipe Notes

Fee free to use different sized layers here, just be aware that cook times may need to be adjusted. Generally, the taller your layer, the longer the cook time required.br]There are number of natural food coloring options available for decorating. Matcha works great for green, and turmeric for yellow. I couldn't find anything for blue, (though [blueberries apparently work quite well), so I opted to go with vegan food coloring for the flowers.