Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake + Chocolate Frosting
by Olivia Biermann
on Feb 27, 2019 (updated Sep 29, 2025)
This super easy chocolate cake with chocolate frosting recipe is my go-to for birthday parties! It’s moist, fluffy and just the right amount of dense. It’s as decadent as a chocolate cake should be and no one would ever know it’s vegan!
PS: For more amazing vegan dessert recipes, check out my cookbook!
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Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake + Chocolate Frosting
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 1 cake
Description
This super easy chocolate cake with chocolate frosting recipe is my go-to for birthday parties! It’s moist, fluffy and just the right amount of dense. It’s as decadent as a chocolate cake should be and no one would ever know it’s vegan!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cane sugar
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
Chocolate Frosting:
- 1/3 cup softened vegan butter or margarine
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine the almond milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
3. Add the melted coconut oil, almond milk mixture and applesauce and stir to combine into a smooth batter.
4. Prepare the cake pan: use an 8-inch round cake pan and either line with parchment paper or grease & flour it (see video for how to do that!)
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 32-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
6. Using a hand mixer, combine all frosting ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Refrigerate until needed.
7. Allow cake to cool completely. Then, either frost the top and sides of the cake, or slice cake in half, add frosting in between the layers and then frost the top and sides (see video for how I did it!)
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
3. Add the melted coconut oil, almond milk mixture and applesauce and stir to combine into a smooth batter.
4. Prepare the cake pan: use an 8-inch round cake pan and either line with parchment paper or grease & flour it (see video for how to do that!)
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 32-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
6. Using a hand mixer, combine all frosting ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Refrigerate until needed.
7. Allow cake to cool completely. Then, either frost the top and sides of the cake, or slice cake in half, add frosting in between the layers and then frost the top and sides (see video for how I did it!)
This is my favorite chocolate cake recipe. I’ve made it many times through out the years.
It’s fluffy, chocolatey and simple to make.
I recommend this recipe to friends all the time.
This is probably the first time the end results of a recipe actually look like the pictures haha definitely loved making this easy and simple cake and the frosting! 🤤👌
I’ve made this cake twice for my boyfriend’s birthday and it is the best cake ever. The icing is soo good. Both times I doubled the recipe instead of cutting the cake in half. Easy and fun to make and so delicious. Might make it again today.. Thank you Liv!
So happy you enjoy it!
The best in the world not just in the vegan world, in the entire world!!
My daughter made this cake for my birthday and my husband said it was the best chocolate cake he’d ever had! And he’s not vegan. We all loved it.
I made this cake for my husbands birthday. It was amasing. We loved it. I’ve never been able to make a cake this cute ad this good.
I made 2 cakes so that the stack would be hier and made only one portion of the icing and it was eneough icing for us. Thank you again for such good recipe Liv B. Ill be making this cake again verry soon 🙂
I made this cake for Father’s Day and it was literally the best cake I’ve ever had!!!! I’m vegan, most of my family is not, yet this cake was a complete show stopper! Thank you so much! ♡
What can I use instead of coconut oil, and how much of the replacement do I use?
hi, can i replace applesauce with egg replacer? such as bob’s red mill egg replacer?
if yes, how much that I need for 1/3 cup apple sauce?
thank you
I know this is late but in case anyone else is reading, I was able to skip the applesauce by adding 1/2 cup of coconut oil instead of 1/4 cup. Turned out great!
Oh. My. Goodness. Im normally a terrible baker, but this was probably the best chocolate cake Ive ever tasted!!! Well done!👏
I made this cake for my boyfriend’s birthday and he loved it. He is not vegan but I am and he is aware that I cook nothing but vegan and plant based recipes.
This cake was so easy to make. I’m a very slow cook/baker and I take my time adding each ingredient and putting them together so I can honestly say that this was an easy recipe and it’s sooo tasty too.
SO…. even though it was so easy and simple…. I messed up and didn’t include the applesauce in our cake part…. in fear for my marriage, I told my wife that we now…have excellent brownies. Disaster averted! i normally used Punkin out of a can as the binder. Non-vegans still look through my kitchen window… and not because I’m a naked cook, I assure you…
Basil
I just made your recipe and it was delicious! The cake was so fluffy and the frosting came out perfectly! I’m not a coconut oil fan, so I substituted it with grapeseed oil. Even my non-vegan friends loved it! Will definitely make again!
had a late night cake craving and made this but i used a banana as an egg replacer and it was delicious! would highly recommend making this xx
This was so good! I substituted one banana for tha applesauce. Because I didnt have any BUT it was still delicious!! My six year old loved it and I felt good.knowing the amount of sugar and non preservatives I was giving him. If your not a coconut lover, because you can get a good taste of the coconut oil, try a different or maybe even butter. I’m sure Liv can get an alternate.
This recipe is amazing. I love that it’s very simple to follow as well as having simple ingredients. I already had everything in my cabinets, except for the apple sauce. I followed the recipe exactly the way it is and the cake came out so amazing. It was moist and it had something unique about it that I can’t quite describe. It was easily better than any boxed or non vegan cake I’ve had. And the frosting, holy cow, sooooo amazing! I didn’t have a hand mixer and it still turned out really good just not as fluffy as it looks when Liv makes it. I made this for myself and my friend and she was also very impressed and made me send her the recipe right away! Thank you Liv for making my transition to veganism much easier.
Thank you so much for such lovely words!! <3
I made this cake yesterday for my son’s birthday. What a delicious recipe! Super easy to make, no “special” ingredients, and it turned out perfectly! Even my non-vegan guests had seconds!
Made the cake today but used a banana instead of apple sauce. Everyone loved it! Even my non vegan friends lol
I’ve been beating this frosting for the past 30 minutes and it hasn’t become fluffy. It’s runny. 🙁 Did I do something wrong?
Could be the temperature in your kitchen, sometimes if it is pretty warm inside it can make it more runny. However, you can always just add more powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want 🙂
Made this for my non vegan family and they LOVED IT!!! This was one of the best vegan cakes I’ve ever had. Thanks queen for this amazing recipe!!!
Liv, this cake turned out so delicious! It‘s super easy to make, the texture is fluffy and moist and the taste is rich and chocolatey. I’ll try adding a bit less sugar next time but that’s just personal preference 🙂 The only thing I made different was the ganache because I wanted it to have less sugar in total. For the ganache I took a melted vegan dark nougat chocolate bar and mixed it with some soy milk and vegan butter. Thank you so much Liv!
This recipe is perfect! It is definitely a light and fluffy cake and the frosting is delicious. I added raspberry jam in the center instead of the frosting and left it for the top and sides. I also shaved and crushed some dark chocolate to put on top. My whole family enjoyed this and I will definitely be making this again. Thanks Liv B!
SO GOOD! I successfully baked this in two 6″ pans instead of one 8″ at either 15 or 20 mins (I forgot) and they were perfect. Sprinkled some cocoa powder + cinnamon on top and it was delicious! If ur gonna do that I would recommend mixing the two first though hehe
I love love love this recipe! Even my boyfriend who isn’t vegan likes it better than the chocolate cake my mom always bakes! ??
You need to try it out! But I would recommend doing the frosting by first adding butter and powdered sugar and beating it until it’s pale and fluffy and then add the rest of the ingredients so that it is really smooth and not so grainy☺️
Great recipe. I just made it for my daughter and she couldn’t wait until it was completely cool so we cut her a piece and iced it and she ate it. Sooo delicious!
This was the best vegan cake I have ever made. Thank you so much for this recipe. All my guests loved it as well. I used regular sugar and plant oil.
Can you opt out the cocoa powder to make it vanilla or do you habe a birthday cake recipe Liv?
I have birthday cupcakes in my cookbook! Liv B’s Vegan on a Budget 🙂
Can I substitute the apple sauce with mashed banana?? Thanks! xx
I haven’t tried it myself but if you try it let us know how it goes 🙂
The cake is in the oven right now… So excited?. My daughter just licked the bowl that had bater in it.?.
Made this twice ready to make again right now very good recipe
What can apple sauce be swapt for?
Thanks!
you could try yogurt, mashed banana or another type of fruit puree.
This is, hands down, the BEST chocolate cake ever! Soooo deliciously moist and tasty. My non-vegan family had absolutely no inclination that this cake was vegan. Thank you for such an amazing recipe!