Simple Vegan Chocolate Cake
The Sunday Panics.
Do you get the Sunday Panics? Let me describe the symptoms and you can tell me whether or not I’m a strangebird, or if you relate. The Sunday Panics are most often characterized by: afternoon over-caffeination, tremendous amounts of NOT quality time spent on Twitter, a kitchen full of dirty dishes, a lengthy and daunting weekly to-do list, a fair amount of brain worry, possible nail biting, an intense desire for take-out Chinese food, and low motivation coupled with nagging laziness guilt.
Do you ever get the Sunday Panics?
Yea…. me neither. Of course not.
…except I totally do.
I’ve developed a cure for the Sunday Panics.
Movement! Up. Up. UP!! In the kitchen. Make a super easy cake. Definitely do the dishes. Make the to-do list for the week, then set it aside to rest until Monday morning. Write some greeting cards for friends. Call your mama. Enjoy cake during a several hour marathon of Grey’s Anatomy or Downton Abbey. When all else fails… try bourbon in the shower and an early bedtime. Give those Sunday Panics the boot!
This chocolate cake is a total godsend.
It’s designed to be made with ingredients you already have in your kitchen. The Sunday Panics aren’t easy to combat… and a trip to the store is not going to calm our nerves.
If you have cocoa powder and vegetable oil… this cake is yours!
I added dark chocolate chunks and cocoa nibs because they were lingering in my pantry. Lingering like chocolate always lingers.
Want to know a trick? Grease a bundt pan with vegetable shortening and… instead of dusting it with flour, try cocoa powder!
When the cake comes out of the pan, there will be no white flour powder! Just chocolate. Just cake.
This is our everyday chocolate cake.
It’s always super comforting when we can turn what’s in our pantry into a warm, moist, flavorful chocolate treat without softening butter, cracking eggs, or running to the store.
This cake is a tool. It combats the impulsive sweet tooth, the accidental grumpies, and the Sunday Panic. Consider yourself armed.
ps. Real Life.
Simple Vegan Chocolate Cake
makes 1 9-inch chocolate bundt cake
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm coffee
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
small handful of chocolate chunks and/or cocoa nibs (optional)
Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch bundt pan with vegetable shortening and dust with cocoa powder. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together coffee, oil, and vanilla.
Add the wet ingredients, all at once to the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks and cocoa nibs, if using.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. The batter will be relatively thick. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
Cake will last, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 3 days.
204 Comments Add A Comment
Hello:: Love the pictures. How do you make them look that way? Do you use a warm filter or something? or is it Instagram? Thank YOU :)
This cake looks amazing…don’t have a bundt pan but I really want one now, just so I can make this cake and feel less guilty about eating rich chocolate deliciousness. I always enjoy reading your blog, it feels like a comfortable space where I can read and browse easily. Your success is well deserved as I’m sure many others feel the same way. Congrats on everything!
I don’t have a bundt pan either, so I made the recipe as cupcakes and they turned out great! It was perfect, too, because they were already portioned out for me and I didn’t have to worry about cutting too big a slice. :)
I did the same, and if you take the cupcake route, may I recommend the vanilla bean buttercream frosting recipe from the Joy the Baker cookbook? OH MAN. It’s perfect. I can’t say how many cupcakes I ate, it’s slightly embarrassing…
100% making this cake today. Love love love. Thanks Joy!
I just made this cake for my yoga teacher! (He’s vegan). Amazingly moist and decadent–I used a 9-inch cake pan, and it worked fabulously. I used rather weak coffee, for fear of overwhelming the chocolate flavor.
Thought you might like to see what happens when you add too much chocolate to this cake: http://www.thedesertabode.com/2012/03/06/simple-vegan-chocolate-cake/
Whoops! It was still delicious the second time I made it (although less presentable, ha-ha!).
Great recipe, as always! Hope you’re enjoying the book tour. :)
That was easy : )
And my guests were more than satisfied!
I am making this cake right now. I can finish making it only if I can stop eating the batter! You should have added that as a disclaimer ;)
I wanted to make this cake iced for a birthday cake for my vegan boyfriend. Any suggestions on chocolate icing?
hey friend! just made this to take to a friend’s house. i was short on eggs and butter and you came to the rescue. So good and i love the coffee flavor!! mmmm mmmm
This looks amazing…but…(I’m sorry to be THAT guy)…white sugar is not vegan; it’s ground through animal bone char.
yea… i know. you can totally buy vegan white sugar.
This was the best chocolate cake I had ever had in my life — literally. SO GOOD!!! I used all white whole wheat flour.
Just wanted to say that I made this using mashed strawberries in place of the coffee and it came out awesome. So adaptable!
Joy I made this cake today and needless to say that it was the easiest cake that I have ever made. It was moist and rich. Thank you for the wonderful recipe. Love your blog.