Childhood memories of chasing the ice cream man down the street
Chocolate eclair cake is a perfect knockoff of the Good Humor® ice cream bar of the same name
Chocolate and white cake layered with ganache and buttercream fillings and icing!
Smothered in classic Chocolate Eclair Crunch Coating!
I’m not going to lie cakes like this one are going to take a bit more time
Since you have to bake two kinds of cake, two icings and if you can’t buy the cookies then you will have to make those as well!
But don’t worry I have great vegan shortbread cookie recipes for you to use!
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Notes for Success:
If you do not want to buy or make additional recipes of cookies for the crunch you can use the trimmings from the cake layers and toast them for a crunchy coating
For this cake we only need 2 layers of white cake and 1 layer of chocolate cake
So I have worked out the recipes below as best as possible
These recipes work great for 7″ cake pan, but if you only have 8″ pans that’s OK too
I do not find much difference from 7″ pans to 8″ pans except that the 8″ layer will be slightly thinner and bake a few minutes less.
In my white cake recipe I include both all purpose flour and cake flour
Some people do not like using cake flour in which case you can use all – all purpose flour but remove 3 tablespoons
Don’t forget my Duncan Hines Box Cake Hack if you want to go super lazy route with this entire chocolate eclair cake
You will need ½ Box recipe for the white cake & ¼ box recipe for the chocolate cake *be careful with your math & conversions!
Although I always like having excess layers or cupcakes in the freezer so you may just want to bake the entire box!
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE
FOR A FULL VIDEO OF HOW TO MAKE THE CHOCOLATE CAKE CLICK HERE
FOR A FULL VIDEO OF HOW TO MAKE THE WHITE CAKE CLICK HERE
Chocolate Eclair Cake
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Cake:
- All Purpose Flour ¾ cups (95g)
- Natural Cocoa Powder 2 Tablespoons
- Granulated Sugar ½ cup (100g)
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
- Baking Soda ½ teaspoon
- Apple Cider Vinegar ½ teaspoon
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon
- Vegetable Oil 3 Tablespoons (45ml)
- Strong Brewed Coffee ½ cup (120ml)
For the White Cake:
- Vegan Butter 4 tablespoons (56g)
- Coconut Oil 4 Tablespoons (56g)
- Granulated Sugar 12 Tablespoons (150g)
- Plant milk ½ cup (120ml)
- Clear Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- All Purpose Flour 4 Tablespoons (30g)
- Cake Flour 1½ cup (180g)
- Baking Powder 2 teaspoon
- Salt pinch ½ teaspoon
- Cornstarch 1 Tablespoon (8g)
- Aquafaba ½ cup (120ml)
FOR THE ICING(S)
- 2X Recipe Chocolate Ganache
- 1 Recipe Your Favorite Buttercream
- 1 cup crushed chocolate cookies
- 1 cup crushed vanilla cookies * see notes
Instructions
- For the chocolate cake recipe prepare your 1-7" cake pan with and a parchment paper liner & pan spray
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt and sugar. Whisk to combine well
- In another mixing bowl combine the cocoa powder with the hot coffee and whisk smooth
- Add the Vegetable oil, vanilla extract and vinegar, then add all the liquids to the dry ingredients in the large mixing bowl.
- Whisk vigorously to combine well, the batter will seem thick at first but be sure to keep whisking smooth
- Pour all the batter into your prepared pan
- Bake immediately in a preheated 350°F oven for approximately 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the pan until you can easily touch it without burning yourself.
- Then flip the cake out onto a cooling rack to cool to cold.
- Prepare the white cake recipe by also greasing & parchment paper lining your 2-7" cake pans & preheat the oven to 350°F
- Combine the softened vegan butter with the coconut oil and granulated sugar and whip on high speed with the paddle attachment for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy, be sure to scrape the bottom & sides of the bowl from time to time.
- Combine the plant milk with the and extract and set it aside.
- Combine the aquafaba with the cornstarch and whisk together so there are no lumps, it will get slightly frothy too, this is good.
- Once the butter mixture is creamed, add the aquafaba/cornstarch to it and change the attachment to the whisk attachment, whip on high speed to emulsify & the mixture will get very silky and smooth
- Meanwhile sift the flour(s) with the salt and baking powder and add 1/3 of it to the creamed mixture, blend just until combined then add half of the milk mixture
- Blend just until combined then add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients and then the remaining liquid and last the remaining dry ingredients.
- Be sure to scrape the sides & bottom of the bowl and whip it on high for 10 seconds to blend well.
- Divide the batter evenly between your pans and bake immediately in the preheated oven that has been set to 350°F
- After the first 10 minutes lower the temperature to 300° and bake for a total of 30-35 minutes or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pans and the turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely
- Prepare the buttercream and ganache recipes as per the instructions on that recipe
- Assemble the cake as per the video tutorial
Notes
Chocolate Eclair Cake can be stored at a cool room temperature for up to 2 days, for longer storage refrigerate wrapped to prevent drying for up to 1 week
The white cake recipe above makes only one layer. I was using 6” rounds and needed 2 cakes total, so I 1.5x both recipes. I ended up with 4 layers of chocolate and 2 layers of white. No problem really…I mean who’s upset about extra chocolate cakes? Anyway this was so much fun to make and not too difficult at all. The family loved them and were quite impressed when they cut the first slice. I’m inspired to come up with other variations using different flavors. I’m thinking LEMON!
Awesome! Thanks for the comment, I know sometimes I can be a little confusing with the bakes & their yields and the math and the pans sizes…LOL
Welcome to THE BAKERY! LOL
Thanks for playing nice!
I just love your recipes!
However, I am wondering if I can use gluten free flour instead of regular flour?
Thank you- Dawn
Hi Dawn! While I am not an avid GF baker, I have been told that many of my recipes work great using a 1:1 GF mix
The chocolate & Vanilla cakes use din this Eclair cake work GREAT !
If I needed to make this cake ahead, should I assemble everything except the crunch coating? Or will it stay crunchy if I keep it in the fridge?
Depends on your refrigerator really. Mine is quite dry so the crunch stayed crunchy for about 2 days.
If you decide to add the crunch just before delivery/or serving~ I would recommend to bring the cake to room temp before trying to stick the crunch on or the BC will not want to adhere the crunch
Hi! I’d love to try and make this. Is there any substitution I can use for Aquafaba? Can I use regular milk products, etc. for the other products?
TIA!
Yes sure you can use any other egg replcaer you like the most & reconstitute according to the package instrcutions