Converting a Vegan Mud Cake can be tricky
But I mastered it way back in 2017 and now in 2024 this vegan mud cake also happens to be lower sugar and gluten free!
You’ll never know this was not the original version!
Once you taste this rich, dense, chocolate heaven on a plate!
Mud Cake is known to be a super rich dense cake that borders on a brownie like texture!
Decorated for Valentine’s Day or just leave it plain, this is one cake you will fall in love with!
This website may contain links as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, which means when you click a link and make a purchase through my website I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you
Notes for Success:
For layer cakes a parchment paper lining in cake pans will help and the un molding and this recipe will make 2- very thin 7″ Layers
Double the recipe for a proper 3- layer 7″ cake
Bourbon is included in this recipe for an amazing depth of flavor that is unmatched!
However you can omit that and just replace it with another liquor like Rum or Frangelico or even Grand Marnier would be awesome!
Or just add more coffee in place of the alcohol if you are alcohol free.
If coffee is something you also look to replace (I am crying now) you can just use all water, but be aware the flavor will just not be the same!
Coffee really brings out the richness of chocolate and why it is so often used in chocolate cake recipes.
Definitely go for a non stick bundt pan for the best results!
But if for some reason you do get a stuck or semi broken cake, you can sometimes stick it back together if it is not too terrible
Then the ganache glaze will cover up the disaster or if it is a severely broken cake
Just turn it into cake balls like I did here!
Gluten Free & Sugar Free Baking
Flax meal is the egg replacer for this recipe but you can use any egg replacer you love the most!
My Sugar substitute of choice is Monk Fruit Sugar *not sponsored
Be sure to read all about sugar free baking here along with the YouTube video tutorial explaining all about how to replace the sugar in your baking!
As the options for Refined sugar free, liquid sweeteners and all the diabetic substitutions work great!
Bob’s Red Mill Gluten free all purpose flour is what I am using with great results
However if you prefer to use regular All Purpose flour in the same amounts that will be fine!
While I am not an avid gluten free baker I have learned that by allowing the batter to sit for about 30 minutes before baking will help the final texture
As well as baking for an additional 10 to 20 minutes longer than the recipe specifies *this time is dependent upon the size of the pans you are using
Bake the cake an additional 10 minutes than the 45 minutes it took to result in a clean toothpick test.
Meaning the cake was “done” at 45 minutes but an additional 10 minutes in the oven helped to prevent a heavy gummy texture that is often associated with gluten free baking
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE
Mississippi Mud Cake
Ingredients
For the Mud Cake Recipe:
- Vegan Butter 8Tablespoons (113g)
- Vegan Semi Sweet Chocolate 3ounces (85g)
- Unsweetened Applesauce 2 Tablespoons *or more vegan butter
- Monk Fruit Sugar ½ cup (105g) *see notes
- Granulated Sugar ½ cup (100g)
- Flax Meal 2 Tablespoons (16g)
- Warm Water 5 Tablespoons (75ml)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons (10ml)
- Bourbon Whiskey 2 Tablespoons (30ml) *see notes
- Strong Brewed Coffee ½ cup (120ml) *see notes
- All Purpose Gluten Free Flour 1 cup + 1 Tablespoon (160g)
- Natural Cocoa Powder 3 Tablespoons (30g)
- Baking Soda ½ teaspoon
- Baking Powder ¼ teaspoon
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
for the icing
- ½ Recipe Ganache
- For the colored glaze: *optional added sugar decor
- 1 cups of confectioners sugar with 1-2 Tablespoons of plant milk then colored to your liking
- OR The Buttercream Drip technique!
Instructions
- Generously grease and lightly cocoa powder your 6 cup capacity non stick bundt pan and then shake out the excess cocoa powder
- Preheat the oven to 350° F
- Combine the flax meal with the warm water and let stand to thicken about 5 minutes
- Melt the vegan butter with the chocolate over a low heat stirring constantly until melted
- Into a large mixing bowl sift together the sugar(s) with the gluten free flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder
- Add the flax paste, applesauce, vanilla extract, coffee and whiskey and whisk well.
- Add the melted chocolate and butter and whisk smooth and for the gluten free variety whisk the batter an additional 50 strokes
- For the gluten free variety, allow the cake batter to sit on the counter for about 30 minutes before baking, this will help develop the batter for a fluffier texture & to avoid gumminess otherwise for the wheat version bake right away
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake in a preheated 350° F oven for 30 minutes then turn the oven down to 325 and bake for another 15-20 minutes or when a toothpick inserted comes out clean this means the cake is done
- HOWEVER for gluten free baking an additional 10 minutes in the oven even after the toothpick test to prevent a gummy texture
- Remove from the oven and cool on the counter for about 15minutes, the cake will fall slightly as it cools *this is true for wheat & gluten free versions
- While the cake is still warm, but not piping hot (about 15minutes cooling on the counter) unmold to a cooling rack or directly onto your serving platter
- Prepare the ganache recipe as per the instructions on that recipe post and once the cake is cooled to cold, drizzle the warm but cooled ganache over the top
- The colored glaze stripes are optional but it does add more sugar to the cake, so if you want to stay super low sugar omit this step
- There are two options for the glaze, simply whisk the plant milk into the confectioners sugar then color as desired, using a parchment paper cone draw stripes over the cake
- OR use the buttercream Drip Technique here
Notes
Mud cake can be strored at room temperature for up to 4 days.
For longer storage refrigerate for up to 1 week
Freeze cake wrapped well for up to 1 month
This cake is beautiful :)!
thankyou!
This sounds excellent for Mardi Gras too.
YES!! Just change the colors for any holiday! It is truly amazing recipe!
Hi Gretchen! Speaking of Mardi Gras, do you have a recipe for vegan King Cake?
Yikes! Im soooo behind on my holidays! No I havent shared a King Cake this time around. But I would use my Danish Dough recipe use flax for the eggs and then form it like the king cake!
1 egg= 1Tbs flax meal + 3Tbs warm water
Horror of horrors, can we non-vegans use eggs? If so how many?
Hi Elizabeth, yes the egg industry is horric! All the NON vegan recipes are still at http://www.gretchensbakery.com CLICK HERE
simply try the vegan version.. Why MUST you have eggs? curious
Looks delicious! If you don’t have vegan semi sweet chocolate, is there a swap out? (I have carob drops and I have cocoa powder on hand.)
sure you can make your own chocolate with cocoa powder here : For each ounce of chocolate you want to make: 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 4 teaspoons sugar, and 1 tablespoon butter, shortening or vegetable oil
Thank you!
Hi Gretchen
Thanks for the recipe and like to bake one asap. But what can i replaced for flax meal and can I omit whisky?
Thanks 🙂
yes to leaving out the whiskey (no changes) and you can use any egg replacer for the flax equivalent to 2 eggs
Thanks so much for your quick reply. Will bake soon 🙂
Are the whiskey and applesauce necessary?
No – The applesauce replaces some of the oil (so you can just add more oil or vegan butter) the whiskey can be replaced with more coffee
From the blog post: Oh yeah, by the way I add bourbon to this recipe for an amazing depth of flavor that is unmatched!
You can omit that and just replace it with another liquor like Rum or Frangelico or even Grand Marnier would be awesome!
Or more coffee if you want to forgo the alcohol altogether.
If coffee is something you also look to replace (I am crying now) you can just use all water, but be aware the flavor will just not be the same.
Coffee really brings out the richness of chocolate and why it is so often used in chocolate cake recipes.
Gretchen I did not read anywhere about how delicate this cake is! I have never knocked a cake out of a pan and had it fall completely apart! This is my first attempt at one of your vegan recipes the flavor is delicious the next time I make it I guess I will need to wait until it’s completely cooled and take a plastic knife to get it out of the pan with.
Hi Lisa, I will make that note for sure because this has happened to me too with this recipe- I believe I noted it and actually SHOWED it in my Thanksgiving version of this cake CLICK HERE but did not flow that information through here, Im sorry about that but I will update now.
When mine fell apart on the Thanksgiving version I proceeded to make whiskey cake balls and they are an amazing save to an otherwise major fail! Sorry this happened, bundt cakes can be a bear and this recipe adds to the chaos, but worth it for sure! This is by far my favorite tasting chocolate cake!
I made this cake in 13×9″ baking pan , the taste turned out to be very good but the cake was unmanageable, it fell apart into pieces 🙁 I bake for 15 minutes at 350 °. Any advice?
Hi Annie, Hmm I’m not quite sure why. This is quite a dense cake, not very crumbly at all. Was it dry? or just delicate? (Because this cake is definitely not anywhere near being dry if prepared correctly)
Hi Gretchen, where are your non-vegan recipes? Can’t find them anywhere!!!
my non vegan blog is shut down
I couldn’t keep up the cost to host it on the internet and maintain it monthly anymore
The cost to host such a huge database was close to $400 a month (with the maintenance cost, I needed to hire a tech guy to help keep it running smoothly)
So that cost was severely outweighing any small profits I had been making though running ads on the videos & blogsite.
I have not kept any of the non vegan recipes, since for over 4 years now I have been strictly vegan;
so for me they are of no use. They were all housed in the database and that has shut down.
Here is a video explanation I recently uploaded in response to the many emails I have been getting https://youtu.be/ghHVqNZuNaA
Thanks for your support and encouragement though the ages!
~Gretchen