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
White cake and chocolate 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!
Don’t worry I have great vegan shortbread cookie recipes for you to use!
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Notes for Success:
For those who do not want to make additional recipes of cookies for the crunch, just use your favorite store bought variety!
Originally as you will see in the video linked below, this cake required two separate recipes!
One for two layers of white cake and another recipe of chocolate cake recipe for just one single layer
Understanding that this was definitely off putting so I have worked out the recipe below to utilize ONLY MY WHITE CAKE RECIPE
By taking out one portion of the batter and mixing it with cocoa paste you get an instant chocolate layer!
Yogurt was also included in the original white cake formula
But over time I have gravitated towards plant milk since I rarely have that extra ingredient of yogurt on hand
Included in my white cake recipe I use 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 from the total amount
Additionally if you want to go super lazy route with this entire chocolate eclair cake
Just make the white cake box according to the yellow cake box hack
And add the cocoa paste listed below to 1/3 of the batter!
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE
Chocolate Eclair Cake
Ingredients
For the White Cake:
- Vegan Butter 8 tablespoons (113g)
- Coconut Oil 8 Tablespoons (113g)
- Granulated Sugar 1½ cups (300g)
- Plant Milk ¾ cup (177ml)
- Vineagar 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- Clear Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- Almond Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml) *optional
- All Purpose Flour 6 Tablespoons (45g)
- Cake Flour 3 cups (360g)
- Baking Powder 3 teaspoons
- Baking Soda 1 teaspoon
- Salt ½ teaspoon
- Cornstarch 2 Tablespoons (16g)
- Aquafaba 1 cup (237ml)
For the Chocolate Layer
- Cocoa Powder 3 Tablespoons (10g)
- Vegetable Oil 4 teaspoons (20ml)
FOR THE ICING(S)
- ½ Recipe Chocolate Ganache
- 1 Recipe Your Favorite Buttercream
- 1 cup crushed chocolate cookies
- 1 cup crushed vanilla cookies * see notes
Instructions
- Grease 3-7" cake pans with and a parchment paper liner & pan spray & preheat the oven to 350°F
- First combine the cocoa powder & the oil together in a small bowl &whisk smooth
- Now prepare the white cake recipe by combining the softened vegan butter with the semi solid coconut oil in the bowl of your electric mixer with the paddle attachment and whip on high speed to incorporate to the same consistency *it is ok if the coconut oi is not solid
- Now add the granulated sugar & cream on medium to high speed for approximately 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 vinegar & the extracts
- Combine the aquafaba with the cornstarch and whisk together so there are no lumps
- Once the butter mixture is creamed, slowly add the aquafaba/cornstarch to it until it is all incorpo0rated and then whip on high speed for 30 seconds to emulsify, the mixture will get very silky, fluffy and smooth
- Sift the flour with the salt, baking soda & 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.
- Next take out 420g (or 1/3) of the batter into a medium bowl & add the cocoa paste to make the single chocolate layer
- Next divide the remaining white batter amongst the 2 prepared cake pans and the chocolate layer into the 3rd cake pan
- Bake immediately in the preheated oven that has been set to 350°F but once the cakes are loaded turn the oven temperture down to 325°F & bake for a total of 25-30 minutes or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pans and then 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