Vegan Chocolate Cake made in One Bowl and ready in One Hour
This recipe bakes perfectly into cupcakes, round layers, bundts and loaves
But today I thought to keep it simple and show just how amazing this cake is as a quick snack sheet cake
Including the lower sugar fudge icing I have revised from my bakery days!
Or ice up this awesome Vegan Chocolate Cake with a super low sugar option and use silky smooth two ingredient ganache icing instead!
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Notes for Success:
Gluten free flour works great with this vegan chocolate cake recipe and I have used Bob’s Red Mill with no changes *not sponsored
Be sure to use Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder and NOT Dutch Process.
CLICK HERE FOR WHY DUTCH PROCESS IS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST CHOICE IN YOUR RECIPES!
I know many of you will be opposed to using coffee in this recipe since maybe you just don’t have it or you think the cake will end up tasting like coffee.
This is not true, coffee & chocolate are dual flavor enhancers – the coffee brings out the best in the chocolate and you will not taste a bit of coffee, but of course you can replace it with water.
I am baking this cake in a 9″ x 13″ cake pan, but this recipe will also make 2- thick 8″ round cakes as well as 9″ cake pans that will be slightly thinner
3-7″ cake layers and 24 cupcakes too, just fill your pans ¾ full no matter what the size and bake at the same temperature as listed in the recipe.
The bake time may vary by a few minutes up or down depending on what pans you are using
I have recently adapted this cake recipe to sugar free and reduced oil with perfect results!
By replacing the sugar in the recipe with monk fruit granulated baking sugar and using applesauce in place of half the oil, this recipe was perfection!
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SUGAR FREE BAKING
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE!
One Hour Chocolate Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Cake Recipe
- All Purpose Flour 3 cups (375g)
- Natural Cocoa Powder 8 Tablespoons
- Granulated Sugar 1¾ cups (350g)
- Salt 1 teaspoon (6g)
- Baking Soda 2 teaspoons
- Apple Cider Vinegar 2 teaspoons
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons
- Vegetable Oil ¾ cup (177ml)
- Strong Brewed Coffee 2 cups *see note above
For the Fudge Recipe
- Granulated Sugar 5 Tablespoons (63g)
- Water 5 Tablespoons (75ml)
- Corn Syrup 2 Tablespoons (40g) (30ml)
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 1 cup (90g)
- Coconut or Vegetable Oil 2 Tablespoons (27g) (30ml)
- Corn Syrup 4 Tablespoons (80g) (60ml)
- * you can sub glucose, agave or golden syrup here
- Vegan Butter softened 8 ounces (2 Sticks) (226g)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons
- Confectioner's Sugar or Icing Sugar 3 cups (320g)
Instructions
- Prepare your cake pans with professional bakery pan grease and a parchment paper liner
- 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(s)
- bake immediately in a preheated 350°F oven for approximately 40 minutes for the 9" x 13" pan or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the pan(s) until you can easily touch them without burning yourself.
- Then flip the cake(s) out onto a cooling rack to cool to cold.
- While the cakes are baking, prepare the fudge icing:
- In a small pot on the stove, combine the first 3 ingredients and bring to a boil.
- Pour the sugar syrup into the cocoa powder and whisk smooth
- In the bowl of your Kitchen Aid mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a hand beater, add the cocoa powder and the vanilla extract
- Next add the Vegetable oil or Melted Coconut Oil and the additional measure of corn syrup
- Next add the softened vegan butter and mix well..
- Add the sifted confectioners sugar and mix until smooth.
Notes
This un-iced cake can be kept at room temperature wrapped to prevent drying for up to 4 days.
If you are icing and or filling your cake, the type of icing & filling will determine if it needs refrigeration
Hey Gretchen, do you have a one hour vanilla cake recipe? I know you have a regular vanilla cake recipe, but i don’t like flax seeds 🙁
could i take out the cocoa and substitute the brewed coffee for milk, would that work? thank you in advance xxxx 🙂
Nai xxx
yes!! It’s here in My Egg Nog cake recipe, but just make the cake part! it’s fast & easy like the chocolate cake!
I should do a separate recipe post like I did with the chocolate, since the recipe tends to get lost in all the “bling” of a layer cake creation!!
CLICK HERE FOR THE CAKE RECIPE
What are your thoughts on replacing flour with a DIY cake flour, that’s made from flour+cornstarch?
Thanks in advance
Hi.
For the icing, can I sub the corn syrup with something else? I will need to get a bottle just for this and it seems like too much. Also, is corn syrup healthy?
No corn syrup is not “healthy” but neither is dessert ..technically.
Desserts are loaded with fat & sugar and are extememly calorically dense because of those ingredients. But also entire desserts are not meant to be eaten by person. So for those few tablespoons of corn syrup in the entire recipe, the actual portion one person is consuming, is negligible.
Corn syrup in this recipe aids in preventing crystallization of the fudge keeping it smooth and pliable for icing, rather than thick and dull with no sheen
However if you would like to use glucose or agave you may, AND you can also leave it out but be aware of those caveats I mentioned (*the dull, matte, non smooth, non pliable texture)
would apply sauce or maple do the trick, I am not a fan of corn either because it is gmo
yes maple will work
Hi Gretchen! This looks delicious! Gonna make it today to have tomorrow for Valentine’s Day! Please excuse me if I missed it somewhere, but how long do you think this will take to bake in a standard size bundt pan?
Hi Jenn! No bother at all! Yes! This cake batter is beautiful in a bundt pan!
Just be sure to grease it really well since ya know….Bundt pans…. :/
I will guess that it will take closer to 45 minutes for 6 cup capacity?
I made this 1 hr chocolate cake and it was gone within an hour! The same time as I made it! Thank you Gretchen! I grew to love and learnt baking from you! I’m trying to gain the knowledge of vegan baking through you too. Although I must admit it’s a challenge as some of the items were not available or extremely expensive in my country. Keep doing what you love and thank you again for your generosity to share!
I have used your vegan chocolate cake recipe for my most recent cake projects. I always get compliments. For my brother’s birthday cake I paired it with your aquafaba swiss meringue buttercream and it came out perfectly. I’ve been watching your YouTube channel for years! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and recipes!
Awesome! Thank you for letting me know! That’s great!
Would this work in an 8 inch square pan as well?
Tried this chocolate cake receipe twice, once three thin sheets to build a bigger cake with filling and once all in one baking form (round) and both times the cakes broke AFTER I flipped it to the cooling rack, while cooling.
It tastes absolutely awesome so today I try again with a loaf pan and also let it cool completely before flipping anything… 😉
Would like to know what went wrong thou… sigh.
I love your recipes!
Btw I froze the broken pieces together with ermine mocha buttercream filling in little weck jars so visitors can have them as desserts. So, no damage done 🙂
I just realised something. I thought before the flour to sugar ratio is strange (not enough flour for the amount of sugar). I am German so I just looked at the grams you posted, didn’t use cups. I just realised there might be a typo. I measured 3 american cups and it was 500 grams straight.
The loaf I baked this afternoon didn’t break after flipping, but it had this … crispy rim that told me there’s too much sugar in it.
“I thought before…” sorry bad English. I meant to say it struck me as strange earlier when I read the recipe.
Does the coffee have to be hot? Or is it room temperature?
I have done it both ways with no great differences in the outcome
I was wondering can you convert this recipe to make a red velvet layer? So less cocoa powder and use red food colouring instead?
Yes sure, if you are going to take out some coco powder, replace it with the same amount in flour
Also- if you want an already tested GREAT Red Velvet Cake CLICK HERE
Hi Gretchen – Three questions:
1) How long will your salted caramel keep in the fridge aftering making?
2) I’d like to try using this chocolate cake recipe, and pair it with your vanilla cake recipe (the one done with flax seeds), to make a marble cake. I’m going to half the recipe of the chocolate to marble in. Do you think this will work well? (I don’t really like just using some batter from original vanilla recipe and then adding in an emulsion of cocoa.)
3) Could I replace a cup of the white sugar with brown sugar in your chocolate cake recipe?
Appreciated
Hi Sue
I keep caramel in my fridge for over a month in the jar
Yes I understand about the marble and making the chocolate out of the vanilla batter! Yes it would be great to do as you say but even half recipe will bee quite a lot of chocolate to marble so you will get some extra cupcakes too 😀
Yes to brown sugar! Will be great!
Oh that’s great Gretchen; thank you so much for your quick response on this. Going to make my salted caramel then for Dec 30th wedding cake.
As far as the marbling, do you think 1/4 of the chocolate batter is enough? Or would a bit more be best – like 1/3rd?
There is flax seed in this recipe above. Everyone keeps saying flax seeds, and it’s in the youtube video, but not in any amount or in the recipe?
Hey there, so there actually are NO flax seeds listed in this recipe nor are there any being used in the video. Perhaps you are looking at something else?
In response to Sue – she is speaking of the vanilla cake that has flax seeds in the recipe
I’m not a coffee drinker, so how many tablespoons of instant coffee do I need to add to the 2 cups of water to make the brewed coffee?
I use 1 Tbs of instant for this recipe
Beginner friendly! Thanks for this. I’m the only vegan in my family (for now), and they all loved this cake. My only complaint is that the frosting is very sweet. I can’t believe that is the reduced sugar version, hah.
YAY! thankyou!! OMG I Just made this fudge icing yesterday again as a matter of fact and I said the same thing! LOL
I swear that was a direct recipe from when I owned my bakery and yikes! Sugar overload!
Good morning. Love your recipes. Would it be possible to reduce the anount of sugar in the above cake? Would I need to replace it with any other ingredient – for volume wise? Thanks
It’s not a great idea to adjust the ingredients (especially the sugar in a cake recipe) because it will come out slightly dry, and crumbly. Best to use the amounts listed and when you think about the total sugar used in a whole cake it seems like a lot but when you think about just one piece, it is not much at all. YOU COULD USE MONKFRUIT SUGAR IN PLACE 1:1
Hello Gretchen,
I am sorry to bother you. My problem is not the issue of sugar being unhealthy, but the that I don’t like too sweet cakes. Usually I reduce amount of sugar given in the recipe in half or one third. Please, could you kindly advice me what could be the maximum amount to reduce the sugar in this recipe and not to spoil the consistency?
Thank you in advance!
Sure thing, I would not take out more than 1/2 cup without altering the results negatively
Great, thank you so much!
Looking forward to try your recipe.
Looks great. In terms of the 2 cups of coffee can you confirm you mean literally 2 x 236ml of coffee? Many thanks.
Yes that’s correct!
Could I add finely chopped hazelnuts or hazelnut flour to this without killing the perfection of it? I have been unsuccessful in finding a good chocolate hazelnut recipe.
Looking forward to trying out the recipe! Do you have a conversion for cupcakes? How long would I bake and how many will it make?
Yes! I make a note about using different pans sizes in the recipe post~ but basically you will fill your cupcake liners a pinch more than ½ full
I think this recipe will make 15-18? Bake temp same & time~ I always check cupcakes at about 18minutes
Delicious, moist cake and the icing was great too. Will definitely add it to my repertoire. Thanks Gretchen!
Would this cake hold up well for carving? I plan to turn it on its side and carve into a dinosaur. Also, do you just use regular Hershey’s cocoa, or a different brand? I find regular Hersheys kind of gross.
This would work fine if the cake was very cold, I recommend to freeze the layers before building to cut down on any major “crumb-age”
I actually use Callebaut cocoa (*I am lucky to get cocoa powder in bulk for cheaper from a friend in the restaurant biz) But I will agree to the Hershey’s DARK as being gross, but for regular Hershey’s I have used it many times
Hi there! How much cocoa powder is needed for the icing? It doesn’t state the amount. Thanks!
thank you for pointing that out! Ever since I implemented the “jump to recipe” button it is messing with all my recipes!! it is 1cup (90g)
Gorgeous looking cake! I can’t wait to try the reduced sugar version of this. I’ve noticed there’s a lot of sugar in the icing, is there a lower sugar version of this part of the recipe? Thanks 🙂
Hi! Thanks & Yes you can make ganache instead since fudge icing is well….fudge icing! LOL It’s super sweet & meant to be that way~ this is a direct recipe from my bakery that believe it or not is actually lower sugar already than what I made way back then!
But again, ganache would be your lower sugar option since you can use a chocolate that is either 70% or even 85%
Click here for more about low sugar recipes specifically in my Reduced Sugar Chocolate Eclair Snack Cake Recipe
Note:: In the cake recipe when I used Allulose the cake came out really tight & dry~ not good!
I prefer Monk Fruit Sugar for the best results
I’m happy to report that this recipe makes approx a zillion mini cupcakes. 🤣. I baked them for 13 minutes in a dark mini muffin pan.
LOL! Wow that’s quite alot of cupcakes!
Hi Gretchen,
Could this potentially be made gluten free? And if it can, would I only need to change the flour, or add anything extra like more baking soda etc.
Thankyou!
Yes! It works great with a 1:1 blend like Bob’s Red Mill AP blend~ no changes needed
Oh amazing, thankyou so much! Can’t wait to make it for my friend. Made it for my sons birthday normally and everyone loved it!
Hiya! I am going to make this recipe for my wedding cake. Along with “the best vanilla cake” recipe. Our wedding colours are black and white and we would like to have a black cake. I was curious to know if I could substitute black cocoa powder for the cocoa in this recipe?
Thanks! x
Hi Yes sure! As long as it is NOT Dutched Process it will be fine! Also you may want to check out this cake here for some Inspo!
Hi Gretchen! So I made this recipe and followed it to the letter, the only ingredient that was different was that I used a liquid refined coconut oil. The flavor was delicious and your right the coffee does make a world of difference. The only thing was that my cake came out super oily and dense and sank in the middle. I will try it again but using vegetable oil. Hopefully the texture will be better. By the way, I love your vegan baking cook book. It’s beautiful and easy to follow, thank you once again!
Hey there thank you for the feedback & I’m sorry that happened to you! In the beginning when I first went vegan & was transforming my recipes to vegan I was using coconut oil because I thought it was the “vegan” thing to do. It seemed to me that so many people were using it and only it….
But now I rarely use it in my recipes anymore for the reasons you named. There are only a couple recipes where I specifically site coconut oil as the oil I use otherwise I just state vegetable oil.
Coconut oil is definitely a heavy oil
Hi Gretchen!! I’m making a derby cake for my partner’s birthday. For this recipe, could all of the batter go into one cake pan? Or should I bake it in batches? Thank you so much!
So I made the Derby Cakes into 2 smaller cakes (6″ cakes), but if you want to do 1 larger cake yes! However this recipe (full recipe) for chocolate cake will make 2-8″ layers so you cannot put all the batter into 1-8″ cake pan
Hi Gretchen,
I made this recipe and I am mostly satisfied how it came out! I love that it has no egg replacer and you don’t need an electric mixer for it (we have a small baby in the house) but I think I overdid it with the cocoa powder. I used 8 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder and it has a little bitter after taste. My cocoa is high fat, highest I could find can taht be the reason? Anyway I would love to see this 8 spoons converted in grams for this recipe if you can! Otherwise keep up the good work and thank you for the amazin recipies!
I love this recipe. It’s the only one I use now for anything choccie cake as it works in any size tin I chose – usually. Over the weekend I made a 9″ stuffed it full of whipped ganache and berry compote, but the only thing is that the cake was very fragile and I’m not sure what I did different. As far as I remember I followed your recipe from my cookbook that I’m gradually copying all your fabulous creations to. With regards to the cake, it tasted great as always, and the ganache with the compote helped stick it together, so there were no complaints, but I noticed. I was just glad that I hadn’t planned on carving it. Any ideas would be gratefully received as to what makes a reliable recipe become fragile.
Thankyou, as always for all your hard work. I am very aware that my reputation as a great cake maker is built on your shoulders.