Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe with Peppermint Buttercream

Vegan Cake vs. Regular Cake

Traditional cake recipes, like my hummingbird cake and others, are made with ingredients like butter, eggs, and or milk. Vegan cakes are made without dairy butter, dairy eggs, dairy milk, or any other animal products. Many recipes include milk alternatives (like coconut milk or almond milk), non-dairy butter, and plant-based substitutes that range from mashed bananas to mashed avocado, flax eggs, applesauce, and coconut oil.

What You’ll Need

You’ll find notes on the ingredients in this vegan chocolate cake recipe, peppermint frosting, and ganache. Scroll to the recipe card after the post for the printable ingredients list, amounts, and instructions.

Vegan Chocolate Cake

• Gluten-free flour: I use Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free 1:1 baking flour. Most gluten-free flours (like Bob’s Red Mill) can be substituted with all-purpose flour in a 1:1 ratio. Meaning, if your recipe calls for 2 cups of all-purpose flour, you would need 2 cups of gluten-free flour and vice versa.
• Cocoa powder: Dutch-processed cocoa powder gives this chocolate cake an exceptionally rich, fudgy flavor and darker color.
• Baking powder and baking soda: For leavening. Check the expiration dates on the packaging to make sure it’s fresh.
• Maple syrup: Or another vegan sweetener, like agave.
• Almond milk: You can use any dairy-free, plant-based milk of your choice that’s unsweetened and unflavored. Other good options are oat, soy, or coconut milk.
• Coconut oil: Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so you’ll need to melt it beforehand so it’s liquid. You can swap coconut oil for another neutral-flavored oil if you prefer.
• Applesauce: Make sure it’s unsweetened to avoid an overly sweet cake.
• Coffee: Coffee “blooms” the cocoa powder in chocolate cake recipes, intensifying the chocolate flavors.
• Apple cider vinegar: Like in red velvet cake recipes, a little vinegar is the key to a super-soft, fluffy, and moist cake.

Vegan Frosting

• Vegan butter: Soften the butter before you start.
• Powdered sugar: Also called confectioner’s sugar or icing sugar. You can make powdered sugar by blitzing granulated sugar in a blender or food processor to make a fine powder.
• Vanilla bean paste: You could also use an equal amount of pure vanilla extract.
• Peppermint extract: Make sure you’re using peppermint extract, and NOT spearmint or mint extract. The flavors are not the same! Feel free to skip the peppermint extract to make classic vegan buttercream instead.

Chocolate Ganache

• Vegan chocolate chips: I use dark chocolate, but you can use another flavor of vegan chocolate you prefer.
• Coconut oil: Coconut oil improves the texture and makes the ganache glossy.

How to Make a Vegan Chocolate Cake With Peppermint Frosting

These are the steps to make a perfect vegan chocolate peppermint cake smothered with ooey chocolate ganache! This cake is so good, even those who aren’t vegan OR gluten-free rave about the texture. Here’s how to make it:

1. Prepare the pans. While the oven preheats to 325ºF, lightly grease three 8-inch round pans with coconut oil, and line each pan with parchment paper.
2. Mix the dry ingredients. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Combine the wet ingredients. Separately, mix the maple syrup with milk, coconut oil, applesauce, coffee, vanilla, and vinegar. If you notice the coconut oil starts to harden and separate, warm the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Slowly fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, whisk the batter until it’s smooth. Divide the cake batter between your prepared cake pans.
5. Bake. Bake your chocolate cakes on the middle rack of the oven, for 18-22 minutes at 325ºF. Cool on a rack completely before you frost the cake.

Frost and Assemble the Cake

1. Prepare the frosting. Beat the softened vegan butter until it’s creamy, then gradually add the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, mix in the vanilla bean paste and peppermint extract.
2. Stack the cake. Place the first cooled cake onto a plate or cake platter. Spread the vegan frosting evenly over the cake, and place the second layer on top. Frost that layer, and finally, stack the third layer.
3. Frost the cake. Use the remaining frosting to frost the top and sides of the cake.
4. Add the ganache. Microwave chocolate chips and coconut oil in a bowl in 30-second increments, stirring in between, until melted. Then, pour the ganache over the cake.

Tips for the Best Vegan Layer Cake

• Follow the recipe as written. It’s important not to stray from the recipe, unless it specifically mentions substitutes. Ingredients like applesauce, vinegar, and coconut oil all contribute to the moisture in this cake.
• Measure accurately. Just like with regular flour, use a kitchen scale to measure the gluten-free flour in this recipe. If you don’t have a scale, use the spoon and level method, where you spoon the flour from the bag into your measuring cup. Afterward, level off the flour with a knife. This avoids overmeasuring.
• Don’t overbake. Overbaked cakes will be dry and crumbly. Use a toothpick to test that the cake is baked through. If it comes out clean, it’s ready to come out.
• Level the cake layers. If your cakes rise high in the center, creating domes, use a serrated knife to trim the domes after baking. It will be easier to stack the cake layers if they’re level.
• Skip the peppermint. Leave out the peppermint to make a vegan chocolate cake with classic vanilla frosting instead. You could also replace the peppermint with lemon, orange, almond, or another flavoring extract.

How to Store

This vegan chocolate peppermint cake lasts 2 to 3 days at room temperature. You can also keep this cake in the fridge, though I recommend taking it out ahead of serving so it can come to room temperature.

More Vegan Dessert Recipes

• Vegan Lemon Bars
• Almond Flour Banana Bread
• Vegan Pumpkin Pie Bars
• Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
• No-Bake Almond Joy Bars