Oh, this cake was good. Extremely good.
It was dominated by a lovely, dark chocolate flavour and even though there’s a lot of sugar here, the cake wasn’t overly sweet or rich. Paired with the vanilla ‘buttercream’, it really did taste like an Oreo cookie! This is a versatile recipe, too – you could fill it with mocha, chocolate or fruit-flavoured frosting and end up with delicious results.
Novelty pans are a lot of fun, though I’m far too practical to buy them for myself. I got this set as a holiday gift and they were fantastic! The cake certainly got plenty of oohs and aahs at the dinner table, but with round cake pans and a little creativity you could likely create the same effect.
What’s your favourite novelty treat?
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Gluten-free, Vegan Chocolate Layer Cake
From Dreena’s Vegan Recipes
For the cake:
2 cups brown rice flour
½ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup tapioca flour
½ tsp xanthan gum
1 ½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
1 1/3 cups unrefined sugar
½ tsp sea salt
1 ¾ cups vanilla almond milk
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ cup grapeseed oil
For the frosting:
½ cup vegan margarine
3 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp almond milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda, then add in sugar and salt and mix well.
In another bowl, combine almond milk, vinegar, extracts and oil. Add wet mixture to the dry and stir until well combined. Pour into two lightly oiled round cake pans, distributing batter as evenly as possible.
Bake for 24-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of each comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a cooling rack.
To make the frosting, beat the margarine and sugar together, then add the vanilla and almond milk. Mix until the frosting is soft and creamy. You might need to add more sugar or almond milk – I added another cup of icing sugar and a few more tablespoons of milk until I got the consistency and flavour I wanted. Feel free to play around with it until you get what’s right for you.
Reserve about ¼ cup of frosting for decorating the top. Spread the rest evenly onto one cake, then carefully place the other on top. Pipe the frosting as desired.
Oh, wow. This looks incredible. I’ve always been happy with Dreena’s recipes but have never made one of her cakes! Did you like the texture, even with the high ratio of brown rice flour to starch? This is gorgeous! And thanks for submitting to GlutenFreeFeed
Texture was perfect – it was definitely on the firmer side, but soft enough and akin to cakes I’ve had with gluten. I served it to a bunch of meat-eating, gluten-loving friends at our holiday dinner and everyone loved it. Thanks for running gluten-free feed – such a great idea!
wow!!! this is so gorgeous!
That looks soo good!
Yum!!
We have the exact same cake tin!
This cake looks amazing!! Just Stumbled it too. Wish I had the whole dang thing with a cup of coffee right about now
Thanks for the stumble!
This is so cute! My mom is vegan-I am going to make it for her on her birthday!
Can this cake be made with soy milk instead of almond milk? My children have nut allergies. This cake looks delicious!
Absolutely! The original recipe actually had vanilla soymilk, but I usually have almond or rice milk in the house so I used almond milk instead.
This cake is so delicious!!! I will be making it next week for my daughters 4th birthday. She just walked away from the table singing a song about cake. Heh.
Aw, that’s so cute. This would make a fun birthday cake, for sure. I hope you blog about it!
What size baking pans should you use if you use regular baking pans?
I’d use either 8-inch or 9-inch pans.
Sounds yummy! Came across your blog as I am looking for a vegan chocolate cake recipe to make and blog about!
Any alternatives for grapeseed oil?
Coconut oil.
I’ve made this cake several times now and even non-vegan gluten eaters rave about it!! For my son’s birthday I just tried making a vanilla version of it (he doesn’t like chocolate cake), by replacing the cocoa with more brown rice flour. A couple of times I’ve also replaced 1 cup of brown rice flour with Amaranth, also with great results!
Awesome! I’m so glad this cake is working for you.
What can I use instead of the rice vinegar? Apple cider vinegar?
Yep, you can absolutely use apple cider vinegar.
I just made the cake and it’s good but crumbly. Not moist. It has the texture of like cornbread.
Just made this and substituted rice milk for the almond milk it called for. It turned out great! A little firm but the flavor is great! So glad to find a tasty recipe for my daughter who is alergic to gluten, eggs and dairy.
So glad that you liked it!