Gretchen's Vegan Bakery

Death to Diets Cake

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We can thank one of my many diet phases for this Death to Diets Cake!

Yes, I too have to pull back the reigns when all the desserts get way out of control!

Death to Diets Cake

It seems whenever I am sugar and fat deprived my brain kicks in to ultra creative gear

I dream up fantastic concoctions that I am just dying to sink my poor starving teeth into.
Hence the name~ Death to Diets Cake.

Chocolate cake, mocha buttercream, ganache and cream cheese buttercream!

Death to Diets Cake

Watch the YouTube Video for how to make this cake!

 

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Notes for Success

In the video you will notice I made a 5″cake the recipe below reflects an updated  7″ cake recipe
While it is not necessary to build the cake in ring molds it does help to keep it all together and prevent leaning and flopping
You can of course build this cake traditional style (meaning just build it and ice it as you would any layer cake)

Acetate cake strips are also very helpful when building a cake like this one, again not necessary

For those who do not like coffee/mocha simply eliminate the coffee granules from teh mocha buttercream recipe
Turning it into an Easy Chocolate Buttercream instead!

Death to Diets Cake

Death to Diets Cake

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Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 25 minutes

Ingredients
  

For the Cream Cheese Icing

  • 1 teaspoon lactic acid or apple cider vinegar

For the Mocha Buttercream

  • 4 Tablespoons instant coffee granules 16g
  • 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder 8g
  • ¼ cup hot water 50ml

Instructions
 

  • First prepare the chocolate cake recipe according to that recipe post but bake the batter divided evenly amongst 3-7" greased & parchment lined cake pans
  • While the cakes are baking prepare the ganache recipe and reserve it at room temperature while you make the American Buttercream recipe
  • Once the buttercream is finished divide it up evenly amongst 2 bowls
  • In one bowl add the lactic acid for the shelf stable cream cheese icing
  • In the other bowl you will add the mocha paste which is simply hot water mixed with instant coffee granules and cocoa powder whisk to a paste, add this to the buttercream & mix smooth
  • Once the cake layers are cooled you can assemble the cake as shown in the video tutorial

Video

Notes

Death to Diets cake should be kept refrigerated but can stay out at room temperature for half a day.
Refrigerate for 1 week wrapped loosely to prevent drying
Freeze wrapped well for up to 1 month
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Petrouchka Hulsbosch

    Hi,

    In your ingredient list you list Hot Water ⅔ cup (160ml and Hot Water 8 Tablespoons (120ml).
    But in the instruction steps you say “Combine the ground flax and 4 Tbs hot water and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken. Combine the cocoa powder with the other measure of hot water (the ⅓ cup) and whisk smooth”

    The ingredients and instruction amounts are different,

    What are the right measurments?

    Thanks,

    Petrouchka

    • Gretchen

      Hi Thankyou so much, it seems I had doubled the recipe in the ingredients list, but for got to double it in the instructions, so the 2/3 cup & 8 Tbs is correct Ive updated it now thankyou!

  5. Bex

    Gretchen you are a DREAM!

    I can’t thank you enough for sharing your masterpiece recipes, I tried your Opera cake last month and managed to persuade a group of non-veeg Frenchies that vegan baking is just as good as the patisseries in Paris.

    Now made this mammoth over the past 3 days for a friend’s bday, again non-vegan europeans, who were SHOCKED at how good this was! They were literally saying ‘how is this so creamy & rich without any dairy?!’

    I subbed the buttercream for your Swiss one as I’m addicted – takes me about 2hrs total with an electric hand whisk, but soooo worth it for that beautiful airy texture!

    One thing to note is that when I first made the Swiss Buttercream coffee flavour it did start to separate and lose some of its stability, maybe the water content was too high. This time however, when making the mocha I added it super slowly into the buttercream (no more than 1 tsp at a time) and also when it had cooled and solidified a little which caused no separation – Hope this tip helps some people!

    Can’t wait to try more of your goodies 😀