One of my favorite candy bars as a kid and even into my adult years was the Almond Joy.
Two bite candies made from sticky coconut filling covered with chocolate and an almond on top of each one.
Now that I have gone vegan I pass up the candy aisle without a second thought, and I know full well that to enjoy my favorite treats of yesteryear I’ve got to recreate them myself!
That’s ok though, since I have outdone the originals with homemade versions time after time anyway.
This rendition of the Almond Joy Cake includes my best recipes for chocolate and vanilla cake layers with that sticky, gooey coconut filling in between each layer.
A thin coating of chocolate buttercream and ganache poured over every inch of it!
Complete with homemade almond joy candy bars to adorn the top!
The recipe for coconut filling is really simple however it does require sweetened condensed milk which is available in some specialty food stores; but I just decided to make my own.
It’s really easy and all you need is a can of full fat coconut milk and some sugar (or agave or vegan hon-ee) simmered for about an hour to a thick creamy condensed milk perfect for recipes!
This is a building on recipes project which as you know takes several recipes to get to the final layer cake, but if you work ahead and prep some things a day or two before it makes the job less stressful.
I always have a recipe of buttercream on hand so for me this cake was a breeze once I baked my cake layers.
Check out the recipes you will need below.
I suggest to make the buttercream as far ahead as a week (and just keep it in the refrigerator. Re-whipping it back to proper consistency after it’s been cold can be tricky though, so click here for more info on how to do that successfully)
The cakes can be baked a day or two ahead too, and I always freeze my cake layers before assembling any cake, so then all you have to do is make the quick coconut filling and build that cake!
- 1 Recipe Aquafaba Swiss Buttercream or Easy Vegan Buttercream
- Cocoa Powder 3 Tbs to make a portion of it chocolate
- For the Vanilla Cake Layer
- Ground Flax Seeds 2 tablespoons (16g)
- Hot Water 5 tablespoons (75ml)
- White Vinegar 1 Tablespoon (15ml)
- Soy Milk ½ cup (120ml)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- Cake Flour 1¼ cup (150g)
- Granulated Sugar ¾ cup (150g)
- Baking Powder 2 teaspoons (10g)
- Salt ½ teaspoon (3g)
- Vegan Butter 6 Tablespoons (84g)
- For the Chocolate Cake
- All Purpose Flour ¾ cup (94g)
- Granulated Sugar ⅓ cup (67g)
- Salt pinch
- Baking Powder ¾ teaspoon
- Baking Soda ¾ teaspoon
- Coconut Oil 4 Tablespoons (56g)
- Boiling Water ¾ (177ml)
- Dutch Process or Natural Cocoa Powder ⅓ cup (70g)
- Ground Flax Seeds 3 Tablespoons (24g)
- Hot Water 5 Tablespoons (75ml)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- For the Coconut Filling
- Sweetened Shredded Coconut 3 cups
- Vegan Sweetened Condensed Milk 1 cup *recipe follows
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon
- Almond Flour or Coconut Flour ½ cup
- For the Ganache Icing
- Vegan Semi Sweet Chocolate 8 ounces
- Soy Milk or Almond Milk ¾ cup
- For the Vanilla Cake:
- Combine the flax meal with the hot water and let stand for about 5 minutes to thicken
- Add the vinegar to the soy milk to sour
- Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt
- Cream the vegan butter with the sugar until light and fluffy and this may take about 3-5 minutes on medium to high speed
- Add the thickened flax paste while mixing on medium speed, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to incorporate evenly, add the vanilla extract
- Add about ⅓ of the flour to the creamed mixture then add half of the soured milk
- Add another ⅓ of the flour and then the remaining sour milk
- Add the last amount of flour and mix just to combine evenly.
- Pour the batter into a greased and parchment lined 7" cake pan and bake in a preheated 350°F oven for approximately 25minutes or until it is springy to the touch when you gently press the centers
- For the Chocolate Cake:
- Combine ground flax seed with the 5 Tbs of hot water and whisk smooth
- Let stand for 5 minutes to thicken to a paste
- Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder & soda together in a large mixing bowl
- Combine the coconut oil, ¾ cup boiling water and cocoa powder together and whisk smooth
- Add the cocoa mixture and the flax eggs mixture along with the vanilla extract to the flour mixture and whisk smooth
- Divide the batter between 2-7" cake pans filling slightly more than half full and bake in a preheated 350°F oven for approximately 22 - 38 minutes or until they are springy to the touch when you gently press the centers
- For the Coconut Filling:
- Combine all the ingredients for the filling together in a large mixing bowl, form your almond joy candies from a small portion of this (I made 12 fun sized candies and had exactly enough filling left for my cake) add 1 cup of the buttercream from above to the coconut filling for a creamier cake filling
- Assemble the cake as shown in the video
- For the Glaze:
- 8 Tablespoons coconut oil
- 10Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 3 Tablespoons agave syrup
- Combine all ingredients together in a small sauce pot and heat on low stirring constantly until melted
- 1 -14ounce can full fat coconut milk
- ⅓ cup sugar
- Bring the coconut milk to a boil then add the sugar and reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the mixture reduces down to 1 cup and is thickened.
- It will get thicker as it cools
Would it work for me to substitute the sweetened condensed milk with coconut butter in the almond joy recipe? It seems similar .. maybe I can use unsweetened shredded coconut with it? since it might prove too sweet?
Yes I believe you could use coconut butter, if it is sweet, then maybe use half unsweetened coconut and half sweetened?
This sounds (and looks) amazing!! I’m so glad you’re back!!!
Awe thank you Lisa for the kind welcome back!
Hi Gretchen
All the best with the Vegan venture, I will not be baking Vegan , i love butter, cream , milk ,meat and fish .
Thank you for the non vegan recipes presented in your other life and good luck .
Please watch your B12 count.
Sincerely Diana.
Thanks Gretchen, this recipe will make a wonderful birthday treat for a friend of mine.
My grandson is allergic to soy, nuts and dairy so I’m looking forward to trying your recipes. What is Vegan margarine/ butter? Is it hydrogenated ? I assume I can’t use soft tub margarine. Can I use coconut milk instead of soy?
Hi! Earth Balance also has a soy free variety but you can use margarine too.
I prefer not to use the soft tub style whenever possible, its just….softer…LOL
Yes to any milk alternative of your choice, coconut works great in all recipes
(also use coconut flour in place of the almond flour if you are going to make the candy bars)
Hi Gretchen,
I’m so happy with your vegan blog!
Love ❤️ it 👍
Happy to see more😁
Thanks Joyce!!
Do you have a written recipe for the almond Joy candy
Yes its the filling recipe listed here. If you read the whole thing it will make sense, I used the filling (divided) to make 12 candy bars and had exactly enough left to fill the cake. SO if you didnt want to make the cake at all, just make the filling recipe and it will probably made about 4dz candy bars
Gretchen, can I use 8 inch baking pans? This looks so good! Though I am nervous about how vegan baking can be
satisfying… I hope it is, since I am a Baker by trade… Thank you
Hi! Yes you can, adjust this recipe to fit into 8″ pans for sure.
You will have slightly thinner layers though, so of course your bake time will be a bit shorter.
I think you will be pleased at the outcome! You picked a GREAT cake to try for your first vegan experience!!
Hi gretchens, what is the vegetable shortening and what are the other things can use for it?
Hello, vegetable shortening is a solid fat used interchangeably with butter (or in this cake vegan butter) I use it in many recipe specifically buttercream because it gives stability. In baking recipes though it has a higher melting point than butter
Hi Gretchen: I love your recipes, what’s up with vegan cakes?? Where can I find the normal cake recipes which do not use the above ingredients such as flax seeds, vegan chocolate??
I still have my non vegan blog open at http://www.gretchensbakery.com for as long as I can afford the cost to keep it open 🙂
What do you mean by 3/3 cocoa?
woops thanks! 1/3
Will it be ok to sub the Vanilla cake soy milk for almond milk?
yes fine
Hi! Gretchen I been following you since you have the bakery, I love all your recipes but I’m not vegan so I was wondering if you still have the old recipes, hope you do and if you can share be awesome. If not I respect your decision any way I still watch your channel 😊 thank you for your time and congratulations you are amazing 👍
Hi Martha thanks. I still have my old blog up at gretchensbakery.com for as long as I can afford to keep it open. Not sure how much longer that will be though 🙁
Hi Gretchen! Thank you so much for all the wonderful recipes you post! I’d say your vegan cakes are THE best!
Do you think I can use unsweetened shredded coconut? Should I add some sugar to it?
Thank you!
HI Thanks! You can add sugar if you like, But I would wait and see how you think it tastes before you do. The condensed milk has sugar and maybe you will think it is sweet enough. If not add a couple tablespoons of confectioners sugar to taste
Hello Gretchen! I would like to know if it would be possible to indicate where you buy your vegan ingredients? I would like to make the vegan recipe, but the ingredients are not always easily available. Thank you again, I love your recipes!
Hi Danielle thank you! (and thank you for the Youtube comment as well!) I usually only link to ingredients for the more obscure items, for the other things like Vegan Butter and Cream Cheese I just buy at Shop Rite (my local supermarket) In the past- like this video was originally from 2017 and I was just starting out with my vegan recipes, I was saying things like “Earth Balance Butter” instead of just vegan butter. So that could be confusing, since not everyone gets the same brands as me. But other wise the ingredients can be changed to whatever brands you can get. Anything specific you can’t find just let me know and I will try to help!
This cake sound wonderful. Almond Joy was one of my favorite candy bars too.
Gretchen, I have been looking for your Crumb Bun Cake recipe but cannot find it under Cake Recipes. Also, I must be overlooking the Search tool. I used to use it often but I’m not seeing it any longer. Can you give me the link, please.
Hi Thanks! CLICK HERE and HERE TOO
😩, HELP, I cannot figure out what I’m doing wrong. I have made numerous cakes from your website but this chocolate cake is not working for me. I made it yesterday and there was barely enough batter to put into two 7” pans. It did nor rise at all so turned out to be like fudge, though not fudge, unfortunately.
Today I measured out the ingredients again (I do use gram weight). Double checking all ingredients but still got the same result. What do you think I’m missing? The vanilla cake is fine. Trying to make it for the feast tomorrow so may have to find a different chocolate cake but would still like your input. I’m so frustrated because of wasting all these ingredients. I have been following you before you sold the bakery and have always had stellar results.
Hi Martha! I emailed you!
I see the chocolate ganache icing recipe but nothing for the chocolate glaze. Would you add that link to this cake, please. I did a search and got every kind of glaze except the one I need. Thanks, Gretchen. Hope you have a great holiday.
Hey! thanks for pointing that out! yikes! Updated! refresh your browser and it should show up (separate recipe under the main)
Thanks for your replies. I plan to bake this cake this morning and have it ready for my guests today. Thank you so much.