Inspiration for this cake:
Childhood memories of chasing the ice cream man down the street
The chocolate eclair cake is a perfect knockoff of the Good Humor® ice cream bar of the same name
Chocolate and white cake layered with ganache and buttercream!
But who cares about that as long as it is smothered in classic chocolate eclair crunch!
I’m not going to lie, cakes like this one are going to take a bit more time
Since you have to bake two kinds of cake
Two icings and if you can’t buy the cookies then you will have to make those as well!
I use chocolate sandwich cookies or sometimes digestive biscuits too
But don’t worry I have great vegan shortbread cookie recipes for you to use!
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- Chocolate Shortbread Cookie
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- Shortbread Cookies
CLICK HERE FOR VANILLA SHORTBREAD COOKIE RECIPE
CLICK HERE FOR THE CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD COOKIE RECIPE
Whatever you decide to use, it is well worth it when you taste this combination together!
To make your life easier, you can bake your cakes a day ahead
And the buttercream can be made days or even weeks in advance
If you are like me you already have a giant stash of buttercream in the refrigerator anyway
Then it’s an easy recipe of two ingredient ganache and away you go!
Crushed up cookies make the classic crunch cake coating
Put it all together and you just made the stuff childhood memories are made of!
For me it was always a hard decision whether to get the Strawberry Shortcake or the Chocolate Eclair
So if you are not exactly a chocoholic like me then you will love my Strawberry Shortcake Crunch Cake instead!
Notes for Success:
Since I always make 7″ cakes, my cake recipes are worked out to make 3- perfect 7″ layers or 2- 8″ layers if you only have 8″ pans
For this cake though, we only need 2 layers of white cake and 1 layer of chocolate cake
I like to have excess cake for future projects so I always make the full recipes
However I understand not everyone want to have excess laying around
So I have worked out the recipes as best as possible
I do not find much difference from 7″ pans to 8″ pans except that the 8″ layer will be slightly thinner and bake a few minutes less.
I have easy options for cake recipes for you with my Duncan Hines Box Cake Hack if you want to go super lazy route with this layer cake
But of course you can make my equally simple one bowl mix for chocolate cake and Truly White Vegan White Cake recipes
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- White Cake
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- One Bowl Chocolate Cake
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE
For more awesome layer cakes like this one, click the links below!
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- Strawberry Crunch Cake
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- Death to Diets Cake
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- Cannoli Rum Cake
If you do not want to buy (or made additional recipes of cookies for the crunch) you can use the trimmings from the cake layers or bake the excess cake batter into random pans specifically for crushing & using for the garnish. *I would recommend if you are going to use the cake crumbs to toast them until they are crunchy so the cake has that authentic "crunch coating"
- For the Chocolate Cake: 1 layer of 7" or 8" with some excess
- All Purpose Flour 1½ cups (188g)
- Natural Cocoa Powder 4 Tablespoons
- Granulated Sugar 1 cup (200g)
- Salt ½ teaspoon
- Baking Soda 1 teaspoon
- Apple Cider Vinegar 1 teaspoon
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons
- Vegetable Oil 6 Tablespoons (90ml)
- Strong Brewed Coffee 1 cup (240ml)
- For the White Cake: 2 layers 7" or 8" pans
- Vegan Butter 2 tablespoons (28g)
- Coconut Oil 2 Tablespoons (28g)
- Granulated Sugar 6 Tablespoons (75g)
- Plant milk ¼ cup (60ml)
- Clear Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- All Purpose Flour 2 Tablespoons (15g)
- Cake Flour ¾ cup (90g)
- Baking Powder 1 teaspoon
- Salt pinch
- Cornstarch ½ Tablespoon (4g)
- Aquafaba ¼ cup (60ml)
- 2X Recipe Chocolate Ganache
- 1 Recipe Your Favorite Buttercream
- 1 cup crushed chocolate cookies
- 1 cup crushed vanilla cookies * see notes above
- For the chocolate cake recipe 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 25-30 minutes 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.
- Prepare the white cake prepare your cake pans with grease & parchment paper liner & preheat the oven to 350°F
- Combine the softened vegan butter with the coconut oil and granulated sugar and mix on high speed with the paddle attachment for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy, be sure to scrape the bottom & sides of the bowl from time to time.
- Combine theplant milk with the and extract and set it aside.
- Combine the aquafaba with the cornstarch and whisk together so there are no lumps, it will get slightly frothy too, this is good.
- Once the butter mixture is creamed, add the aquafaba/cornstarch to it and change the attachment to the whisk attachment, whip on high speed to emulsify & the mixture will get very silky and smooth
- Meanwhile sift the flour(s) with the salt and baking powder and add ⅓ of that to the creamed mixture, blend just until combined then add half of the milk mixture
- Blend just until combined then add another ⅓ of the dry ingredients and then the remaining liquid and last the remaining dry ingredients.
- Be sure to scrape the sides & bottom of the bowl and whip it on high for 10 seconds to blend well.
- Divide the batter evenly between your pans and bake immediately in the preheated oven that has been set to 350°F
- After the first 10 minutes lower the temperature to 300° and bake for a total of 30-35 minutes or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pans and the turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely
- Prepare the buttercream and ganache recipes as per the instructions on that recipe
- Assemble the cake as per the video tutorial
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