Gretchen's Vegan Bakery

Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

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Vegan chocolate fudge cake may be too much chocolate for some people!

But for me it’s just perfect! Made exactly the same way as when I had my bakery!
Except this time around it is completely vegan so now everyone can enjoy it!

Moist layers of chocolate cake filled and iced with thick fudge icing.

 

Vegan Fudge Cake

This cake is a very simple one to make especially because the recipe itself doesn’t require a mixer

It’s a one bowl mix and the fudge icing can even be made by hand but I rather use the mixer for that recipe!

Vegan Fudge Icing Recipe

It bakes up into perfect cupcakes if that is more your style, and the fudge icing is just divine!

Vegan Fudge Cupcakes

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE

Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

 

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Notes for Success:

Baking this recipe into 3-7″ cake pans is my preference but it can also be divided between 2-8″ pans instead
Bake time for 8″ pans may be just a few minutes less

The combination of cake flour and all purpose flour is my favorite for this recipe
But if you cannot get cake flour simply use all ~ all purpose flour but take out 2 Tablespoons from the total amount

Coffee and chocolate are best friends and they bring out the very best in each other!
If you cannot use coffee water would be fine

The cocoa powder for this cake recipe must be Natural not Dutch Process Cocoa.
It is important to understand the chemical reactions that take place for the success of this cake

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT COCOA POWDER IN YOUR CAKE RECIPES

 

Yield: serves 10

Chocolate Fudge Cake

The Best Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake Recipe!
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the Cake Recipe

  • All Purpose Flour 2 cups (250g)
  • Cake Flour 1 cup (120g) *or more all purpose flour
  • Natural Cocoa Powder 8 Tablespoons
  • Granulated Sugar 2 cups (400g)
  • Salt 1 teaspoon (6g)
  • Baking Soda 2 teaspoons
  • Apple Cider Vinegar 2 teaspoons
  • Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons
  • Vegetable Oil ¾ cup (177ml)
  • Strong Brewed Coffee 2 cups * see notes above

For the Fudge Icing

  • Granulated Sugar 5 Tablespoons (63g)
  • Water 5 Tablespoons (75ml)
  • Corn Syrup 2 Tablespoons (40g) (30ml)
  • Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 1 Cup (90g)
  • Very Soft Vegan Butter 4 Tablespoons (56g)
  • Corn Syrup 4 Tablespoons (80g) (60ml) *or glucose or golden syrup
  • Vegan Butter 1 cup (2 Sticks) (226g)
  • Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons
  • Confectioner's Sugar or Icing Sugar 3 cups (360g)

Instructions

  1. For the cake: Sift both flours, baking soda, salt, and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Combine the natural cocoa powder with the hot coffee and then add the vinegar, oil and the vanilla extract.
  3. Pour the wet ingredients into the sifted dry ingredients and whisk vigorously with a hand whisk until smooth (about 15 -20 strokes)
  4. Pour batter into greased and parchment lined 7" x 2" cake pans
  5. Bake immediately in a preheated 350°f oven for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs
  6. Meanwhile prepare the fudge icing: In a small pot on the stove, combine the first 3 ingredients and bring to a boil for 1 minute then pour into a bowl and allow to sit in the freezer to rapid cool while you gather the other ingredients.
  7. In the bowl of your Kitchen Aid mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a hand blender, add the cocoa powder and cooled but still warm simple syrup and mix until it forms a firm mass.
  8. Add the vanilla extract
  9. Add the softened vegan butter and the corn syrup
  10. Add the sifted confectioners sugar and mix until smooth.
  11. Slowly add some of the cold water about 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency
  12. Build the cake as per the video tutorial

Notes

Fudge cake can be stored at room temperature in a cool spot for up to 1 day, it won't go bad but if it gets too warm it will droop.
Best to keep refrigerated for up to 6 days
Bring to room temperature before serving

© Gretchen

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lucy

    I can’t seem to find natural cocoa powder where I live, is there a way I could alter this recipe so that i can use dutch cocoa powder? I know it has something to do with the baking soda which is why the recipe uses natural cocoa? Thanks 🙂

      • Lucy

        yeah i’ve never seen it anywhere! most brands i can find in stores say dutch processed, and then others don’t say anything so I just assume they’re dutch too. I’ll try the recommendation of adding baking powder in your post and see how it goes 🙂 thanks!!

          • Gretchen

            Cacao powder is natural but it is processed by cold pressing, vs cocoa powder that is processed (roasted) under high temperature, so the nutrients are left in tact by using Cacao it is considered a Superfood

      • Valery Parry

        Can I cook this in a square 7” cake pan for a deep cake, and what temp and timing please, in U.K. and love your recipes

        • Gretchen

          Yes! but it will make 2- pans, OR just HALF the recipe Temp same as listed, time may be a few minutes less, check at about 20 minutes

          • Erica Miller

            Hi Gretchen,
            I absolutely love your buttermilk chocolate cake recipe, but I can not seem to find it anywhere anymore. Any chance you could post it? 🙏🙏

          • Gretchen

            Hi Erica! Since December of 2019 my non vegan blog has shut down.I couldn’t keep up the cost to host it on the internet and maintain it monthly anymore
            The cost to host such a huge database online was close to $400 a month with tech support monthly to keep it clean & safe and smooth.
            I certainly do not (did not) make that much in adsense revenue through Youtube & Google.
            That became a pretty steep price to pay for a website that had been conflicting me financially & emotionally for so many years,
            so after 5 years of keeping it free & open to the public I finally decided to shut it down.
            I did not keep any of the recipes for myself when I shut down the database
            (which was the only place the recipes were stored)
            I just did (do) not feel comfortable anymore sharing recipes laden with animal ingredients promoting the very industry I loathe
            so it really didn’t make sense for me to keep them nor keep open and available such an expensive website.

            I do thank you so much for your support and encouragement through the ages,
            I have stunned NON Vegans with my vegan recipes, perhaps you could try to do the same?
            If not, I am sure there are tons of great (if not better than mine) recipes out there for you to use!

            Thanks again~ Best, Gretchen

        • Myra

          I only have one 7 by two inch cake pan. What happens if I don’t cook the mix immediately? Would it be better to divide the ingredients in three and wait to mix each time the pan is available to use?

    • Rheanna

      I use the Hershey special dark cocoa which I just looked at after reading the comments and it’s a mix of natural and dutch. I’ve made this recipe a couple times, never had an issue. It came out perfect IMO.

      • Ange

        Gluten free and vegan isn’t straight up but with this recipe I’d start by adding a scant 1/2 tsp xantham gum, use GF all purpose in place of both flours, but remove 2 tbsp and replace with 2 tbsp of cornstarch and add 1tsp baking soda, sift your dry ingredients 3-4 times to ensure they’re well combined.

        I’m yet to try the recipe but this is my usual go process to convert to gluten free

  4. lisa

    hi, if one wanted to change this recipe to make a simple vanilla (white) cake, could the cocoa powder be replaced with more flour and the coffee with water or plant milk? thanks.?

  5. Sonia

    Hi, we do not have cake flour in Europe (maybe it can be found in the UK). Should I just add another cup of plain flour instead? Any suggestion on how to replace cake flour? Thanks, Sonia

  6. Christine

    Hi, sorry if I have misread the recipe… is the ganache an alternative topping to the fudge icing? Or is it used elsewhere and I have missed the reference to it?
    Looking forward to making this cake this afternoon 🙂

    • Gretchen

      Sorry! Someone else brought that to my attention! Im not sure how I added that part in by accident! Sorry! (But YES you can use ganache as a less sweet, more sophisticated option to the fudge icing)

  7. Jan

    Thanks for all your hard work on here! Two questions 1) where does the ganache go? 2)My icing turned out grainy and dull – I used the gram measurements but it is not as silky as yours looks in the video, what could I have done wrong?

    • Gretchen

      Hi Jan! Woops! thanks for bringing that to my attention! Not sure how that ganache recipe got in there! LOL
      AS for the fudge, I have found that using Hershey’s Dark Blend cocoa gives a dull appearance, not sure if you used that?
      I keep kicking myself every time I buy that because it’s just really weird and have a gray look, for anything I used that is NOT baked, like icings etc…
      Like buttercream, the fudge icing is another emulsion of sorts.. I’ve had this recipe break on me once, and found I was just going too fast in the mixing (the adding of ingredients rather..)
      But by adding a tables spoon at a time of warm water while mixing, this can be corrected.
      Similarly after I’ve refrigerated it and try to remixit, it will seem grainy and dull, but I bring it to room temperature and then add a tablespoon of warm water and it gets shiny again

      • Jan

        Thanks for your response, that’s exactly what I used – Hershey’s! The icing tastes great but it’s so dull – will do as suggested and see if that works!

  8. Gloria Madle

    Hi Gretchen,
    You are a superstar. Made this cake before I went to work, presented it and the staff devoured it in about three minutes. One of the staff said” You always have the best special cakes” I told them I have the best teacher who has done all the hard work for me to be able to present this for you.
    So many people in Aussy that have allergies to food so this is just perfect.
    Your hard work pays off. Thank you

  9. Brenda

    I have just done the chocolate sponge which turned out great, to freeze for building on Thursday for our Macmillan coffee morning. I will be attempting the piña colada layer cake from your wonderful book tomorrow, can you tell me if you need to strain the crushed pineapple as there is usually a lot of juice in the can?

  10. DS

    Hi Gretchen, would this cake be suitable for a black forest cake? If so, by how much should I increase the recipe for a 9×13 cake?

  11. Krishna

    Hey gretchen! This cake looks insane! I just had a question though, do you think I could do 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 applesauce to cut the fat a bit? And replace the 2 cups of coffee with 1 cup boiling water and 1 cup buttermilk ?(vegan of course) Thank you!

  12. Lisa

    Hi Gretchen – made this cake today- cake part worked fine but with the frosting I ended up with bits of the cocoa powder/syrup mix all through it. Wondering what I may have done wrong? I did mix the cocoa powder with the syrup until firm but could I have over or under done that part? Thanks ?

  13. Rich

    How would replacing the oil for butter in this recipe, provided I adjust the amount for the water content etc, change the texture of the cake?

  15. Tracy R

    Is vegan butter the same as any brand margarine, if not please elaborate on the difference

    • Gretchen

      yes vegan butter is technically margarine. The main differences I see from brand to brand are the moisture contents. I do prefer Earth balance but I often use Fleishmanns (as it is much cheaper and works very good as well!)

  16. TimesAFlyin

    I have tried to open the Vegan Baking Mastery link. It does open but I do not see a place to register for an account name. What do I need to do?

    • Bjorn

      First of all, this cake is delicious!
      But I still have some questions. My cake rises into a dome and cracks. I have that with every cake I made not just with this receipe. What can I do? Lower temperature and longer in the oven?
      Also the cake doesn’t seem high enough. Not even with two cakes. Is this right or should it have risen higher? How high should it be? What can I do about that?
      Thnx!

      • Gretchen

        Hey great thanks! Hmm, odd- but yeah sounds like your oven temp could be too hot? Causing a severe rise too quickly?
        As for the height, I get pretty thick layers with mine, I get 3 tall 7″ layers that could even be cut in half again! Or 2-8″ layers that are THICK! so just be sure you are weighing correctly (prefer to weight not volume cups measure for best accuracy CLICK HERE FOR MORE)

  17. Sóley

    Hi!
    I can’t wait to make this for a birthday party but I have 2 questions. Can I substitute the corn syrup because I can’t find it where I live? And can you make the cake ready the day before and keep it in the fridge?
    Your work is amazing<3

  18. swati

    hi gretchen. i love ur work. i am new to baking.. plz dont mind this silly question. if i want to make an 8 inch cake round sud i half the recipe ? what measuremnets sud i take for baking in 15inch*10inch wilton tray?

  22. Hi

    The cake came out horrible – crumbly and dry, tasted exactly like flour and no taste of chocolate at all. It was really disappointing given that I saw multiple good comments. And thing is, I didn’t change a thing! Really perplexed about why mine came out disastrous and I had to immediately find another recipe as it was for a birthday tmr. Thanks tho

    • Gretchen

      Hmm interesting as I have never had any trouble with this recipe! And as you saw by the comments this is a very highly acclaimed recipe! Im sorry that happened to you, not really sure where to start to troubleshoot, as it is a very straightforward recipe. The only thing I can offer is to CLICK HERE and see if this resonates

  23. sara

    Hi,
    Thanks a lot for your amazing recipes. I have made this cake yesterday, I halved the quantity. However, the baking soda flavour was dominant. Do you know what went wrong?

  24. Sharon

    Can the coffee be substituted with just water or something else? If not, I guess I can use decaf.
    I love your book. I’ve made the chocolate chip cookies, and frozen the extra dough.

    • Gretchen

      Yes you can use decaf for sure, coffee just enhances chocolate in recipes, but you don’t ever taste the coffee coming through. You can use water of course, but again coffee really gives chocolate a nice boost. Otherwise any plant milk of your choice could be an option as well.
      AND THANK YOU for buying my book! 🙂

  25. Linah

    Hie how are you?Can I use self raising flour in this recipe and if yes what are the implications on baking soda which is part of the recipe?

    • Gretchen

      I don’t ever recommend using self rising flour, since it already has the leavening and a good amount of salt too. However desperate times call for desperate measures, and I too have only been able to find an All Purpose Flour BLEND like a biscuit flour mix with those same ingredients added in.
      Since baking soda is 4X as powerful as baking powder, I would say to just use 1 teaspoon of the baking soda and DO NOT ADD SALT. Let me know how it turns out!

  26. Linah

    Can I replace cake flour with self raising flour and what are the implications on baking soda also part of the recipe?

  27. Missy

    This cake is amazing. I didn’t have any decaf coffee on hand during the quarantine, so I went by a previous commenter’s suggestion and subbed in hot water and vegan buttermilk for the coffee and used 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce. I also threw in 1/4 cup vegan dark chocolate chips for extra decadence. The cake was moist, rich chocolate heaven. I love this blog and highly recommend Gretchen’s cookbook!

  28. darshani

    hi the recipe has sugar and vege oil but the video says sugar boiled and no vegetable oil.so what is the correct way.pls inform me as fast as u can coz i am going to make the cake now.

    thank yu.

    • Gretchen

      Hi Sorry for the late reply, the written instructions are correct. I am not sure where in the video it says to boil the sugar though??

  29. Kimberly

    Yes, I made this Choc cake! Everyone, including non- vegans, loved it! much better than the high priced vegan bakeries near me. (now I just need cake decorating classes) Great taste, Easy to make, Thanks!

  31. Natalie Neumann

    This cake is phenomenal! Thank you for this recipe, Gretchen! Super easy to pull together and incredibly tasty. Didn’t have any coffee so I fully replaced that amount with soy milk. I also had no corn syrup so I used agave instead. Lastly, I only had AP flour around so I used it for both the full flour amount for the recipe. These substitutions seemed to turn out well given the cake was such a hit 🙂

  32. Tarannum

    What is cake flour? What is the difference between cake flour and all purpose flour. If I don’t have cake flour can I replace it with all purpose flour?

  33. Megan Christ

    Hi! I would like to make this cake for my friend’s birthday next week, but I’d like to make only two layers. Any easy way to adjust the recipe for a two layer cake?

    Thanks!

    • Gretchen

      yes! This cake recipe bakes into 2- perfect 8″ layers (I am just in the habit of making 3-7″ layers) So- NO ADJUSTMENTS, just divide the batter between 2-8″ cake pans

  34. Kay

    Hi
    I don’t use corn syrup or golden syrup, and I Don’t use Crisco bc it’s hydrogenated. Are there any substitutions?

  35. Bea

    Hi Gretchen,
    Thank you very much for your recipes and also for taking your time answering all of our questions. I’ve ordered your book for my birthday. (At least one good thing about getting old)
    I don’t use Crisco as it has palm oil in it, you’ve said it can be substituted with coconut oil in this particular recipe. Should it be room temperature when I add it to the mixer? Shall I add it slowly?
    Thank you so much again

    • Gretchen

      Hi Thankyou!! I’m assuming you mean for the fudge icing? In which case, yes – I also omit the shortening nowadays and go all vegan butter or coconut oil. It should be at room temp- which is tricky for coconut oil sine it seems to like to be either rock hard or melted and not much else in between, lol

  36. Jennyfer Alvarez

    Since the acidity in natural cocoa powder helps activate the baking soda what if I only had Dutch-processed? Would adding two tablespoons of vinegar help to achieve the same result?

    • Gretchen

      Im sorry for the late reply! I have not had internet connection for the last 4 days!! You can double as long as you have a big enough bowl & enough oven space!

  38. Emily

    Hi I was wondering if this recipe and your vanilla cake recipe are good when it comes to covering with fondant. I’m new to baking vegan.

  39. Nathaniel

    Hi Gretchen,

    I’ve just made the cake layers, and they came out really dry. They were in for 30 minutes at 350 degrees f. Do you think it is due to over-baking? I think it might have been the cocoa powder (I’ve already experienced dry cakes due to the wrong kind of cocoa.) I didn’t use Dutch-processed cocoa, but a local version similar to the Hershey unsweetened cocoa. Is that considered natural cocoa powder? Is the natural cocoa you’re referring to the type that is high in fat? (18-24%) Or on the lower end? (8-12%, like I used) I also think I might have put too little coffee, since there’s no specification as to how many mls the coffee should be, and the measuring cups here are generally smaller in size, so 2 local cups might have been off by a 1/4 American cup.
    Can you please help me understand what I did wrong? The cake had absolutely no jiggle effect like yours had in the video. It was dry and crumbled upon dislodging from cake pans. I worked very closely with the rest of the measurements, measured in grams. The cake looks wonderful, and I’d really like to make it again and to succeed.
    Thanks! (:

    • Gretchen

      Oh No! That’s so disappointing to hear!
      Well, it’s hard to say what the problem is, but over baking would definitely be one reason for dryness, however this is typically on the edges and wouldn’t be through out, since 30 minutes (even if it was done at 22minutes) wouldn’t make such a severe difference.
      I wonder though if your oven is a convection? In which case it would make a HUGE difference since convection ovens run about 25° hotter than regular ovens.
      The cocoa YES would make a difference too, but if you used regular natural – similar to hersheys which is what I often use, then no it’s not that.
      The ml conversion would make a difference yes, but I am not sure 1/4 cup would make such a drastic difference either. However these are ALL AMAZING things you are noting and understanding! 🙂
      Sorry I did not provide the conversion- I usually just google the answers myself, but failed to put that in for you- sorry!
      I go with 237ml for 1 cup
      So, without really knowing what the culprit could be, I think if you try it again, be wary of everything we just talked about. It is such a great recipe! Super moist so I am sorry & sad that you had this experience!

  40. Jon

    Hey Gretchen! So I have followed you for yes! (Non vegan days) and I’m now wanting to bake vegan cakes. So obviously came straight to your blog!

    My question… here in France it seems most cocoa powder is Dutch processed. Having read your post on cocoa powder, do I just replace the baking soda in the recipe with baking powder using your conversion from the blog post? Many thanks!!

  41. Maria

    This recipe looks lovely! Just recently I’ve been trying some vegans recipes and yours cake looks the best so far! But I have a doubt… I think the strong brewed coffee will be too much for children’s likes. What can I use do for substitute the coffee? Or can I just not add the coffee in the recipe?

  42. Golnaz

    I made this cake today and I love the result , the cake was moist with a nice texture, thank you Gretchen for your perfect recipes . I’ve never confused with your recipes

  44. Tara

    Hi Gretchen

    Thanks for this recipe. I was wondering, can I use this recipe to make a black forest cake and use your swiss butter cream recipe instead of a whip cream (that is usually the icing for the black forest cake)? Would the cake fell apart?

  45. Jessica Barrett

    This recipe is absolutely amazing and comes out PERFECTLY every time (provided you are weighing your ingredients). I first started making just the cake because I was intimidated by the frosting recipe, however, I gave it a go, and I haven’t looked back. Thank you so much for all the wonderful recipes. Every recipe I’ve tried has been impressive. Family and friends want me to open up a bakery, thanks to you, but I send them to your page so they can experience it for themselves.

  46. Susie

    Hi Gretchen! I noticed on the fudge icing recipe it says to add vegetable oil and corn syrup but the oil is not listed for ingredients. Is it a typo?
    Also, for the 1 cup vegan butter should it be at room temp or cold? Thanks for sharing all your wonderful recipes !

    • Gretchen

      Hi sorry for the late reply, and this confusion ~ I have been without electricity for 5 days and was not able to access anything online until today
      Thanks for pointing that out. I have updated the recipe and it is now correct.
      I think when some people were having that trouble with the separating from the coconut oil I think I tried veg oil?
      But I have since gone to all vegan butter and this is the formula that works for me.
      Here is the recipe for JUST the Fudge Icing it does have it’s own exclusive post (not attached to a cake or cupcakes or anything with a very short video showing JUST the mixing of the icing)

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