Chocolate Cake {Vegan, Dairy free, Soy free}

This is the easiest chocolate cake you will ever make!  Just as simple as opening up a boxed cake mix and much healthier!  Plus I bet you have all the necessary ingredients in your pantry right now!

Have you looked at the ingredients list from a Duncan Hines Classic Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix recently?  And don't think that Pilsbury or Betty Crocker's products are any better.
Ingredients- Duncan Hines Classic Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix

Sugar, Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil Shortening (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Propylene Glycol Mono- And Diesters Of Fats, Mono- And Diglycerides), Cocoa Powder Processed With Alkali, Dextrose, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate). Contains 2% Or Less Of: Wheat Starch, Salt, Polyglycerol Esters Of Fatty Acids, Cellulose Gum, Xanthan Gum.

The number one ingredient is sugar! Yes, my recipe has sugar too but not nearly as much. They use partially hydrogenated soybean oil which comes from GMO soybeans. There is large list of words that are hard to pronounce like 'propylene glycol mono- and diesters of fats, polyglycerol esters, and cellulose gum' just to name a few. I don't know about you but I do not have cellulose gum in my pantry!

Real food tastes good but is not laden with chemicals and GMO products!

Chocolate Cake

This recipe is adapted from the book The Joy of Vegan Baking.

1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1 TBS white distilled vinegar
1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly oil a Bundt pan or a 9-inch square cake pan.  Or if making cupcakes line a muffin pan with paper or silicone liners.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl.  Mix together vanilla, oil, vinegar, and water in a separate bowl.

Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  Mix in wet ingredients until just combined.

Pour into prepared pan.  Bake cake for 30 minutes.  Check cupcakes at 15 minutes as they cook much faster.

Makes one 9-inch cake or about 12 cupcakes.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

1/4 cup non-dairy, non-soy, non-hydrogenated butter, softened (Earth Balance soy-free)
1/4 cup palm oil shortening
3 cups powdered sugar (approximate, may need more)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp pure vanilla extra
3-4 TBS non-dairy milk (chocolate almond milk, plain almond milk, coconut milk)

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and shortening until smooth.  Add in cocoa power and vanilla.  Then add in powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing at low speed until smooth.  Add in the non-dairy milk one tablespoon at a time mixing at high speed until the frosting is light a fluffy.

Allow cake to fully cook before frosting.  Store unused frosting in the refrigerator.



Allergy tip-  Freeze extra frosted cupcakes in individual plastic containers for a quick treat for class parties or birthday celebrations.  Cupcakes defrost quickly at room temperature.