If you’re wanting to make a decadent cake but are limited on ingredients, this Vegan Chocolate Bundt Cake is the treat for you! It uses simple pantry staples, and requires no eggs or dairy!
Happy Tuesday! The first day of school has officially been survived, so to celebrate, I made Vegan Chocolate Cake. With a deep, dark chocolate glaze. And SPRINKLES! Wheee! My poor little best friend had her wisdom teeth removed a few days ago, and she has just been so miserable and unable to eat any solid food. Yesterday she went, “All I want to eat is chocolate cake! Is that such a bad thing?” So I thought, well… I can work with that. This cake is both a reward for starting school AND a sweet treat to help my friend feel better. And as a bonus, it’s vegan and absolutely, positively delicious.
This recipe is actually just my trusty vegan chocolate cake recipe, doubled and baked in a bundt pan for maximum ease and laziness! Bundt cakes are my favorite… all you have to do is bake them and the pan makes them pretty all by itself. Pour some glaze on top, add sprinkles, and you’ve got a party-ready dessert in under an hour! P.S. 45 minutes of that hour are just the cake baking away all by itself… easy-peasy. This is equally perfect as an after-school snack as it is for a casual gathering. It tastes like a cross between a rich chocolate cake and a brownie! Chocolatey perfection. All I really have to say is that vegans and non-vegans alike LOVE this cake, and nobody is going to miss the eggs or dairy milk or butter.
- *for the cake*
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups white granulated sugar
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1 cup water
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- 4 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- *for the glaze*
- ½ cup unsweetened canned coconut milk
- 1 cup Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips {or other vegan chocolate}
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Spray a bundt cake pan with nonstick spray, dust with flour, and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Add in the almond milk, water, and oil, and mix vigorously. Add in the vinegar and vanilla, and mix until well combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes.
- Let cake cool completely before removing from the pan.
- While the cake cools, make the glaze.
- Combine the coconut milk and chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat in 30 second intervals, mixing in-between, until the mixture is smooth and melted.
- Once cake is cooled, flip onto a plate and pour the glaze on top. Top with sprinkles and serve!
The cake looks incredible on its own – but that glaze! Takes it right over the top! Thanks for sharing this yumminess at the weekly Potluck!
How much salt should I be adding?
Hi Evelyn! You should add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I just added it to the recipe, thank you for pointing that out 🙂
Ghirardelli’s semisweet chocolate is not vegan as it contains milk fat in it….
Hi Sean! The label for the semisweet kind does not state that it contains milk fat specifically, just says it “May contain milk”. Depending on how strict of a vegan you are, that may or may not be acceptable. My vegan best friend regularly uses it. The bittersweet kind, however (60%) does specify milk fat. Hope this helps!
White vinegar like you put on fries? Not cider vinegar?
Yes ma’am! I use plain white vinegar because it has a higher acid content than apple cider vinegar, so it reacts more strongly with the baking soda to cause the cake to rise. You’re welcome to try the cider vinegar but the cake may not rise as much!
Once made, does it need to be stored in the fridge or can it sit on the counter over night?
I have left it on the counter without problems, just be sure to cover it with something! 🙂 You can refrigerate it if you want but I find that it makes it dried!
can I make it a few days ahead of time? Thank you!
Hi Mallory! The cake does stay pretty moist but I would recommend making it no sooner than 2 days before! I would wrap the cake up in plastic wrap to keep it soft and wait to add the glaze until serving 🙂
I made this yesterday and it tasted so salty I had to throw the whole thing away. I am not sure what went wrong. It looked amazing.
I am so sorry to hear that, Ruthie! I’ve made this many times and have never had it come out salty. Perhaps did you add in half a tablespoon of salt instead of half a teaspoon? Either way, I am so sorry it was a disappointment 🙁
I’ve made this dozens of times and never is it too salty. I also keep it in the fridge as I think it tastes way better Cold
I made this for my birthday on Friday and it came out great! I didn’t have white vinegar, but I used rice vinegar and it seemed to work really well. I would definitely make this again.
Thanks for your sweet comment, Molly! I’m glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
This cake came out great, very moist. I only had sweetened almond milk and I left it glazeless, but changed nothing else. It was even better the next day.
Thank you so much for your comment, Anca! I’m glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
I bake this cake a lot and it is always amazing and I always have a lot of positive responses. It is quite easy except you have to allow it to cool all the way before you flip it. This can take some time so don’t be in a hurry. Once I flipped it too early and have of the cake ended up on the floor. The cake was so good that my brother stated that he couldn’t believe I threw the half that fell on the floor away because he would have gladly eaten it.
Thank you so much for sharing, Simmi! I’m so glad that you’ve had so much success with this cake! That is too funny about your brother, but it really is too good to waste. 😉 I have also found that it needs to cool a bit before turning out of the pan. In my experience however, if it cools completely then it tends to stick for me! I guess it just takes a bit of trial and error to figure out what works best for your pan 🙂
Hi there, is there anything I can use in place of the sugar, to make it (almost) sugar free?
Thank you!
Hi Alison! Unfortunately I don’t have much experience with sugar-free baking. 🙁 I think your best bet would be to use stevia or another sugar substitute that is cup-for-cup so that the volume of the recipe isn’t thrown off. You could also use coconut sugar for a more natural option. Here is a page from a fellow blogger with some sugar substitute pointers- https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/how-to-substitute-sugar/
Best of luck! Let me know how it turns out!
Hi from London!! I discovered your recipe and gave it a go today. This is definitely the best chocolate cake I’ve ever made. My whole family love it!! The cake it self is very moist and not too sweet. and the glaze is so lovely and light. I feared it’d be sickly, but it is far from that.
Not to mention that it’s vegan! Definitely will be scrapping my old recipe!
Thankyou so much
Hello, thanks for a great recipe. I made this for my granddaughters 21st family tea and she loved it. We are not vegan but I am about to make two more for other events. It looks fabulous in the bunds tin and I had no problem buying chocolate that is milk free, I think it was 70% cocoa. We live in Tasmania, Australia. Kind regards
I’m excited to see this recipe as I need to make a cake suitable for both vegans and non-vegans, and as you say, a bundt looks gorgeous and doesn’t need frosting. I have a question- I am making this today, two days before the event. I’ll keep it in a cake dome in a cool place until then. Can I glaze it the night before or does it need to be done the same day? Thanks!
Hi Ruth-Ann! I am so excited that you’ll be making my cake! You can definitely glaze it the night before if you would like. If anything it will help keep the cake extra moist!
Thanks – great to hear! I guess it means it will ‘set’ and not stay “runny”?
It has just come out of the oven; my bundt is a bit larger than yours so I also made 7 cupcakes. I just tasted one – wow! That is some good cake! You’re right, if I didn’t make it myself I wouldn’t have believed it is vegan. Dark, moist, chocolate-y but not dense or heavy – perfect texture A definitely keeper for these situations (or when I want a cake and have no eggs!) – thanks for posting this. 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving (I’m in Canada).
I’m so glad to hear it came out well! It really is one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes. You’d never suspect it has no butter or eggs 🙂 And yes the glaze will thicken and set a bit but still be soft!
Thanks again – it was a hit!
Can I use coconut oil as a sub for the vegetable oil? I usually sub coconut for vegetable with no issues but I have not done this with a bundt cake.
I don’t usually comment on recipes unless they’re really bad or really good and this one is AMAZING. I made this to take to work, so I took a little scoop of batter and made a tester. My husband tried it and legitimately did not believe it was vegan (we are not vegans, but one of my co-workers is). I will definitely be making this again.
This cake is both easy to make and delicious. It is moist and dense and rich. I made it an a bundt pan this weekend for my mom’s birthday. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you so much for your comment, Shannon! I am so happy you guys liked it 🙂
Hi. I saw this post on pinterest, and I made the cake last night. Came out perfect. Great tasting, easy recipe. Thanks!
Thank you so much, Abby! I am glad you liked it 🙂
Love this cake so much I adapted it for Xmas, by using Tia Maria by splitting water half and half with the booze. I also added about 300 g of dark chocolate drops! I like it hot with ice cream.
What can I use instead unsweetened almond milk? Can I use whole milk?
Yes, you can use any kind of milk!
This turned out amazing. I baked it twice and friends loved it. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe.
This looks delicious. Have you ever tried making it ahead of time and freezing it?
Hi Claire! I don’t usually freeze my desserts so I have no idea how it would behave to be honest! It’s a really quick recipe to whip up though – I do recommend making it fresh for best results.