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Chocolate Mud Cake

Meet your new favourite chocolate cake recipe! This vegan chocolate mud cake is a crowd-pleaser and simple to make. It’s rich, fudgy and moist with a creamy 2-ingredient chocolate fudge frosting that will satisfy all your chocolate cravings.
If you need to make this recipe gluten-free, swap the plain flour for a high quality gluten-free plain flour blend and just make sure your dark chocolate is also gluten-free.
In our household, this recipe has become our go-to cake for birthdays, celebrations and dinner-parties (and random Wednesday’s where we need a chocolate boost to help get us through the rest of the week) as it is so delicious and looks incredible.
We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine vegan

Ingredients
  

Cake:

  • 2,5 dl plant-based milk we used cashew milk
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 163 g unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1,20 dl olive oil coconut or sunflower oil will also work fine
  • 250 g plain all-purpose flour
  • 350 g cups caster sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 ½ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt yes, the whole teaspoon!
  • 65 g cocoa powder
  • 2,50 dl boiling water

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

  • 200 g vegan dark chocolate broken or chopped into small pieces
  • 4 dl full-fat coconut milk see notes

Instructions
 

  • Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Grease and line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper.
  • Combine milk, vinegar, vanilla, applesauce and oil in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
  • Sift all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Whisk well to combine.
  • Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and whisk until well incorporated and no visible lumps.
  • Pour the boiling water into the mix and carefully whisk together. The mixture will be quite runny.
  • Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, prepare your frosting using the recipe below.
  • Add chocolate and cream into a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl.
  • Microwave on medium-high setting for 1 minute. Stir until any remaining chocolate pieces have melted into the mix. If lumps of chocolate remain, microwave the mixture for another 30 second burst and then stir again.
  • Once smooth, put the bowl into the fridge for 1 hour or until frosting can still be stirred but has stiffened to the consistency of a thick mousse.
  • Using an electric beater, mix the frosting for 2-3 minutes until it’s light, fluffy and the consistency of whipped cream. If the frosting has gotten a little too cold in the fridge, microwave it for 15 seconds to soften or add a dash of coconut milk. Then try mixing again.
  • Carefully remove the cakes from the pans once cool. Sandwich them together with a spoonful of the chocolate frosting and spread the remaining frosting evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Enjoy!

Video

Notes

For the frosting, when measuring your coconut milk, use only the hardened coconut cream at the top of the can. You will probably need to open 2 x 400ml cans to measure out enough cream. You can save the coconut water for a smoothie.
You can use this recipe to make 24 cupcakes instead of one large cake, if you would prefer.
Keyword affordable, cake, easy, tasty
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!