Vegan Birthday Cake

Vegan chocolate cake with Swedish pearl sugar for decoration.

Everyone deserves a cake on their birthday — even vegans.

I've been planning on making a chocolate cake for my vegan friend Sarah's birthday for a while. After a few weeks of research, I found the perfect recipe. A rich chocolate cake with no hard to find and expensive special vegan ingredients.

A bonus is that it's quick and easy to make. You bake it in a glass baking dish, pour on a chocolate glaze and it's ready to serve.

I found the recipe on the internet with the title: "The BEST chocolate cake ever...that happens to be VEGAN. I kid you not!"

The recipe had lots of positive comments and recommendations.  I'm so glad I gave it a try. The only major change I've made to the original recipe is that I've doubled it because the original recipe made only a single layer 8x8 cake. That's not enough for a birthday celebration!


Vegan Chocolate Cake
Cake Ingredients
2 1/2 cups flour
2 cup sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cup warm water
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar

Chocolate Glaze
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine
4 tbsp soy milk
4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 glass baking dish.  In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add the water, vanilla, oil, and vinegar, and mix well. Pour into the baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Cool on a rack completely (2 hours).

The cake just out of the oven.

For the glaze, in a saucepan, bring sugar, margarine, milk, and cocoa to a boil. Stir frequently; then reduce heat to a simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir for another 5 minutes.

Add vanilla, stir, and immediately pour over cake. The glaze dries quickly so spread it immediately and add any sprinkles now. Let the cake cool for at least an hour before serving.                          

The cake after glazing.