Hey there chocolate lover! I baked this Back to school vegan chocolate cake two weeks ago when school began here in Finland. It was an emotional kind of “back to school” for us, as it was the start of First grade for my daughter. Oh the emotions! She seemed to be more relaxed about the start than me, but also loved to see me fussing around and baking a cake to celebrate the important day.
If you want to read this post in Finnish, click here.
How to make a delicious vegan chocolate cake?
The original recipe for this delicious cake is in my vegan baking book, Herkkuja – Sweet treats (published in Finland in 2018). It looked very different in the book: I made a Sacher cake parfait! This cake is perfect as a Sacher cake as it contains apricot jam – the jam used between the original Sacher Torte. 
Two delicious ingredients
Apricot jam is one of my secrets to making a delicious vegan chocolate cake.
The second is more common: melted dark chocolate.
But these two mixed together is just pure heaven! Apricot jam and melted dark chocolate makes this cake a pretty unique sweet treat. Because of this magical combo, no extra oil is needed to make the cake moist.
And a special frosting too!
The frosting is made with coconut butter as the main ingredient. It’s soft and spreads into a nice thick chocolatey layer.
Although not visible in the photos, we always eat this cake with cream. It’s just something that goes together without a question: chocolate cake & whipped cream ♥
Have fun decorating the cake
Berries are a great chocolate cake topping, but unfortunately berry season is soon over. Berries from the freezer might look beautifully frosty in a photo for a few minutes, but they make quite a messy cake topping when they start melting.
I hope you will try this cake when it’s still berry season so you can have fun decorating the cake. Just use different berries in each cake piece. Looks fun and tastes delicious!
How to make this chocolate cake into a Sacher Torte?
As mentioned before, originally I created this recipe as a Sacher Torte: a beautiful rich chocolate cake with apricot jam. You can try it too: bake the sheet cake as instructed below, add apricot jam on top when the cake has cooled down and then melt a layer of dark chocolate on top! Enjoy with vegan whipped cream for a more authentic feel.
Happy cake day from the forest!
♥ Tiina
- Chocolate cake
- 1,5 dl / 0,6 cups plant-based milk (almond or oat milk works well)
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 dl / 0,4 cups almond flour
- 2 dl / 0,8 cups spelt flour
- 2 dl / 0,8 cups coconut sugar
- 1,5 tsp baking powder
- 0,5 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ tsp salt
- 100 g / 3,5 oz dark chocolate
- 1 dl / 0,4 cups apricot jam
- Frosting:
- 1,5 dl / 0,6 cups coconut butter
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 5 tbsp plant-based milk (almond or oat milk works well)
- 1,5 tbsp cocoa powder
- ¼ tsp vanilla
- pinch of salt
- Toppings: whipped cream and berries or other fruit.
- Preheat oven to 180 C / 356 F.
- Line a baking tin with parchment paper. I used a 28 x 18 cm baking tin.
- Combine plant-based milk and apple cider vinegar and let set for about 5 minutes.
- Mix almond and spelt flour, baking powder and soda, vanilla and salt.
- Melt dark chocolate until it's totally liquid.
- Add milk-ACV mixture and apricot jam to the dry ingredients and mix the melted dark chocolate in the batter.
- Pour the batter into the baking tin and bake for about 35 min or until toothpick test comes out clean.
- For the frosting: melt coconut butter and mix in all the ingredients. Add more milk if needed. The frosting should be totally smooth and easily spreadable.
- Add the frosting to the cake while it's still hot from the oven.
- Enjoy the cake with plant-based whipped cream (coconut, soy, oat based) and berries or whatever fruit you prefer 🙂
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