Desserts and Pastries

Name: Chai Spice Cake (Vegan, Soy-Free, Nut-Free, One-Bowl)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 1 10", 2 8", 3 6" cakes, or 24 cupcakes
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 4 cups all purpose flour (480g); 2 cups sugar (400g); 2 tsp baking soda (bicarb) (12g); 1 tsp salt (6g); 5 chai tea bags (10 if you don't have a spice/coffee grinder); 2 tsp vanilla extract (10ml); 2 tbsp vinegar (30ml); 3/4 cup of vegan butter/margarine, melted (you can use oil, see notes below) (175ml); 2 cups plant milk, hot (475ml)

Chai Spice Cake (Vegan, Soy-Free, Nut-Free, One-Bowl)

November 8, 2019 // by Meggan Leal// Leave a Comment

Pumpkin spice needs to move over, because chai is the fall flavor that is going to fill you with autumnal warmth this year! Warm Indian spices including cinnamon, cardamom, anise, and black pepper turn my favorite hot latte from beverage to show stopping dessert.

Chai Spice?

First off, what the heck is chai?

Well, chai is my favorite tea! Lol. But it’s so much more than that. It’s funny because the word chai actually means tea in India. So my favorite flavor of tea is.. tea. In India this would be known as masala chai – which simply means mixed spiced tea.

But unlike here in the United States, tea in India isn’t just some black tea steeped in hot water – it’s full of warming aromatic spices, and prepared with hot milk and is served sweetened – hence it being masala – or mixed spices.

The spices used can vary, but generally include cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and star anise. I love the ones that also include ginger and black pepper. Some have orange peel and vanilla added. Even coriander and fennel can make appearances! And then of course, there is tea – black tea.

I love chai tea. But I do not mix my own. And I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on it here – because I’m not. I don’t even know 1/10th of 1% of Indian cuisine or culture or the significance of these ingredients to the wonderful people of the country.

I also don’t know anything about tea. What kinds of tea leaves? Heck if I know. Black. Lol. I also like green tea and jasmine tea. And hibiscus tea is wonderful! Those aren’t usually used in Indian teas as far as I know, but that’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge there.

But I love chai tea.

If you want to learn more about Indian tea and how to prepare it authentically, my friend Anushree has an amazing food blog with a great post containing everything you could want to know about it. Head on over there if you want to give it a shot yourself. 🙂

So how am I going to make chai spiced cake if you’re not going to teach me how to make chai spice?!

Good question!

I let the experts do the mixing.

I buy chai tea from the store. I make some, with almond or oat milk, I sweeten it with a little sugar. And I judge – usually not harshly, because apparently I love all chai teas that exist on the market. And if I like the chai tea I’m drinking, I will use those tea bags in my chai spiced cake. With the same milk I used to prepare my tea, and the same sugar I used to sweeten it.

I literally transform my chai tea latte into a cake. And now you can too!

The Ingredients

The ingredients here are pretty simple and straight forward; nothing too fancy or hard to find.

Flour. The flour I use here is all purpose wheat flour. Not self-rising, not cake flour, not bread flour, not any of that. Just plain ole AP flour. You can substitute your favorite gluten-free alternative if you’d like – Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour is my favorite. The longer the name, the better the results. 😉 Follow the instructions on the bag.
Sugar. I use Zulka brand granulated sugar. It’s the same as traditional white granulated sugar, but it hasn’t been filtered through bone char – meaning it’s vegan (that’s right, most American sugars aren’t vegan). It has a slight amber color and gorgeous caramel notes in the flavor. You can use whatever your favorite granulated sugar is, though.
Baking soda. Also known as bicarbonate or bicarb, it’s much more than just for deodorizing you’re freezer or adding to toothpaste! And it is NOT the same thing as baking powder. So make sure to use soda and not powder here (that’s the number one mistake made in my recipes).
Salt. Use whatever. I add it to enhance the flavors and balance out the sweetness a bit. Pink, white, sea, kosher – pick your poison. You could even use black salt if you wanted to give the cake a bit of an eggy taste.
Chai tea! Like I said above, I use the same bags for cake making as I enjoy for drinking.
Milk. Whichever plant milk is your favorite will probably do great here. I love using almond milk and soy milk in my cakes – so I choose based on whether my clients want to avoid one or the other. I opt for unsweetened vanilla to amp up that flavor.
Vinegar. Any vinegar will do! I use white because it’s cheap, but I’ve also used apple cider vinegar and rice wine vinegar in a pinch. And if you can’t have vinegar, use lemon or lime juice! All we are looking for is an acid to react with the baking soda to fill our cake with tiny bubbles – turning it into a sponge.
Vanilla. Whatever your favorite is – either real or synthetic, just make sure it’s not made with beaver butts. Yes, you read that right.
Butter/oil. For cakes that will be stacked or carved, I recommend using your favorite vegan butter. It will give your cake a firmer structure allowing you to manipulate it without it falling apart on you. For cupcakes, oil is wonderful for giving them a light and airy texture – not great for stacking and carving, but perfect for cupcakes!

The Method

The first thing you’re going to do is pick out a chai tea that you like to drink. The best way to figure this out is to buy some, make it, and drink it. And my favorite way to do this is to steep it in hot almond or oat milk with a touch of sugar added.

Love the H-E-B brand Chai, but if you’re not fortunate enough to have an H-E-B near you, I really like the Stash brand Double Chai, as well (it’s made with cinnamon and clove oil that pops really well in the cake, though it doesn’t contain black pepper – so add some if you want it spicier).

One batch of this recipe is going to take five tea bags worth of tea. So get five envelopes out, rip em open, and pull the bags out.

Using a pair of scissors, snip off the top of each bag. Keep in mind that the tea bag might actually just be a folded tube, so make sure you hold on tight or you’ll make a big mess! Once you snip one, dump the contents into a coffee/spice grinder before moving on to the next.

If you don’t have a grinder, that’s fine – just dump the tea into your flour mixture as is. Your cake will just have larger flecks instead of a smoother color. And if you don’t want to do that, then steep ten bags in your hot milk instead.

Once you’ve unloaded the contents of your five tea bags into the grinder, give it one nice sniff before closing it and buzzing it into a fine powder.

After grinding the tea, I advise letting it settle in the grinder for at least five to ten minutes before attempting to open it. It’s going to be a spicy cloud that will likely make you cough and gag if you open it before that. Direct inhalation of cinnamon and black pepper is never a good thing, people.

In the meantime, whisk your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl – that would be your flour, sugar (yes, it counts as a dry ingredient in whacky cake recipes – which this is), baking SODA, and salt.

Once you’ve mixed your dry ingredients together and your chai powder has had the chance to settle, dump the contents of the grinder into your bowl.

Gently whisk your chai powder into your dry mix until it’s well combined.

Once your chai and dry are combined, make three wells in the mixture – one large and two small. Into the first small well, pour in your vanilla. The second small one will get your vinegar. And the large well is going to get your melted butter or oil.

Do not mix, yet!

Once you’ve made and filled your three wells, pour your hot milk over the entire bowl.

Gently stir the hot milk into your dry mixture until it’s just combined and you don’t see any dry patches anywhere.

Pour your batter into prepared cake pans or cupcake tins.

Bake cakes at 325F (162C) for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out dry (the time will depend on the size and depth of your cake pans, as well as your individual oven). Cupcakes take around 17 minutes.

Let the cake cool completely before decorating with your preferred frosting. My favorite is my American Meringue Buttercream with 12 drops of LorAnn lavender oil added.

The cake can be stored covered at room temperature for up to a week, or wrapped well (double wrapped in plastic film) and frozen for up to six months.

Pin It!

Whacky Cake Recipe Tutorial Video:

This video is for my chocolate whacky cake, but the process is the same – just using chai tea powder instead of cocoa powder and hot milk instead of coffee.

Recipe:

Yield: 1 10", 2 8", 3 6" cakes, or 24 cupcakes

Chai Spice Cake (Vegan, Soy-Free, Nut-Free, One-Bowl)

Pumpkin spice needs to move over, because this is the fall flavor that is going to fill you with autumnal warmth this year! Warm Indian spices including cinnamon, cardamom, anise, and black pepper turn my favorite hot latte from beverage to show stopping dessert.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 55 minutes

Ingredients

4 cups all purpose flour (480g)
2 cups sugar (400g)
2 tsp baking soda (bicarb) (12g)
1 tsp salt (6g)
5 chai tea bags (10 if you don't have a spice/coffee grinder)
2 tsp vanilla extract (10ml)
2 tbsp vinegar (30ml)
3/4 cup of vegan butter/margarine, melted (you can use oil, see notes below) (175ml)
2 cups plant milk, hot (475ml)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 325F (162C)
Prepare your cake pans with nonstick spray and parchment paper circles on the bottom
Empty the contents of your tea bags into a coffee/spice grinder and blitz until it's a fine powder and let it rest for five minutes without opening (see recipe notes if you don't have a grinder)
Whisk together your flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl
Gently stir your chai tea powder into the dry mix
Create three deep wells in your dry mix
To the first well, add your vanilla. To the second, add the vinegar. To the third, add the melted butter/oil
Pour your hot milk over the entire mixture
Gently whisk or fold your batter until it's well combined and no dry bits remain
Divide your batter evenly among your prepared pans
Bake for 45 minutes or until you insert a toothpick into the center of the cake and it comes out clean (cupcakes only need about 17 minutes)
Remove your cakes from the oven to a cooling rack. Let it sit in the cake pan for five minutes before turning it out. Let cool completely before frosting.

Notes

*This can be made with your favourite cup-for-cup gluten-free flour if you want to make a wheat-free version.

*For a no-sugar-added version, use a cup-for-cup Stevia baking blend in place of the granulated sugar.

*Using melted butter is recommended for stacked or carved cakes. Oil is best for cupcakes as it results in a fluffier texture.

*For soy-free, use melted Country Crock Plant Butter sticks (avoiding the almond one if you have a nut allergy) or Miyoko’s butter if you’d like to also avoid palm-oil. Or use a non-soy oil instead.

*If you don't have a coffee/spice grinder, feel free to add the contents of the tea bags as is to the dry mix. It will leave larger flecks in the finished cake and won't give you as a smooth of a color. If you still want a smooth color, try steeping ten tea bags in your hot milk instead of grinding the contents of five.

Allergy-Friendly and Vegan Pastry Recipes:

Never miss a post

We promise to never spam you or sell your info.

American Meringue Buttercream (vegan)

October 28, 2019 // by Meggan Leal// 14 Comments

This frosting is quick, it’s easy, it’s no-cook, and just so happens to be vegan. It’s American Buttercream’s less teeth-shatteringly sweet, more refined, and just as perfectly versatile meringue cousin. Dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free, it’s allergy friendly and you’ll love working with it. Plus, the flavor and texture will have everyone who tastes it in awe.

While American Buttercream may be the quickest and easiest of the buttercreams to make, many people find it to be sickeningly sweet because it’s the sugar that gives it structure and body – and it takes quite a lot. So what could we possibly do to it to make that not the case?

Enter aquafaba.

Tips&Tricks Square — I usually use garbanzo/chickpea aquafaba – but any one will do!

Aquafaba is legume (beans, lentils, soy, peas, etc.) cooking or canning liquid – and it is the vegan egg white replacement for perfect meringues. It can be used to make macarons and top meringue pies, and even perfect little meringue cookies and royal icing. And it gets treated just like egg whites do in all of the meringue recipes out there.

And there are some amazing recipes by amazing bloggers for vegan meringue buttercreams like this recipe by Gretchen’s Vegan Bakery which is DELICIOUS and AMAZING, but they all involve a pan on the stove and I’m honestly quite lazy and don’t like to dirty extra dishes or turn the stove on unless I absolutely have to. So I had an idea.

Weighing sugar to make syrup. The bane of my existence.

One day, while making my easy vegan buttercream, I wondered how I could lower the sugar amount but still maintain structure within the frosting.. And I’ve made enough aquafaba meringue to know it COULD provide structure, but was worried it might deflate if I added it to a bunch of fat. Fats and oils kill meringue faster than you can blink your eyes, in case you didn’t know. Plus, aquafaba meringue usually deflates over time unless it’s stablized with something like agar agar. If you don’t add a stabilizer, it starts to melt and get weepy, and NO ONE wants a soggy cake due to deflating meringue.

But I decided to give it a chance anyway, and I did it the lazy way; I just cracked open a can of beans and dumped the liquid straight into the buttercream.

AND IT WORKED. WONDERFULLY. PERFECTLY. MIRACULOUSLY.

Smooooooth.

It fluffs up gorgeously, provides a silky texture and beautiful sheen to the buttercream, and takes the place of a whole bunch of sugar so that the frosting is only about half as sweet as what my original American buttercream recipe is.

Even being a meringue buttercream, it’s still stable enough to go between cake layers or macarons and not squish or slide out everywhere.

This cake traveled an hour by car, was unloaded and reloaded multiple times, and sat in 75-80° F heat for over three hours and did great! It was filled and frosted with American meringue buttercream.

It doesn’t deflate or weep, and colors and takes on flavors like a dream. And if you want a denser meringue, you can totally reduce your aquafaba down before adding it (I don’t because I’m happy with the way it is and I don’t want to dirty extra dishes).

If you want to check out some gorgeous cakes that use buttercream employing this method, check out @justsomethingfancy on Instagram – while she doesn’t use my exact recipe (because I’m just publishing it now, lol) she does add reduced aquafaba to her buttercream to make it lighter, fluffier, and less sweet.

Pin It!

Pinterest image featuring cupcakes topped with smooth, white, meringue buttercream

As far as butters go, take a look at my Easiest Vegan Buttercream Ever post to check out which ones work and how to make the ones that don’t bend to your will.

So without further ado….

The Recipe

Yield: Enough to generously fill and frost an 8" cake

American Meringue Buttercream (vegan)

No thermometers, no cooking, no weighing, no timing, no fuss. The easiest meringue buttercream to ever exist - thanks to aquafaba. And it just so happens to be vegan. Smooth, pipeable, delicious, and super simple to make.

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups (4 sticks, 450g) vegan butter*, softened
5 cups (550g) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2ish c (125ml) aquafaba**

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream your butter on low speed until lighter in color and smooth, then turn off mixer.
Add all the powdered sugar and mix on low speed until completely incorporated. Turn off mixer.
Add in your vanilla and aquafaba and mix on medium high for five to ten minutes, until your preferred level of fluffiness has been achieved. Keep in mind that the fluffier it gets, the less weight the buttercream will be able to hold. I usually go about five minutes.
Mix on low/stir speed for five minutes to get rid of bubbles.

Notes

* Country Crock, Earth Balance, Miyoko's, or equivalent. For more on vegan butters and how to make them work for you, see my post over here.

** I add my aquafaba straight from the can - no reducing. Feel free to reduce yours first if you want, though.

*** The perfect amount of aquafaba to use depends on your climate, your tastes, and your needs. If your buttercream feels too soft, reduce the aquafaba to about 1/3c and/or reduce whipping time. You can also add extra powdered sugar to stiffen it.

Allergy-Friendly and Vegan Pastry Recipes:

Never miss a post

We promise to never spam you or sell your info.

Chili Lime American Buttercream (vegan, soy-free)

October 15, 2019 // by Meggan Leal// Leave a Comment

This buttercream not only has an addictive spicy kick, but its tangy sweetness will have you looking for new and creative combinations and vehicles for getting it from bowl to mouth. It’s dairy-free, vegan, soy-free as long as you use the recommended ingredients, and I won’t tell anyone if you accidentally make a double batch.

Best coupled with fruit flavored confections, it uses fresh key lime juice in place of your usual cream or milk as well as the vanilla in American buttercream. I like to add yellow coloring to mine, since I most often pair it with mango smoothie cake for my famous Mangonada Cake and Mangonada Macarons. If you want to avoid dyes, use turmeric to turn it vivid yellow!

For the fruit chili powder, Trechas is my favorite brand (when I lived in Mexico, my host families only used Trechas brand, so that’s all I buy, now). If you’re wanting to avoid sugar or dyes, Tajin is a great choice as well.

And as far as butter goes, I use Country Crock Plant Butter sticks now, and it’s what I recommend. If you don’t have access to it or want to use something else, check out this post that covers vegan butters and how to make them work for your buttercream.

Video Tutorial

My buttercream tutorial on YouTube for the visual learners

Recipe

Yield: 2 cups (enough to frost a two-layer 6” cake)

Vegan Chili Lime Buttercream

The easiest vegan buttercream you’ve ever made - in sabor loco chili-lime! Four ingredients and ten minutes gets you perfectly pipe-able frosting for any confection that needs a spicy-sweet punch of tangy Mexican flavor!

Prep Time 1 minute

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 11 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup room temp high-fat vegan butter* (two sticks)(I prefer Country Crock Plant Butter sticks for best and soy-free results)
3 cups powdered sugar (use Swerve Confectioner’s for a sugar-free version)
2 tbsp + 1 tsp lime juice
1-2 tsp chili lime fruit seasoning
Yellow gel food color

Instructions

Add butter and two cups of powdered sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with the paddle attachment
Mix on low/stir until completely incorporated
Add the final cup of the powdered sugar and chili lime seasoning, and mix again on low/stir until completely incorporated
Add your lime juice
Mix on low until completely incorporated
Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of your bowl
Mix on low just until the mixture is fully combined and smooth
Adjust the consistency by adding more juice by the teaspoon to thin, or more powdered sugar by the quarter cup to stiffen until desired consistency is reached

Notes

*For more info on vegan butters to use, check out my post at www.cookingoncaffeine.com/easiest-vegan-buttercream-ever

*If you use shortening, whip the mixture for 15 minutes or until it no longer has a greasy/waxy mouthfeel

*if you want the buttercream as silky smooth as possible, turn the mixer on low/stir and let it go for about a half an hour after you’re done mixing it

*for butter without palm oil, give Miyoko’s cultured butter a try

*for butter without soy, use Country Crock Plant Butter Sticks, Earth Balance Soy-Free, or Miyoko’s cultured butter.

*feel free to sift your powdered sugar if it’s very lumpy

*for crusting buttercream, add another one to two tablespoons of liquid, and use powdered sugar to bring back to consistency

Allergy-Friendly and Vegan Pastry Recipes:

Never miss a post

We promise to never spam you or sell your info.

Mangonada Cake with Chili Lime Buttercream (vegan, soy-free)

October 15, 2019 // by Meggan Leal// Leave a Comment

This Mangonada Cake was inspired by the classic Mexican street snack! It’s a sweet cake made from natural mango purée with sweet, tangy, and spicy chili lime buttercream, accented with chamoy and adorned with Mexican spicy candy, this cake is addictive in all the right ways! It’s also totally dairy-free, egg-free, and soy-free if you use the recommended products. It can be modified to be gluten-free and no-added-sugar, as well. And it makes darn good cupcakes for those who don’t like to do cakes!

By far, this is my most popular cake flavor sold out of my little vegan cottage bakery in Texas.

Mangonada?

So what is a mangonada? A mangonada (also known as a chamoyada or chamango depending on what part of Mexico you’re in) is frozen mango blended up with ice and served with chamoy sauce (explained below), chili powder, lime juice, and usually a tamarind-covered straw.

There’s just about nothing better on a crazy hot summer day.

The Components

The body of the cake is made with the mango version of my fruit smoothie cake. I use mango-peach Koolaid powder to really up the ante flavor-wise, but you can omit this if you’re wanting to go au natural.

The frosting is my chili-lime version of my easiest vegan buttercream ever. I use fresh squeezed key lime juice as the “liquid” addition as well as in place of the vanilla, and add a teaspoon of Mexican fruit chili seasoning with the powdered sugar. Trechas is my favorite commercial brand (and Tajin is wonderful if you want to avoid added sugar), but feel free to use whatever you prefer or even make your own! (And make sure you try it on your favorite fruit if you never have before!).

I dye frosting bright yellow and/or orange with Americolor lemon yellow and super red gels, or use turmeric for those seeking a dye-free delight.

Apart from the buttercream between each layer, I also add a healthy amount of chamoy. If you’re not Hispanic or haven’t been exposed to a lot of Mexican food, you may not know what that is.. so, what is chamoy?

Chamoy is a glorious sauce made from concentrated fruit (usually plums) with chili and salt, and no mangonada is complete without it. It’s tangy, sweet, spicy, and all round wonderful. It’s used on fruit most of the time, but it gives this cake a wonderful, exotic kick! Its deep maroon color is also beautiful against the brilliant yellow frosting. My favorite is a brand I recently discovered called Joy Chamoy – it’s made just a few miles from where I live and it’s the most flavorful variety I’ve tasted!

If you prefer to order from Amazon, you can grab this variety and it will taste great as well.

I brush it directly on top of each layer of leveled cake – like one would a sugar syrup – before a healthy layer of buttercream and the next cake on top.

The Construction

So this cake is, from the bottom up, mango cake – chamoy – chili lime buttercream – mango cake – chamoy – chili lime buttercream, as many layers as your heart desires. Then I cover the whole cake in the chili lime buttercream, pipe some sort of decoration in the buttercream on top (usually swirls or rosettes), and pour more chamoy all over the cake.

Watch me make it in this quick timelapse:

As the final touch, the cake gets adorned with spicy Mexican candy and another generous sprinkling of the fruit chili.

Just the Cupcakes, Ma’am.

For cupcakes instead of cake, just do the swirl of frosting, chamoy drizzle, chili sprinkle, then the candy on top. I’ve even served them with the chamoy inside a pipette instead of drizzled (for less mess during transport and sale).

You should be able to find the chamoy, fruit chili, and Mexican candies at your local Hispanic grocery or aisle, otherwise click on my links to find them on Amazon.

If you want to avoid the candy on the cake, it can definitely be served without. Try substituting dehydrated mango slices instead! Even better if you can find the chili lime variety!

The cake can be made up to five days before serving, but wait to put the chamoy and candy on until just before the cake is presented, though – as they can melt with the buttercream.

That’s it! It looks complicated, but once you have all the ingredients in order, it comes together easy peasy. And if you’ve ever had the privilege of enjoying a cool mangonada, hopefully this mangonada cake will bring back great memories!

Yield: 1 10” or 2 8” or 3 6” cakes or 24 cupcakes

Mangonada Fruit Smoothie Cake

The yummiest mango-flavored cake recipe ever. Made with mango as the first ingredient, it’s super allergy-friendly, oil-free, has a surprisingly delicious spicy kick, and can be made with no added sugar and gluten-free as well.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

2.5 cups mango purée (540g)
2 cups sugar (400g)
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
5 tablespoons hot water
———
3.5 cups flour (440g)
2 teaspoons baking SODA (bicarb)
1 packet of Peach Mango Koolaid Powder (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 c chamoy

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 325°F (160°C) and prepare your cake pans (I like to use nonstick spray and a parchment paper circle inside the bottom).
Prepare your flax eggs by mixing the ground flax and hot water in a small bowl or cup (1 tbsp of flax + 2.5 tbsp water = one flax egg - so you’re making two eggs here. Also, using hot water speeds up the process). Set aside.
Add your flour, baking soda, salt, and KoolAid powder to a medium mixing bowl. Sift or whisk if you’d like.
Add your mango purée and sugar to a large mixing bowl.
Add your flax egg to the fruit/sugar once it’s goopy - after about ten minutes.
Pour your dry ingredients into the wet, and fold them together using a silicone spatula until the batter doesn’t have any dry bits. Don’t stir! Fold!
Pour half of the batter equally into your prepared pans.
Drizzle equal parts of chamoy into each pan
Pour the remaining batter equally into each pan
Use a toothpick or knife to swirl the chamoy around
Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (Cupcakes take about 17 minutes)
Proceed as usual and enjoy your cake!

Notes

*Use cup-for-cup stevia if you'd like to avoid added sugar, and substitute the chamoy with reduced prune juice with cayenne to taste.
*Use a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour replacement if you'd like to avoid gluten

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 148 Total Fat: 1g Saturated Fat: 0g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 1g Cholesterol: 8mg Sodium: 153mg Carbohydrates: 33g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 18g Protein: 2g

This nutrition information has been calculated based on the recipe as written and with strawberry purée. These values will change if you alter the recipe.

Yield: 2 cups (enough to frost a two-layer 6” cake)

Vegan Chili Lime Buttercream

Prep Time 1 minute

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 11 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup room temp high-fat vegan butter* (two sticks)(I prefer Country Crock Plant Butter sticks for best and soy-free results)
3 cups powdered sugar (use Swerve Confectioner’s for a sugar-free version)
2 tbsp + 1 tsp lime juice
1-2 tsp chili lime fruit seasoning
Yellow gel food color

Instructions

Add butter and two cups of powdered sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with the paddle attachment
Mix on low/stir until completely incorporated
Add the final cup of the powdered sugar and chili lime seasoning, and mix again on low/stir until completely incorporated
Add your lime juice
Mix on low until completely incorporated
Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of your bowl
Mix on low just until the mixture is fully combined and smooth
Adjust the consistency by adding more juice by the teaspoon to thin, or more powdered sugar by the quarter cup to stiffen until desired consistency is reached

Notes

*For more info on vegan butters to use, check out my post at www.cookingoncaffeine.com/easiest-vegan-buttercream-ever

*for butter without palm oil, give Miyoko’s cultured butter a try

*for butter without soy, use Country Crock Plant Butter Sticks, Earth Balance Soy-Free, or Miyoko’s cultured butter.

*feel free to sift your powdered sugar if it’s very lumpy

*for crusting buttercream, add another one to two tablespoons of liquid, and use powdered sugar to bring back to consistency

Allergy-Friendly and Vegan Pastry Recipes:

Never miss a post

We promise to never spam you or sell your info.

Easiest Vegan Buttercream Ever (Dairy & Soy Free)

October 3, 2019 // by Meggan Leal// 2 Comments

This vegan buttercream is so easy, it should be a crime. Really. The stand mixer does all the work, and in about ten minutes (less if you don’t care about it being super silky smooth) you’ve got delicious, crave-worthy, allergy-friendly, infinitely customizable, perfectly pipe-able frosting to use on all your cakes, macarons, cookies, cinnamon rolls, and other confections.

It’s an American buttercream, but this icing is so good that I’ve sold it by the bucketful and even offered it as 2oz “frosting shots” to a begging and drooling clientele.

It CAN be made with just a hand mixer (if that’s all you’ve got), and it can also be turned into a “crusting buttercream” if you need that for your creation – just see the notes in the recipe.

Yes, it’s a weird photo. I acknowledge that.

Vegan Butter?

Yeah, yeah, I know. “It’s not actually butter because it’s not made from dairy,” say the purists. Well, neither is peanut butter or apple butter, so let’s just go with it here. If it really bothers you *that* much, just imagine I’m calling it margarine.

Now, for this to be the “Easiest Vegan Buttercream Ever” you need a good quality, high fat butter. Most vegan butters are actually mostly water – so when they’re room temperature, they are EXTREMELY soft. The tell tale sign of this is if it calls itself a “spread”. These will not work well in this recipe.

Two good options for this recipe would be Earth Balance sticks and Country Crock Plant Butter (my personal preference). If you have another butter that’s at least 79-80% oil/fat though, it should be fine. Miyoko’s cultured butter should work well based on accounts I’ve read of it, but I’ve never tried it myself as the exclusive fat in a buttercream.

If you’re in Australia, Lis Armstrong of Treat Dreams, which specializes in vegan chocolates, treats, and desserts, advises that Nuttelex is a good choice. “For the oil percentage in Nuttelex it depends if you’re buying retail or food service…” She adds, “Retail sizes available from most grocers like Aldi (best price), Coles, Woolies and Costco (5kg tubs).

Food service comes in a 15kg box with plastic liner. It has a higher fat content of 80% and is used by some commercial bakeries in Sydney to produce vegan croissants.

Even with the food service version, melt is a factor in the warmth, so a little shortening can help, so personal trial and error really pays off.”

What if I can’t find a high-fat butter?

Great question. If you can’t find a vegan butter with a fat content of 79-80% or more, I have had success with Smart Balance (64% fat) for frosting cupcakes. Note that the buttercream will be EXTREMELY soft, and won’t hold up in between cake layers or macarons. But for cupcakes and frosting shots, it’s wonderful.

Another option is to cut your butter with veggie shortening or straight palm oil. I usually use a 50/50 ratio for easy maths’ sake. If you go this route, it won’t be the “easiest” anymore, as it’ll take an extra step and a good chunk of time, but it’ll still come out just as high quality and delicious as the full butter version (yes, I promise).

Don’t want to use shortening? There is another, final option. It’s going to take some time, and you’ll feel like you’re wasting money, but it’s a viable option for those who don’t have vegan shortening options OR high-fat vegan butter available (I’m looking at you, South Africa!) – you’re going to make your own.

You can definitely make your own butter from scratch if you feel like it, but I never do. So what is my alternative route? I cook the water out of my high-water butter and it suddenly turns high-fat.

Put your delicious-but-too-soft butter into a shallow pan and melt it. Let it cook over medium heat until it starts to boil, and let it go until it stops bubbling. You’ll be left with nearly 100% fat that’ll work great in your buttercream! Just pour it (carefully! It’s hot oil!) into a heat-proof container or butter stick molds and pop them into the fridge to solidify, and then proceed as normal.

What about flavors?

The sky is the limit! I add whatever liquid I feel like, up to the two tablespoon per stick limit. Coffee creamer, coffee concentrate, fruit juice, protein shake, citrus juice, chamoy, jellies and jams, and more!

And powders can pop in with ease, too! Freeze dried fruit powders, powdered drink mixes, matcha tea, cocoa powder, instant coffee, protein powder, etc. Just make a paste with them with a tiny bit of liquid before adding so they distribute evenly and don’t cause drying out or texture issues.

Some tangerine zest going into the base buttercream for one of my bakery clients.

And what about food coloring?

For food coloring, I recommend using either gel or powder. You can use liquid, but any liquid you use will affect the consistency of your buttercream at the expense of flavor.

Some of my favorite vegan food coloring options are AmeriColor gels, ProGels, and Artisan Accents gels. Ultimate Baker has an amazing line of powdered colors that are both vegan and all natural, if you prefer the natural route!

Just remember that your colored buttercream will get darker and more vibrant overnight. This is especially important if you’re trying to make a dark color like black, navy, red, or burgundy. Try to make your buttercream a day early, get it to a few shades lighter than what you need, and let it “develop” in a covered container overnight.

The other side of the token though, make sure if you don’t want a dark color to not make your buttercream too far ahead of time! I once had to make a navy blue cake; I let the cake sit overnight and it was black by morning. Oops. If this does happen to you though, you can add in some white buttercream to lighten it a bit (unless it’s already on the cake like mine was).

My beautiful navy blue cake before it darkened.

And how do I store it?

In a bowl with a tight fitting lid or plastic wrap.

It can be kept at room temp for a week, in the fridge for a month, and in the freezer for six months. Just give it a quick stir before you frost your confections.

I’m so ready, but I forgot to take my butter out of the fridge!!

Don’t panic! And don’t microwave! I’ve got you covered:

(If you don’t have a blow torch, you can use a hair dryer!)

Pin it!

Video Tutorial, Extended:

Yield: 2.5 cups (enough to ice a 6” cake)

Easiest Vegan Buttercream Ever

The easiest vegan buttercream you’ve ever made. Four ingredients and ten minutes gets you perfectly pipe-able frosting for any confection that needs icing!

Prep Time 1 minute

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 11 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup room temp high-fat vegan butter* (two sticks) (230g)
4 cups powdered sugar**** (450g)
2 tbsp liquid - any liquid you want (check the post above for suggestions)***** (30ml)
1 tsp vanilla extract (5ml)

Instructions

Add butter and half the powdered sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with the paddle attachment
Mix on low/stir until completely incorporated
Add the second half of the powdered sugar, and mix again on low/stir until completely incorporated
Add your liquid and vanilla extract
Mix on low until completely incorporated
Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of your bowl
Mix on low just until the mixture is fully combined and smooth
Adjust the consistency by adding more liquid by the teaspoon to thin, or more powdered sugar by the quarter cup to stiffen until desired consistency is reached

Notes

*if you use shortening, whip the mixture for 15 minutes or until it no longer has a greasy/waxy mouthfeel

**if you want the buttercream as silky smooth as possible, turn the mixer on low/stir and let it go for about a half an hour

***for butter without palm oil, give Miyoko’s cultured butter a try

***for butter without soy, use Country Crock Plant Butter Sticks, Earth Balance Soy-Free, or Miyoko’s cultured butter.

****feel free to sift your powdered sugar if it’s very lumpy

*****for crusting buttercream, add another one to two tablespoons of liquid, and use powdered sugar to bring back to consistency

Allergy-Friendly and Vegan Pastry Recipes:

Never miss a post

We promise to never spam you or sell your info.

Fruit Smoothie Cake (vegan, oil-free)

July 6, 2019 // by Meggan Leal// 8 Comments

I was on the hunt for a fruit-flavored cake recipe that was three things:

Stupidly simple –
Vegan –
Absolutely delicious –

I found a few recipes that hit two out of three, but none that checked all three off my list. So what did I do? I did what I do and I wrote one. But in order to write a cake recipe, you need to know a little cake science and do some dissecting.

So what parts are there to a traditional cake recipe? In no particular order: the flavor, the substance, the liquid, the leavening agent, the sweetener, the fat, and the binder.

I wanted my fruit flavored cakes to taste like.. well.. fruit. And what tastes more like fruit than fruit? So that definitely needed to be my first ingredient. And it just so happens that fruit purée not only makes an epic flavor base, but also an amazing egg replacer for binding AND oil substitute. And it’s juicy. Bam. Why haven’t I been doing this all along?!

The best strawberries in the world from a local farmer being smoothie-fied for cake

So the fruit does the job of four cake recipe components: flavor, liquid, binder, and fat [replacer].

Then you need your substance – the bulk of the cake. That’s your flour.

And you need leavening to give the cake rise – that’s when the batter creates millions of tiny bubbles within itself and the cake puffs up, becoming a sponge instead of a hockey puck. Traditional cakes do this in a variety of ways: usually eggs filling with steam and the addition of a bit of baking powder. This cake does it with a chemical reaction of acid + base. Think back to elementary school volcanoes made with vinegar and baking soda. That’s what we are doing here, but with citric acid instead of vinegar.

For sweetness I normally use Zulka unrefined granulated sugar, but any granulated sugar will work. It also works wonderfully with coconut sugar, and for a no-sugar-added cake granulated stevia works amazingly! Just keep in mind that fruits contain natural sugars, and most flours are high in carbs which can cause sugar spikes – so while this cake made with stevia will be more diabetic-friendly than most other cakes out there, it still isn’t something that can be eaten in excess without glycemic consequences.

So with the realization of how many jobs fruit purée can do and an understanding of what other components need to be addressed, this cake can be made with, at the bare minimum, four ingredients. FOUR! And it’s DELICIOUS made with only four ingredients!

So if you’re dealing with food allergies and need something base-line basic, I’ve got you! This can be made with just an acidic fruit purée, sugar, baking soda, and flour – omit everything else and follow the steps the same way. Do you need it to be gluten-free? Use your favorite cup for cup gluten-free flour and add a teaspoon of baking powder (results may vary based on the brand or mix of gluten-free flour you use, so please test yours).

Strawberry smoothie cupcakes and cakes, made with only four ingredients. Who would have thought?

So you may be asking – why in the world would you add more stuff to it if it’s delicious with just those four??

Good question.

With just those four ingredients, the cake is stupidly simple, vegan, and absolutely delicious. BUT – sometimes I make showstopper cakes that need to hold up well with lots of layers, can be carved, can be crumb coated and frosted with ease, and some people really like extra flavor on top of the natural fruit, as well as a pop of color – so I made a few additions to make those things happen.

Flax helps the cake to be more sturdy and less crumbly, salt balances the sweetness, and the kool-aid powder adds extra flavor, color, and citric acid to react with our baking soda for more lift. If you use it, choose the same flavor as your fruit purée or a complimentary flavor (peach-mango with mango purée, for instance). If you’re using a fruit that isn’t very acidic (blueberries, for instance) you need the extra boost of acidity – so if you don’t want to use KoolAid powder, use a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice instead).

Strawberry smoothie cake all trimmed and torted and ready for filling, surrounded by the chaos that results from cake decorating.

So far I’ve made this recipe with strawberry, mango, peach, kiwi, dragonfruit, pineapple, raspberry, and blueberry. If you want to try another flavor, or even combine them, go for it and let me know what you did!

Making fruit-flavored pastry is a peach-a-cake! ;D
Here are the fluffy innards of a peach smoothie cake.

And finally, keep in mind that this cake, because it is made of mostly fruit, will be more dense than your traditional light and fluffy birthday cake style cake. To avoid it being any more dense than necessary make sure to gently fold the wet and dry ingredients together rather than stirring (so you don’t develop the gluten and make the cake chewy and bready). You can also add extra flour, up to a cup, to lighten it up a bit. But remember that the more flour you add, the less the fruit flavor and color will come through.

This recipe is great for cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, and even pancakes! It can be doubled, tripled, halved, or quartered and still works great. Try it with my quick and easy ganache or my easiest buttercream ever.

Take a look at my video here to watch how I whip up the batter in less than ten minutes, and please subscribe to my YouTube channel to be the first to know about new tutorials I put up:

VIDEO:

Yield: 1 10” or 2 8” or 3 6” or 24 cupcakes

Vegan Fruit Smoothie Cake

The simplest fruit-flavored cake recipe ever. Made with fruit as the first ingredient, it’s super allergy-friendly, infinitely customizable, oil-free, and can be made with no added sugar and gluten-free as well.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

2.5 cups fruit purée (540g)
2 cups sugar (400g)
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
5 tablespoons hot water
———
3.5 cups flour (440g)
2 teaspoons baking SODA (bicarb)
1 packet of KoolAid or other acid-based unsweetened drink powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 325°F (160°C) and prepare your cake pans (I like to use nonstick spray and a parchment paper circle inside the bottom).
Prepare your flax eggs by mixing the ground flax and hot water in a small bowl or cup (1 tbsp of flax + 2.5 tbsp water = one flax egg - so you’re making two eggs here. Also, using hot water speeds up the process). Set aside.
Add your flour, baking soda, salt, and KoolAid powder to a medium mixing bowl. Sift or whisk if you’d like.
Add your fruit purée and sugar to a large mixing bowl.
Add your flax egg to the fruit/sugar once it’s goopy - after about ten minutes.
Pour your dry ingredients into the wet, and fold them together using a silicone spatula until the batter doesn’t have any dry bits. Don’t stir! Fold!
Pour the batter into your prepared pans.
Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (Cupcakes take about 17 minutes)
Proceed as usual and enjoy your cake!

Quick and Easy Vegan Ganache (Water Ganache)

June 20, 2019 // by Meggan Leal// Leave a Comment

This ganache is the bomb dot com. It’s ultra customizable for whomever is going to be eating it: it can be sugar-free/keto. It can be made to accommodate any allergies or diet restrictions (except chocolate) as long as you choose a chocolate that is acceptable. It pipes and spreads while still warm so you don’t have to wait hours to use it. It’s just the best.

Ganache is my most requested macaron filling recipe (yes, I actually ran a poll) – and it’s easy to know why: Ganache is chocolate. Everyone loves chocolate. And more than that, it has the potential to be a bajillion times less sweet than typical American buttercream, it sets firm (which is great for frosting cakes – especially carved cakes because it helps to hold them together), and did I mention that it’s chocolate?

Use it on my chocolate whacky cake or to sandwich my vegan Italian macarons. Make s’mores with it. Sandwich vegan sugar cookies. Spread it on toast. Eat it with a spoon.

Alterations

If you need to use it for a cake drip, add 5ml of additional liquid at the start and omit the butter. Wait for the ganache to cool to about 90 degrees before applying the drip to the well-chilled cake with a squeeze bottle, piping bag, or with a spoon.

If you need to avoid soy, you can use palm oil or soy-free Earth Balance for your ‘butter’. And if you need to avoid coconut, you can use palm oil. If there are no real safe solid fats for you, then avoid it completely!

And remember that the sweetness of your ganache will depend on the sweetness of the chocolate that you use!

What’s the texture like?

While it’s still warm, the ganache has a very mousse-like texture in the mouth, but firms up pretty quickly. If you’re going to be using it between cake layers, you may want to wait until it’s completely cooled before adding layers on top. It can be piped and spread while warm (hello, game-changer!) and holds up well in hot environments – as long as it’s not in direct sunlight or left in a car.

Check out the video below to see how wonderfully it pipes and spreads – while still warm.

Storage

Once it’s made, keep it an airtight container in the fridge for a month or in the freezer for up to six months. Yup! Six months!

Recipe video:

So without further ado, here’s the recipe; let me know what you make with it!

Quick and Easy Vegan Ganache (Water Ganache)

A rich, luscious, and indulgent dairy-free and vegan chocolate ganache. Great for cake drips, pipes like a dream and sets semi-firm. Use it to top cupcakes, frost cakes, sandwich macarons, or eat with a spoon. Super allergy-friendly. Gluten-free. Keto option.

Makes enough ganache to top about four cupcakes, or create a drip and ganache top for a 6" cake.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Additional Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 c (100g) your favorite chocolate*
1/4 c (50ml) your favorite [unsweetened, non-carbonated] beverage**
1 tsp (5g) softened vegan butter (optional)***

Instructions

Measure out your chocolate and liquid, and get your butter out of the fridge (if using). Break up chocolate bars into smaller pieces.
Pour a couple of inches of water into a saucepan and put over a medium-low flame.
Add your chocolate and liquid into a heatproof glass or metal bowl and set it on the saucepan - making sure the bottom doesn't touch the water. If it touches the water, pour some water out until it no longer does.
Using a whisk or rubber spatula, continually stir the chocolate and liquid until the chocolate is fully melted and smooth.
Turn the heat off, remove the bowl from over the pan, and dry the bottom
If using, stir in your butter until incorporated
Line a small pan or bowl with plastic wrap if planning to pipe the ganache later, otherwise get out any reusable bowl with a tight-fitting lid.
If using for a drip, wait until the ganache is around 90F before using a piping bag, squeeze bottle, or spoon to add around the edges of your cake.
Pour the liquid ganache into your container (or piping bag) and allow to sit at room temperature for a half an hour to an hour (depending on the temperature of the room) before piping or spreading on cakes, toast, cookies, and more! It will firm as it cools even more.

Notes

NEW MICROWAVE METHOD!!
Just an FYI: last night I decided to try it in the microwave and it TOTALLY worked.

If you wanna do it that way, microwave your liquid until it’s piping hot, add your chocolate and butter, and stir until it’s smooth! ❤

NOTES:

*I have not encountered any chocolate that doesn't work with this method. My favorites to use are King David vegan candy melts, Enjoy Life semi-sweet chips, and Lily's sugar-free dark chocolate (for keto ganache). Some may contain trace allergens, so check the labels!

**I love using espresso or strong coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor. Other options include your favorite plant milk (soy may curdle due to the acidity of the chocolate, though), tea, or just plain water.

The butter makes the ganache creamier and more rich - but it is totally optional. It may be swapped for shortening, or pure palm oil if avoiding soy, If you prefer not to add a fat, just use a half a teaspoon (2-3ml) additional liquid instead.

You can also mix with nut or seed butters for a peanut butter cup flavor. You may also add various flavoring oils or reductions! Have fun and experiment!

Keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a month, or in the freezer for six months.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 233 Total Fat: 13g Saturated Fat: 8g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 4g Cholesterol: 12mg Sodium: 41mg Carbohydrates: 25g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 22g Protein: 3g

Each serving is an estimate of the amount that would be on top of a cupcake. Your piping will vary. These numbers will vary depending on what chocolate and what liquid you use, and whether you decide to add butter/additional fat or not. For keto/sugar-free, Lily's chocolate is your best bet.

Check out some more of my popular dessert recipes!

Sign up for email updates on my upcoming e-book!

Coming soon to an Internet near you: The world’s most complete guide to eggless, vegan macarons ever created! If you’ve ever wanted to make, eat, design, fill, package, or sell egg-free macarons, then this is the book for you! We are busy cramming every bit of macaron knowledge we have into this premier e-book to help mac-makers of every level succeed and dominate the craft. And we just might have a special gift for the first people to download it. 😉 Sign up for emails below to get updates on its release!

Vegan Italian Macarons with Aquafaba

March 27, 2019 // by Meggan Leal// 40 Comments

After over a year of trying to perfect the vegan macaron, going through countless recipes and recipe variations, I’ve finally gotten them figured out! And funny enough, it was by jumping off of the very first recipe I had ever tried and making some tweaks.

So first off, I want to thank Jasmine Lakuku over at The Blenderist for figuring her recipe out and sharing it with the world. If you want to check it out, it’s here and it’s wonderful if you’re starting.

Some of my very first macarons made with the recipe from The Blenderist. Beautiful shells, but lopsided. I needed to figure out how to fix them.

It made some nice macs for me – better than any other published recipe I tried, but they weren’t absolutely perfect. And I need perfect. I want my vegan goodies to be so unbelievably great that even non-vegans and non-allergic people prefer them over the conventional version. So I set out to do that. And this recipe is the result.

If you don’t want to see the step by steps or photos, and don’t care to read my explanations for everything, go ahead and click here to skip down to the recipe card below. Otherwise – buckle up for a wild and crazy ride!

CHAPTER ONE: WHAT IS A MACARON?

The perfect macaron: Beautiful smooth shell with gorgeous ruffled feet that are less than half the height of the shell.

First off, an explanation of what a macaron is and what a macaron isn’t. A macaron is a little cookie made from meringue (traditionally, whipped egg whites and sugar) and almond flour.

There are three varieties of macaron: Italian, French, and Swiss. They are called as such based on what type of meringue is used. Italian meringue adds molten sugar to fluffed egg whites (or in our case, aquafaba fluff). French meringue adds raw sugar into the fluff. And Swiss, the least used method, melts the sugar together with egg whites over a double boiler, and then whips them up together.

No matter the meringue method used, they turn out almost the same – those who don’t make or obsess over macarons would never be able to tell the difference. That said, Italian macarons seem to be the most stable and the easiest to get right for beginners, so that’s where I’m starting in the blog.

Can you tell that these are French macarons? Didn’t think so.

Now, what are they like? I think of the texture as being a bit like a Milky Way candy bar: it has a crisp (but not hard) shell that breaks easily, melts in your mouth, but the whole cookie still has a good bit of chew to it. They are extraordinarily sweet, and the shells can be flavored but usually it’s the filling that gets the flavor and the shells are left to be “plain” sweet almond to compliment the filling.

Macarons also have iconic “feet” – a cute little ruffle along the bottom of the cookie that is formed as steam builds up inside of it during baking, causing it to rise up from the baking tray. The space between the cookie shell and the tray fills in with the raw batter which bubbles from the heat and makes the adorable little frilly feet everyone who makes macarons desperately craves and seeks out in their confections.

I wish I knew whom to credit for this image! If you know, please let me know. It’s genius!

Macarons are not macaroons. Macaroons are also made with meringue, but rather than being mixed with almond flour, macaroon meringue is mixed with shredded coconut. Then they are usually dipped in and/or drizzled with chocolate.

Macarons will self destruct in any manner they see fit. Here are a few examples of my fails.

Macaroons are easy. Macarons are not. Macarons are jerks who don’t like to play nice and you should not feel bad if your first batch does not turn out. Or your second. Or your eleventy sixteenth. That’s just the way this cookie crumbles (or melts, or explodes, or burns, or crystallizes, or implodes, or any other manner of destruction which they might dream up).

I’m hopeful that this guide will help you to succeed right off the bat. But that’s all I can guarantee: that I’m hopeful. I’m going to try to outline my exact process and ingredients, and hopefully it will help you to make beautiful macarons much sooner than a year after you first set out to do it. If not, don’t give up – change up your oven temp, try different brands of ingredients, search the internet for answers. Join my vegan macaron group on Facebook. Feel free to even send me a message to help troubleshoot if they’re really getting to you. We will get you making gorgeous vegan macarons!

My favourites are the ones filled with coffee flavored buttercream!

CHAPTER TWO: OVERVIEW OF INGREDIENTS

Macarons are, at their most basic level, three ingredients: almonds, sugar, and egg whites (aquafaba, in our case). Anything else extra is added to make the process easier and give more consistent results.

My recipe, adapted from that of The Blenderist, consists of almond flour, powdered sugar with tapioca starch added, sugar, garbanzo bean (chickpea) aquafaba, cream of tartar, and/or vinegar. Gel or powder food coloring may also be used.

These are the exact brands I use in case you want to replicate what I do to the T:

• Almond flour: Bob’s Red Mill superfine, blanched [UPDATE: I now use Blue Diamond almond flour, as that’s what Sam’s Club carries. It has worked marvelously!]

• Powdered sugar: H-E-B Organics

• Sugar: Zulka

• Garbanzo beans: Walmart’s Great Value organic

• Cream of Tartar: McCormick

• Vinegar: whatever store brand I have

• Food color: Some of my favorite vegan food coloring options are AmeriColor gels, ProGels, and Artisan Accents gels. Ultimate Baker has an amazing line of powdered colors that are both vegan and all natural, if you prefer the natural route! Make sure you use gels or powders though, not liquid.

As far as the almond flour goes, I have also heard great things about Costco’s Kirkland brand flour. I would not recommend Nature’s Eats brand as it has large pieces and doesn’t pass through the sieve well. ~~I also don’t recommend Blue Diamond brand because it is quite oily and will result in splotchy, fragile macarons.~~ [UPDATE: I now use Blue Diamond and have been having fantastic results!]

For powdered sugar, if you’re not fortunate enough to live in Texas and have an H-E-B nearby, Wholesome 365 has an identical organic powdered sugar with tapioca starch added. If you don’t need a vegan sugar, any powdered sugar should work – whether it has corn starch, tapioca starch, or no starch at all.

The same goes for the granulated sugar; I use Zulka because it is made without bone char. If you’re not concerned about bone char use in your sugar, any granulated sugar should work fine.

For your aquafaba (aquafaba is the cooking liquid from beans – NOT the soaking liquid. It can either be the broth from homemade beans, or be poured from a can of beans) any canned or homemade aquafaba should work. As long as you’ve whipped it up successfully before, consider it a worthy candidate for macarons. I’ve also never noticed a difference in results from salted vs unsalted. I use the Great Value organic garbanzos because they have pop-tops and are easier for me to open.

As far as your cream of tartar and vinegar go, they are acids and help to stabilize the meringue. I don’t think the brand matters at all here, I just grab whatever is easiest to reach and is the cheapest. If you can’t find cream of tartar, then just use vinegar in its place. We will also use the vinegar to wipe out our mixing bowl which will help with the fluffing process.

CHAPTER THREE: OVERVIEW OF SUPPLIES

First of all, you need an oven. You don’t need a fancy one, but you do need one that can hold a consistent temperature. Make sure you’ve tested the internal temperature with a reliable oven thermometer (here’s one that’s NSF certified in case you need that). Macarons will fail if the temperature is even two degrees one way or another; it needs to be exact and it needs to be consistent. My oven offers both conventional and convection baking. For my macarons, I use the conventional setting – NOT the convection/fan setting. I’m working on figuring out what temp convection needs to be on in order for the macs to turn out, but I haven’t gotten it yet. I will update once I do. The heat from my oven also comes from the bottom coils.

Second, a working stovetop.

Third of all, you need a mixer with a whisk attachment. I recommend having a stand mixer because it’s going to be going for a loooooong while. I have two KitchenAid stand mixers: a smaller tilt-head mixer and a larger Professional Series mixer with a lever to raise and lower the bowl. Unless you’re going to be making a double batch, I highly recommend using the smaller mixer. While it’s possible to use the larger one, the whisk has a harder time reaching the aquafaba to whip it up. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can totally use a handheld mixer! Just expect to be standing there holding it for a while.

You absolutely need a kitchen scale that weighs grams.

A large metal or glass mixing bowl.

A fine mesh sieve. I use metal, and have never had luck with the plastic ones.

A silicone spatula.

A small, very clean saucepan.

A food thermometer that goes up to at least 400°F. I have a thermometer with a probe that connects to a timer. I can set a target temperature and it will alert me when it reaches it. I got it for about $15 at my local grocery store, and I highly recommend it because you can walk away from the stove and focus on other things without worrying about burning your sugar. A conventional candy thermometer will work just fine, however.

Next, you need piping bags. I love my tipless bags I grab from Amazon, but any piping bags will do. These are the bags I use:

Mseeur 200 Pcs Disposable Cream Pastry Bag

As far as tips go, yes I use them. With my tipless bags. I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but as I said earlier – I want perfect macs, and to get those perfect circles I need to use tips. I use Wilton 10 and 12. These are smaller than most people use but I’ve found the smaller the tip, the fewer bubbles I get in my macarons. If you don’t want to use tips, feel free to snip the bags so you have an opening about 3/8 to 1/2″ wide. If you want to use tips, grab a few here:

Wilton 12 Round Decorating Tip

A tall glass with a wide mouth. This will help you fill your piping bags with batter.

Light colored aluminum cookie sheets or baking pans. I have commercial half sheet pans that I bought at Sam’s Club. You can use any light colored aluminum pans you have, though. I’ve even used upside down cake pans! These are the types of pans I use:

Nordicware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker’s Half Sheet (2 Pack), Silver

Silicone mats or parchment paper to line your baking pans with. I recommend silicone mats. Parchment paper will cause your macarons to cook into oblong shapes with wrinkled bottoms. They will be just as delicious, but not perfect. You may also have to adjust your cooking time with parchment since the macarons will cook quicker and burn easier. Mats are relatively cheap on Amazon. The ones I use are these:

Macaron Silicone Baking Mat – Set of 2

A cooling rack.

And finally, probably the most important supply: Patience. A lot of it. Sorry I don’t have an Amazon link for that. 😉

CHAPTER FOUR: PREP

1) Reducing your aquafaba:

The first thing you need to do is prep your aquafaba. If you’re using canned beans, give them a quick shake to distribute all the proteins first. Drain the beans and add the liquid to a saucepan. If you’re using homemade, you need at least 225ml. I don’t like to be exact here though, and usually make a big batch so I don’t have to prep aquafaba every time I make macarons. All we are going to do here is reduce our aquafaba by about a third. I eyeball it. It’s totally fine if you do, too. I do it on a low simmer so that it doesn’t boil up and over. That cleanup is not fun.

Also, if your reduced aquafaba isn’t gelatinous, that’s totally fine! It won’t be unless you refrigerate it (which I don’t do before I use it. It just use it!). I refrigerate the leftover aquafaba if I’m going to be making more macs in the next couple of days, otherwise I freeze it.

My reduced aquafaba. I judge by the line around the pan as to when it’s been reduced by about a third.

2) Cleaning your mixing bowl and whisk:

Even the smallest speck of grease or fat of any kind will kill your meringue before it even starts. To prevent this, make sure you wash them really well in hot water with a good lathering dish soap. Dry them with a clean paper towel, and then pour about a teaspoon of vinegar into the bowl. Using your paper towel, wipe the vinegar all over the inside of the bowl and then use the same paper towel to wipe down the tines of your whisk. It’s also a good idea to wipe down your silicone mats with your vinegar, too.

Skipping this step may mean your aquafaba never fluffs up.

3) Having all your supplies at hand:

Once you get started with the recipe, you need everything at arm’s length and ready to go. This isn’t something you can walk away from for long. Make sure all the dishes you’ll need are washed and dry and that you have all the ingredients you’ll be using.

CHAPTER FIVE: MAKE THE MACARONS!

Ingredients:

150g reduced aquafaba
200g granulated sugar
1/4c water
200g powdered sugar
200g almond flour
1/4 tsp cream of tartar OR 1 tsp vinegar

Method:

1) Preheat your oven to 310°F if you’re using silicon mats, 300°F if you’re using parchment paper.

2) Add 75g of reduced aquafaba to your mixer’s bowl along with your cream of tartar or vinegar. Turn the mixer up to medium high speed. You want to get it to soft peaks. That means that when you lift the whisk out of the fluff, it forms little mountains that fall over and wiggle a lot. They remind me of the waves in Japanese art.

75g of reduced aquafaba goes into the mixer bowl. I used 1tsp of vinegar for this batch because I ran out of cream of tartar.

3) While your fluff is fluffing, pour your granulated sugar into your clean saucepan along with 1/4 cup of water and put it over medium low heat. Do not stir. Add your thermometer – making sure the actual thermometer doesn’t touch the bottom of the pan but sits in the middle of your sugar mixture. We want to bring this to 245°F. I set my target temp for 225°F so that I can check my aquafaba fluff to see if it’s at soft peaks yet. If it’s not, I turn the heat down to low under the sugar and kick the mixer speed up by one.

200g of granulated sugar. Make sure the pan is extremely clean or it may burn.

4) While waiting on all of this to happen, measure out your dry ingredients. Use your spatula to push 200g of powdered sugar and 200g of almond flour through your sieve into a large mixing bowl. Give it a good stir with your spatula until they look well combined. Pour in your remaining 75g of aquafaba into this dry mix and combine it well. Congratulations, you’ve just made marzipan! Cover this bowl so that it doesn’t dry out.

200g of powdered sugar. (ok, 201. whatever.)

75g of reduced aquafaba added to the dry mix.

4) Once your sugar reaches 245°F, take it to your fluff and slowly pour it in while the mixer is on medium. Don’t worry about the sugar that sticks to the sides of the bowl. Turn the mixer back up to medium high and let it go until the outside of the bowl feels cool to the touch. At this point, the meringue should be glossy and white and it will be ribbony and sticky when you lift the whisk out of it.

5) Remove the mixer bowl, and using your spatula move 1/2 of the meringue into your marzipan, being careful not to grab any of the candied sugar on the sides of the bowl. Stir it until it’s mixed well and you don’t see any white meringue or chunks of marzipan.

Mixing the marzipan and the first half of the meringue. I added a few drops of AmeriColor “violet” into this.

6) Now is the part where you need to be careful. The macaronage. Macaronage is the careful folding of the meringue into your almond mixture so that we can knock out just enough air to form a perfect macaron batter.

Add the rest of your meringue into your almond mixture – again, being careful not to grab any of the candy bits on the side of the bowl. Tilt your bowl 3/4 on its side so that the batter slides down from the bottom of the bowl and rests along the side. This way, gravity is going to help us with the folding.

Use your spatula to scrape along from the top of the bowl, around the side, around the bottom, and back up the other side to the top of the the bowl. You should be cleanly picking up the whole mixture and folding it over onto itself. Do this gently until everything is incorporated. The batter should be relatively thick at this point. If you want to add gel color, you can do it now. You can add up to a teaspoon and it shouldn’t affect the macarons.

Now, alternate between smushing the batter along the sides of the bowl and scraping and folding – slowly and gently, until you can lift the batter with the spatula and draw a figure 8 with the batter that falls off. Once you can do this, STOP. Your batter is done.

I can make a figure 8 with my batter falling off the spatula, so this is where I stop mixing. It’s ready to bag!

7) Line a tall glass with your prepared piping bag/tip (just like a bag in a trash can). If using a tip, I like to twist the bag just above the tip and smush the twist down into the tip. This prevents batter from leaking out. Pour your batter into the bag and either twist or tie it closed. There should be enough batter to fill the bag two or three times. Cover what’s left in the bowl so that it doesn’t dry out.

8) Grab your prepped baking pan lined with a silicone mat or parchment (but remember that with parchment the cookies won’t come out as perfect circles).

Holding the piping bag perfectly perpendicular (up and down) to the baking pan, gently squeeze until you’ve made a circle about an inch in diameter. Stop squeezing, and quickly make a small circle with the piping tip as you lift it. This will prevent your macarons from having nipples.

Pipe your next macaron about 2.5″ from your first one. Continue until you’ve filled your tray.

Freshly piped macarons. And my babies in the background.

9) Now comes the fun part! You’re going to slam the tray down on a flat surface to bring all the bubbles up and out of your macs. I like to do it two or three times on one side of the tray, rotate, another two or three times, rotate, so on and so forth until I feel like the bubbles are all gone. I probably hit the tray around 20-30 times. If you have stubborn bubbles, you can pop them with a toothpick, clean sewing needle, or cookie scribe.

10) Once you’re done slamming the tray and popping bubbles, set your tray on a flat surface and wait for the macarons to form a dry skin. This is imperative because without the skin, the macarons will probably explode in the oven. This skin keeps all the steam inside the cookie and allows them to lift and form feet. I like to set mine on the (now cool) stovetop with the exhaust fan running above them.

11) Once you see that the cookies are no longer shiny and you can lightly run your finger along the surface without it sticking to you, set a timer for 20 minutes. Once that goes off, put your cookies into the oven on the lowest rack (if using parchment, you may need to use the middle rack). Set another 20 minute timer (22 if you’re using parchment).

Now sit impatiently outside of your oven, staring into its belly hoping and praying that your macs form feet (around 6-7 minutes is when this should happen) and that they don’t explode. If your oven has hot spots, you may want to rotate your tray at about 12 minutes.

Watching them in the oven without blinking.

At 20 minutes, the feet should appear dry (no longer shiny) and if you give one a gentle poke with your finger, it shouldn’t jiggle.

12) Pull the tray out and set it on a cooling rack. Do not attempt to remove your macarons yet! Wait until they are totally cool, and they should peel right off. If they don’t, pop the tray in the freezer for 3-5 minutes and then they will.

13) Find matching pairs and fill with whatever your heart desires – buttercream and ganache are the most common fillings. I’m also a fan of cookie butter. If you plan on using something a bit more wet like jam or curd, form a barrier on the cookie with some buttercream or chocolate first so that it doesn’t make the macaron soggy. Put into an airtight container and IF YOU CAN, place them into the fridge for at least 24 hours before enjoying. This process is called maturation and it helps to fill hollow spaces in the shell and lets all the flavors mingle and marry and become infinitely yummier.

Finished macarons ready to pop into the fridge for maturation.

If you can’t wait that long, they’re perfectly yummy straight away though.

This recipe makes between 70 and 85 shells depending on how large you pipe them. They can be put into an airtight container and refrigerated up to a week and frozen for up to six months.

Three Hour Video Tutorial:

Join me as I make a batch of macarons, from beginning to end.

4.5 from 8 votes

Vegan Italian Macarons with Aquafaba

Allergy and vegan-friendly macaron cookies.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

150 g reduced aquafaba see recipe notes above
1/4 c water
200 g granulated sugar
200 g powdered sugar
200 g almond flour
1 tsp vinegar OR
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 310°F.
Add 75g of reduced aquafaba to your mixer’s bowl along with your cream of tartar or vinegar. Turn the mixer up to medium high speed. You want to get it to soft peaks. That means that when you lift the whisk out of the fluff, it forms little mountains that fall over and wiggle a lot. They remind me of the waves in Japanese art.
While your fluff is fluffing, pour your granulated sugar into your clean saucepan along with 1/4 cup of water and put it over medium low heat. Do not stir. Add your thermometer – making sure the actual thermometer doesn’t touch the bottom of the pan but sits in the middle of your sugar mixture. We want to bring this to 245°F. I set my target temp for 225°F so that I can check my aquafaba fluff to see if it’s at soft peaks yet. If it’s not, I turn the heat down to low under the sugar and kick the mixer speed up by one.
While waiting on all of this to happen, measure out your dry ingredients. Use your spatula to push 200g of powdered sugar and 200g of almond flour through your sieve into a large mixing bowl. Give it a good stir with your spatula until they look well combined. Pour in your remaining 75g of aquafaba into this dry mix and combine it well. Congratulations, you’ve just made marzipan! Cover this bowl so that it doesn’t dry out.
Once your sugar reaches 245°F, take it to your fluff and slowly pour it in while the mixer is on medium. Don’t worry about the sugar that sticks to the sides of the bowl. Turn the mixer back up to medium high and let it go until the outside of the bowl feels cool to the touch. At this point, the meringue should be glossy and white and it will be ribbony and sticky when you lift the whisk out of it.
Remove the mixer bowl, and using your spatula move 1/2 of the meringue into your marzipan, being careful not to grab any of the candied sugar one the sides of the bowl. Stir it until it’s mixed well and you don’t see any white meringue or chunks of marzipan.
Add the rest of your meringue into your almond mixture – again, being careful not to grab any of the candy bits on the side of the bowl. Tilt your bowl 3/4 on its side so that the batter slides down from the bottom of the bowl and rests along the side. This way, gravity is going to help us with the folding.
Use your spatula to scrape along from the top of the bowl, around the side, around the bottom, and back up the other side to the top of the the bowl. You should be cleanly picking up the whole mixture and folding it over onto itself. Do this gently until everything is incorporated. The batter should be relatively thick at this point. If you want to add gel color, you can do it now. You can add up to a teaspoon and it shouldn’t affect the macarons.
Now, alternate between smushing the batter along the sides of the bowl and scraping and folding – slowly and gently, until you can lift the batter with the spatula and draw a figure 8 with the batter that falls off. Once you can do this, STOP. Your batter is done.
Line a tall glass with your prepared piping bag/tip (just like a bag in a trash can). If using a tip, I like to twist the bag just above the tip and smush the twist down into the tip. This prevents batter from leaking out. Pour your batter into the bag and either twist or tie it closed. There should be enough batter to fill the bag two or three times. Cover what’s left in the bowl so that it doesn’t dry out.
Grab your prepped baking pan lined with a silicone mat (or parchment if you haven’t gotten a mat yet, but remember you may have to adjust your baking time and your cookies won’t come out as perfect circles).
Holding the piping bag perfectly perpendicular (up and down) to the baking pan, gently squeeze until you’ve made a circle about an inch in diameter. Stop squeezing, and quickly make a small circle with the piping tip as you lift it. This will prevent your macarons from having nipples.
Pipe your next macaron about 2.5″ from your first one. Continue until you’ve filled your tray.
Slam the tray down on a flat surface to bring all the bubbles up and out of your macs. I like to do it two or three times on one side of the tray, rotate, another two or three times, rotate, so on and so forth until I feel like the bubbles are all gone. I probably hit the tray around 20-30 times. If you have stubborn bubbles, you can pop them with a toothpick, clean sewing needle, or cookie scribe.
Set your tray on a flat surface and wait for the macarons to form a dry skin. This is imperative because without the skin, the macarons will probably explode in the oven. This skin keeps all the steam inside the cookie and allows them to lift and form feet. I like to set mine on the (now cool) stovetop with the exhaust fan running above them.
Once you see that the cookies are no longer shiny and you can lightly run your finger along the surface without it sticking to you, set a timer for 20 minutes. Once that goes off, put your cookies into the oven on the lowest rack (if using parchment, you may need to use the middle rack).
Bake the macarons for 20 minutes. If your oven has hot spots, rotate the tray at around 12 minutes.
After 20 minutes, pull the tray out and set it on a cooling rack. Do not attempt to remove your macarons yet! Wait until they are totally cool, and they should peel right off. If they don’t, pop the tray in the freezer for 3-5 minutes and then they will.
Find matching pairs and fill with whatever your heart desires.
Put into an airtight container and IF YOU CAN, place them into the fridge for at least 24 hours before enjoying.
This recipe makes between 70 and 85 shells depending on how large you pipe them. They can be put into an airtight container and refrigerated up to a week and frozen for up to six months.

Recipe Video

Allergy-Friendly and Vegan Pastry Recipes:

Vegan Royal Icing

December 20, 2018 // by Meggan Leal// 14 Comments

Fiiiiinally I’ve got this recipe posted for you all! Thanks for your patience, and sorry for the delay – but I think you’ll find it worth it!

This is my version of a vegan aquafaba royal icing. It dries hard and is suitable to decorate my no-chill, no-spread, vegan rolled sugar cookies with, can hold together a gingerbread house, can be used to decorate cake, can be painted on with edible paints or gel colors mixed with strong alcohol, and is easily colored, flavored, and manipulated to suit your needs (as I’ll get into in a later post).

Scroll down to get the recipe or just take a look at the video here if you prefer that method:

Some gorgeous cookies I made with royal icing for a baby shower; these were actually colored with homemade Skittles vodka!

So here are the things you’ll need:

Stand or hand mixer
Rubber/silicone spatula (more than one is preferred if you’ll be mixing multiple colors)
One can of garbanzo beans
Vegan powdered/confectioner’s sugar
Vinegar, lemon juice, or cream of tartar
Water or lemon juice
Gel or powdered food coloring, if using

The method is really quite simple:

1. Drain (and keep!) the water from your garbanzo beans. This is known as “aquafaba” and is our egg white substitute in this recipe. Put the beans away for something else.

2. Add about 1/4 cup of the aquafaba to your mixing bowl. The rest can be put into the fridge for up to a week or the freezer for three months.

3. Add about 1 tsp of vinegar (or a 1/8 tsp cream of tartar or 1 tsp lemon juice if you don’t have it) and the aquafaba and mix with a whisk attachment (you’ll see in my photos I have the paddle attachment connected – these photos are from before I knew better) just until frothy.

4. Add about a pound of powdered (confectioner’s) sugar to the bowl, and mix on low until incorporated.

5. Stop the mixer and add in another few cups of sugar, and mix on low until incorporated. Add more powdered sugar to the bowl a cup at a time, mixing on low between additions, until the mixture is about the consistency of school glue. Add in your 1 tsp of vanilla and white gel coloring at this stage.

6. Turn your mixer on medium high and let it go for about 8 minutes. You’ll end up with the perfect stiff consistency royal icing for piping words and fine details.

7. Thin your royal icing with water or fresh lemon juice (my favorite) to desired consistency. Thicken it with powdered sugar if you need to pipe flowers, use stencils, or glue gingerbread. You can also add any gel or powdered food color at this stage. I’ll add another post later getting more into coloring and consistencies, so be on the lookout for that.

That’s it! It’s that easy! You can keep the prepared icing at room temperature in a sealed container or bag for up to a week, in the fridge for a month, or in the freezer for pretty much forever. Just make sure to stir it well before you use as the water will start to separate from the marshmallow fluff you’ve created.

This recipe will make AT LEAST a couple dozen cookies’ worth of icing. Us cookiers are always making too much icing because we really have no idea how many cookies it covers. Lol.

Have fun and please share your creations with me on my Facebook!

Vegan Royal Icing

An eggless royal icing made with aquafaba. It can be used in all the same ways as tradition egg white royal, including decorating cookies, gluing gingerbread houses, decorating cakes, and making sprinkles and royal icing transfers.

Course Dessert

Prep Time 12 minutes

Total Time 12 minutes

Author Meggan Leal

Ingredients

1/4 cup ish Aquafaba (the cooking or canned liquid from beans; I prefer garbanzo)
2 lbs ish Powdered/Confectioner's Sugar
1 tsp ish Vinegar (may be substituted with cream of tartar or lemon juice)
1 tsp ish Vanilla (I use clear for bright white icing, but you can use natural)
1.5 tsp ish Gel or Powdered Food Coloring (optional, though I always add AmeriColor Bright White to mine)
Water or Lemon Juice to thin prepared icing

Instructions

Add about a teaspoon of vinegar to your mixing bowl
Pour in about a 1/4 cup of aquafaba
Mix on medium to high speed with a whisk attachment just until the top of your aquafaba is frothy/foamy
Turn off the mixer and add in about a pound of your powdered sugar (half a standard sized bag)
Turn the mixer on low until the sugar is mostly incorporated into the aquafaba
Turn the mixer off and add half of what's remaining of your powdered sugar
Turn the mixer on low until everything is incorporated
Turn the mixer off and lift the whisk to check the consistency of your icing. We are trying to get a school-glue type consistency. If it's not there yet, add more powdered sugar about a cup at a time until you achieve it
Once you achieve the school-glue consistency, add about a teaspoon of vanilla and a teaspoon and a half of white gel coloring (if you're using it)
Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and let it go for about eight minutes
After eight minutes or so, turn the mixer off. You should have nice, stiff royal icing! It's perfect for coloring and thinning out to decorate cookies or thickening up for flowers, or using as is for writing and other fine detail work.
Store the icing in an airtight container right away - it dries out very quickly - at room temperature for up to a week, in the fridge for a month, or the freezer for pretty much as long as you want

Recipe Notes

Find a video tutorial on our YouTube channel!

Allergy-Friendly and Vegan Pastry Recipes:

One-Bowl Chocolate Whacky Cake (vegan, soy-free, nut-free)

December 20, 2018 // by Meggan Leal// 24 Comments

So many people ask me for my chocolate cake recipe, saying that it’s the best chocolate cake they’ve ever tasted – so here you go! It’s adapted from a recipe my grandmother used during the depression (or so I was told) when eggs and milk were scarce. It’s rich and indulgent and no one is ever the wiser that it’s vegan and oh-so-simple to make with oh-so-simple ingredients.

It’s amazing for making show-stopping layer cakes, carved cakes, cake pops or cupcakes.

Once you’ve made your batter, pour it into oiled and parchment-paper-lined pans and bake at 325F (162C) for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. I usually check at 40 minutes by giving the pan a jiggle, and if the batter jiggles as well I check in another ten minutes. If it doesn’t jiggle, I test with a cake tester/toothpick. If that comes out with wet batter, I give it another five minutes before checking again.

Makes a quarter sheet (9×13), or two 8” round cakes, or three 6” round cakes, or 24-30 cupcakes.

Cover it in my easiest vegan buttercream ever or the less sweet American meringue version– or go super chocolatey with my quick and easy vegan ganache!

Once it’s baked, the cake can be stored in the freezer – either frosted or naked – double wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to a month. Triple wrap and put it in a box to leave it in the freezer for up to six months. Otherwise it can be kept covered at room temp for up to a week.

Watch Me Make It!

Pin It!

Printable Recipe Card:

Yield: 1 10", 2 8", 3 6" cakes, or 24 cupcakes

One-Bowl Chocolate Whacky Cake (vegan, soy-free, nut-free)

The ultimate chocolate cake. It's rich, moist, delicious with a tender crumb, and perfect for carving and stacking. My grandma gave me this recipe, and said it's what they used during the depression when milk and eggs were not affordable. It's super allergy-friendly and many people say this is the best chocolate cake they've ever had.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

3.5 cups all purpose flour (420g)
2 cups sugar (400g)
2 tsp baking soda (bicarb) (12g)
1/2 cup cocoa powder (dark cocoa is my favorite) (50g)
1 tsp salt (6g)
2 tbsp vinegar (30ml)
2 tsp vanilla extract (10ml)
3/4 cup of melted vegan butter/margarine (you can use oil, see notes below) (175ml)
2 cups hot coffee (475ml)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 325F (162C)
Prepare your cake pans with nonstick spray and parchment paper circles on the bottom
Whisk together your flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl
Create three deep wells in your dry mix
To the first well, add your vinegar. To the second, add the vanilla. To the third, add the melted butter/oil
Pour your hot coffee over the entire mixture
Gently whisk or fold your batter until it's well combined and no dry bits remain
Divide your batter evenly among your prepared pans
Bake for 45 minutes or until you insert a toothpick into the center of the cake and it comes out clean
Remove your cakes from the oven to a cooling rack. Let it sit in the cake pan for five minutes before turning it out.

Notes

*This can be made with your favourite cup-for-cup gluten-free flour if you want to make a wheat-free version.

*For a no-sugar-added version, use a cup-for-cup Stevia baking blend in place of the granulated sugar.

*Using melted butter is recommended for stacked or carved cakes. Oil is best for cupcakes as it results in a fluffier cake.

*Use your favorite plant milk instead of coffee for a delicious milk-chocolate cake

Allergy-Friendly and Vegan Pastry Recipes:

Never miss a post

We promise to never spam you or sell your info.