If you're looking for an Easter cake to impress for the holidays you've come to the right place! This vegan Easter egg cake is surprisingly easy to make.
The cake itself is based on my vegan chocolate cake recipe and comes together in one bowl, so less fuss and fewer dishes. That's something that's always welcome over here.
📖 Recipe Overview
- Texture and flavor: The chocolate cake is fluffy, moist, and flavorsome with a deep chocolate flavor.
- Fully customizable, in that, you can use a variety of different vegan frostings according to your taste preference.
- Completely eggless, dairy-free, and easily adapted as coconut-free.
🧾 Ingredients Needed
Here's everything you need to make this homemade vegan Easter cake:
Ingredient Notes
I go into more details about the cake and frosting ingredients over on the posts for my vegan chocolate cake and strawberry frosting.
As for the toppings, this is what will essentially turn a regular vegan chocolate cake into an Easter themed cake.
Of course, most store-bought Easter eggs are not vegan, but luckily these days you can pick up dairy-free Easter eggs in most larger supermarkets or specialty stores and chains like Holland & Barrett.
You can also go down the homemade route and make your own giant creme egg or regular vegan creme eggs to top the cake.
🥣 How To Make A Vegan Easter Cake
Find the complete list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
Usually, I recommend baking cakes the day before you plan on decorating them. Chilling them in the fridge helps to make them more stable and creates fewer crumbs!
With that said, you can make the chocolate cake a day ahead, and then get on with the frosting and decorating on the day of serving. But as the meringue buttercream takes a little time to prepare, you can simply chill the cakes for a couple of hours while you prep the frosting if that works better for you.
Bake and chill the cakes
Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. That's the plain flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda, and sea salt.
Next add in the wet ingredients (vegan buttermilk, sunflower oil, vanilla, and hot coffee). Whisk the batter until just mixed, but be careful not to overmix.
Pour the chocolate cake batter into cake tins lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool in the cake pan before carefully turning it out onto a cooling rack. Once your cakes are chilled, very carefully cut off the domes using a cake leveler or serrated knife.
Chill your cakes for at least 2 hours before moving on to the frosting. It's best to individually wrap them in plastic wrap to prevent the cakes from sticking to eachother.
Frosting the cake
Head off and prepare the strawberry meringue buttercream while the cakes are chilling.
Once you have prepared the cakes and frosting it's time to assemble your Easter egg cake.
- Level the cakes with a serrated knife, trimming off any domes (if there are any).
- Place a little buttercream on top of a cake turntable and pop the first cake layer down on top of it.
- Hold back half of the buttercream, you'll want this for coating the outside of the cake. Using an offset spatula/pallet knife, spread a layer of the remaining buttercream on top of the sponge. Follow with the next layer of cake and repeat with another layer of frosting. Top with the final layer of cake.
- Use the remaining frosting to coat around the sides on top of the cake and smooth everything out with a cake scraper.
How to decorate an Easter egg cake
The decorations for this vegan Easter cake are incredibly simple.
Make a quick chocolate ganache with coconut milk and dark chocolate and pour it on top of the cake. Use a pallet knife to gently ease the ganache over the edges to create a beautiful drip cake!
For the Easter decorations, simply break up a vegan Easter egg and sit the pieces on top of the melted chocolate ganache. You can fill the eggs with any dairy-free chocolate of your choice.
🧁 Alternative Frostings
Let's face it, although Italian meringue buttercream is incredibly silky smooth, airy and light, it does take a little more effort to make than standard frosting recipes. So here are some alternative options for your Easter cake whether you want something a little easier or simply fancy a different flavor.
- Vegan raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream
- Vegan chocolate Swiss buttercream
- Vanilla cream cheese frosting
- Vegan chocolate frosting
❄️ Storage Instructions
Store this chocolate Easter cake at room temperature on the day of serving it. If you plan on serving it at a later stage, place it in an airtight container and refrigerate. It will store well for 4-5 days.
💬 FAQs
Most mini eggs contain dairy, however, Daisy and Dam do dark chocolate mini eggs that are suitable for vegans.
Try topping your Easter cake with some homemade vegan creme eggs instead.
Yep, you can bake the cakes in 2 x 9-inch cake pans for 30-35 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
🐰 More Vegan Easter Recipes
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star ★★★★★ rating in the recipe card below and consider leaving a comment as well, thanks!
Stay in touch with me through social media @ Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. And if you like one of my recipes, tag me
📖 Recipe
Easter Egg Cake (Vegan)
Ingredients
Cake
- 280 g plain flour
- 250 g soft brown sugar
- 80 g Dutch-processed cocoa powder or unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 236 ml soy milk or other non-dairy milk
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 100 ml sunflower oil or light olive oil or rapeseed oil
- 200 ml hot strong coffee *see recipe notes
- 1 batch vegan strawberry Italian meringue buttercream
Ganache drip
- 100 g chilled full-fat canned coconut milk *see recipe notes
- 50 g vegan dark chocolate
Toppings
- 1 medium or large vegan easter egg of choice
- 75 g vegan mini eggs
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (356°F). Line the base of three 6" cake tins with a circle of parchment paper and spray the sides with oil spray.
- Add the plain flour, soft brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and sea salt to a large mixing bowl, whisk and set aside. To make the vegan "buttermilk" add the soy milk and apple cider vinegar to a jug, stir and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
- Add the vegan buttermilk mixture, sunflower oil, vanilla extract, and hot coffee to the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk carefully to combine. Do not overmix the batter.
- Divide the batter into the lined cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes. Check they are ready by inserting a skewer, it should come out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for 15-20 minutes and then carefully turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool further. Refrigerate the cakes in an airtight container until ready to use. Chilling the cakes for a few hours (or overnight) makes them easier to work with and decorate.
- Prepare the strawberry Italian meringue buttercream.
Ganache drip
- Chop the chocolate and set it aside in a heat-resistant bowl. Add the coconut milk to a saucepan and place it on medium heat until gently simmering. Pour the heated coconut milk over the chocolate and allow it to sit for 2-3 minutes uncovered, before stirring with a spatula until smooth. Allow the mixture to come to room temperature for about 20-30 minutes
Assembly
- Using a serrated knife, carefully cut the domes from the tops of the cakes if there are any to get them as even as possible. Place a tiny amount of frosting on a cake turntable and secure the first sponge layer on top of it.
- Reserve half of the buttercream for coating the outside of the cake. Use an offset spatula/pallet knife to spread a layer of the remaining buttercream on top of the sponge. Add the next layer of cake and repeat with another layer of frosting. Top with the final layer of cake. Use the remaining frosting to coat around the sides on top of the cake and smooth everything out with a cake scraper.
- Pour the ganache over the top of the cake and use a spatula to gently run it over the edges to create a drip effect.
- Cut or break the easter egg into 3-4 pieces and arrange them on top of the cake. Fill the pieces of chocolate egg with vegan mini eggs.
Storage
- Keep the cake at room temperature on the day of serving. If you plan on serving it at a later stage, place it in an airtight container and refrigerate. It will store well for 4-5 days.
Notes
- Nutritional information is based on the cake without buttercream or easter egg toppings.
- Coconut milk: Refrigerate overnight, then use only the thick cream from the top of the can.
© addictedtodates.com. All content and images are protected by copyright. If you want to share this recipe, please do so using the share buttons provided. Do not screenshot or republish the recipe or content in full. instead, include a link to this post for the recipe. Thank you!
