After mastering the art of vegan buttercream frosting a few months ago (which, by the way, acts entirely differently from traditional homemade buttercream frosting), I decided to try a new method. This time, rather than Earth Balance vegan butter spread, I opted for whipped coconut oil and lots and lots of dark chocolate.
And for the cake, a simple vanilla cake was not going to do it for me today, so I mixed in some cinnamon sugar graham crackers in the cake batter.
Outstanding!
Vanilla Cinnamon Graham Cake & Vegan Chocolate Frosting
Vanilla Cinnamon Graham Cake:
8 Tbs. butter, room temperature + for the pans
3 cups all purpose flour
1 sleeve cinnamon sugar graham crackers, finely processed into crumbs
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 cup cream
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Butter four 6-inch-round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
Whisk 3 cups flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and sea salt in a bowl until combined. Beat butter and sugar in a separate large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to medium; beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with cream, until smooth.
Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until the cakes are lightly golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to racks and let cool 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the pans and turn the cakes out onto the racks to cool completely. Remove the parchment. Trim the tops of the cakes with a long serrated knife to make them level, if desired.
Vegan Chocolate Frosting:
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
3 Tbs. coconut oil
1/2 non-dairy milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 cups powdered sugar
In a small saucepan, gently melt together chocolate and coconut oil until smooth and glossy. Remove from heat and slowly stir in the non-dairy milk, and vanilla extract. The mixture will thicken.
Transfer chocolate mixture to a large bowl. Add powdered baking cocoa. Using a hand mixer (or your muscles), blend in one cup of powdered sugar at a time until you’ve reached your desired consistency.
If the mixture gets too dry, thin it out with a little more milk as needed. If the mixture gets too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. You should reach a nice thick frosting texture between 4-5 cups of powdered sugar. Use immediately for best results.
Once your layers of Vanilla Cinnamon Graham Cake have cooled completely, stack the layers, smoothing frosting over each top before adding another layer. Frost top and sides as well. Sprinkle with extra cinnamon graham crumbs, if desired.
