Almond Joy Cake (vegan)

One of my best friends is vegan so she doesn't eat eggs, milk, or butter... some pretty common ingredients in a cake. So when her birthday rolled around I wanted to make her a birthday cake she would love! With a few substitutions, I made a completely vegan chocolate almond cake with vegan coconut cream cheese frosting.

Almond Joy Cake (vegan)

Makes two, 8" cakes or 24 standard cupcakes
(The recipe can also be made using dairy ingredients for a non-vegan cake)

Ingredients

Chocolate Almond Cake:

• 2 cup flour
• 2 cup pure cane, granulated white sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, dutch processed
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup almond milk 
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoon vinegar (white or apple cider)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
  
• 2 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1 cup boiling water

Coconut Frosting:

• Two, 8oz packages of vegan/non dairy cream cheese substitute, room temperature
• 1 cup non hydrogenated vegetable shortening
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar), sifted
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Garnish:

• Almonds
• Dark chocolate chips (or any non dairy chocolate chips)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two, 8" cake pans or line cupcake pans with 24 baking cups.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl and set aside. In a small bowl lightly whisk together non-dairy milk, oil, vinegar, vanilla and almond extract. Using a whisk or wooden spoon, gently stir wet ingredients into bowl of dry ingredients just until incorporated. Dissolve espresso powder in 1/2 cup boiling water and immediately fold into batter. Do not over-mix. Batter will be very thin.

Distribute all of the batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes (18-23 minutes for cupcakes), or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack. 

Prepare the frosting: With an electric mixer, beat shortening and non-dairy cream cheese on medium speed until smooth (make sure they are both at room temperature so you do not get lumps in your frosting). Gradually beat in powdered sugar until incorporated. Beat on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and coconut flavoring to taste. Mix in shredded coconut.

Adorn cake with chocolate dipped almonds... make sure not to use milk chocolate. (I used a plastic chocolate mold to make the letters, but you can also draw letters and shapes with melted chocolate onto wax paper, let dry and add to cake.)

YUM!