Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

July 15, 2009

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

Ok… first of all, stop looking at me like that.

Yea, I can see that crazy look of your face.  But it’s me.  The same person that brought you amazing Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls and Perfect Lemon Pound Cake. We trust each other.  We have an understanding.  Just go with me on this.

Something about hot summer weather gets me to thinking (or melts my brain) and brings some strange recipes to the surface.  Remember last year’s Blueberry Ice Cream with Homemade Hot Fudge?  Yea… I got a few strange looks for that too.

Because I still see those raised eyebrows on your face, let me tell you a little about this beast of a cake.  Believe me, I was super skeptical too.

The vegan chocolate cake is dense and moist, and everything you might want from a chocolate cake minus the eggs and butter.  The fat in the cake is almond oil (or anything you have on hand) and one whole mashed avocado.  It’s lovely, and I didn’t taste a lick of avocado in the cake.

The avocado buttercream is a dash more strange.  Yes, it’s bright green.  Yes, the only fat in the buttercream is avocado meat.  It’s sweet with slight hints of citrus.  I had my doubts, but when combined with the chocolate cake… holy wow!  It actually worked!  It was honest-to-goodness delicious!  Not to mention vegan and full of healthy fats!

Your thoughts?  Have I scared you off?

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Avocado

makes 2 8-inch rounds or 2 thinner 9-inch rounds

from Vegetarian in the Middle East

Print this recipe!

3 cups all-purpose flour

6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used almond oil)

1/2 cup soft avocado, well mashed, about 1 medium avocado

2 cups water

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour two 8 or 9-inch rounds.  Set aside.

Sift together all of the dry ingredients except the sugar.  Set that aside too.

Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl, including the super mashed avocado.

Add sugar into the wet mix and stir.

Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and beat with a whisk (by hand) until smooth.

Pour batter into a greased cake tins. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cakes cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting with avocado buttercream.

Avocado Buttercream Frosting

from Alton Brown

8 ounces of avocado meat, about 2 small to medium, very ripe avocados

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 pound powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peel and pit the soft avocados.  It’s important to use the ripest avocados you can get your hands on.  If the avocados have brown spots in the meat, avoid those spots when you scoop the meat into the bowl.

Place the avocado meat into the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment.  Add lemon juice and whisk the avocado on medium speed, until slightly lightened in color and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the powdered sugar a little at a time and beat.  Add vanilla extract until combined.  If not using right away, store in the refrigerator.  Don’t worry.  It won’t turn brown!

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

{ 233 comments… read them below or add one }

Jenna April 20, 2010 at 3:29 pm

This cake turned out great. So delicious! Thanks for the recipe.

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joythebaker April 20, 2010 at 5:23 pm

awesome!!

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Kasey April 30, 2010 at 8:57 pm

Joy, I just wanted to let you know that I tried this and your farro + summer veggie salad today, and both turned out amazing. I have a gigantic friend crush on you. Thanks for the great recipes!

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Shauniece May 7, 2010 at 11:25 pm

this is truly unique recipe, i too love using avocados in sweets. check this out : http://chefshauniece.com/?p=548

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Olivia May 12, 2010 at 11:16 am

It’s awesome but I have a question: why it’s bitter? It’s not sweet at all, the cake has bitter after-taste. Really don’t know why :(

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Angelique May 19, 2010 at 6:55 pm

This cake looks incredible!
I’m only just becoming vegan, though this is the second time and in the past 12 months I’ve really found cake making to find a big place in my heart.. and stomach. I was disappointed at first, thinking there wouldn’t be many good quality chocolate cakes that were also healthy.. but this seems to be it! I’m in year 12 at the moment doing food technology, my theme for the year is chocolate and I have to make a royal chocolate cake for a ‘birthday’, this might be the winning cake!

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Amelia June 5, 2010 at 7:09 pm

Beautiful, quirky recipe! I just made the cake (halved the recipe), its moist and chocolatey and I don’t feel guilty because there’s no butter! The avocado icing is very green and delicious. Thank you so much it’s amazing!

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Salima June 8, 2010 at 9:56 am

hey, this looks really good! I made the batter as cupcakes, and used soy milk instead of water and replaced apple sauce for the oil, and the muffins were still wet inside and very hard on the outside…HELP!

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joythebaker June 8, 2010 at 1:59 pm

Well….. you didn’t use the recipe I provided… at all. So, I have no idea.

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Cortney Mae Carlson June 16, 2010 at 5:53 am

I want to make this sooo bad! I have 2 birthday’s on Friday and I was thinking about doing cupcakes instead of a cake. I will follow the recipe to an exact measurement since i am extremely anal, but do we think it will be as good?

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jen June 11, 2010 at 9:04 pm

holy crap. i’m making this for breakfast; just maybe. and if a gf version works for the cake, it will be baby’s first birthday cake. see how much faith i have in you?

p.s. nice advice for comment 241, classic.

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cakes to vijayawada June 28, 2010 at 2:04 pm

nice recipe thanks for sharing it

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Veggie Chick July 3, 2010 at 2:21 pm

Hi Joy. I tried this recipe a couple of weeks back and was blown away by the texture and the flavour of the cake. Especially the texture. So moist and soft and rich. Oh my. Thanks much for your ideas. Love your blog!!!

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Elizabeth July 8, 2010 at 4:32 am

Hi Joy! Is it possible to omit the chocolate in the recipe? My friend is allergic to dark chocolate :S

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Frankie July 11, 2010 at 1:12 pm

I just put this in the oven, can’t wait to see how it turns out!
but I didn’t have any avocado to hand, so I had to use beetroot instead, hopefully it will still sorta work, ha!
thanks for sharing the recipe :D

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Megs July 19, 2010 at 6:51 pm

I love everything cake related and a close second is anything containing avocado; I almost could not believe this post! I cannot wait to try this. Thanks for the post, I would love to see some more unique avocado recipes just like this!

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Ecochic July 21, 2010 at 5:55 am

Best cake ever!

I wonder how this would turn out layered, with little people on top…

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Kara July 25, 2010 at 3:53 pm

That cake looks gorgeous! Everything about it sounds amazing and visually I love the look of the green and brown together! You are full of awesome ideas! thanks for sharing!

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Liddyloo August 1, 2010 at 6:53 am

Made this a week or 2 ago at work after we had a build up of ripe avocados. It is AMAZING! Everyone that tried some LOVED it. Am now about to make it for my mums birthday cake, thank you so much for the recipe :oD

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Fire Fighter Annie August 2, 2010 at 3:38 pm

Joy! I love your site, and I made this cake today for all my fellow Firefighters to celebrate my birthday! They have NO idea what it’s made of, and it tastes AMAZING! Keep doing what you do. Your enthusiasm is contagious!

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Willie August 2, 2010 at 6:56 pm

I made the cake with whole wheat pastry flour and zylitol and when 3 avocados didn’t give me enough for mix for the cake, I added a pear to help and threw in a little more canola oil to make up for the drying effect of zylitol. Turned out delicious. I could of beat the zylitol into powdered sugar a little finer but smoothed some of it out with agave nectar. I’m loving the sugar free version.

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Kell DeMadze August 15, 2010 at 3:18 pm

I tried making this but I used beets in place of avocados, Splenda in place of sugar, carob in place of chocolate, and gluten-free rice flour. Also I used corn starch instead of baking powder, and Sprite instead of baking soda. Also instead of cooking at 350 for 40 minutes I cooked it at 700 for 20 minutes. Anyway, it tastes weird. What should I do?

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joythebaker August 15, 2010 at 7:00 pm

Um.

Jokes. I like em.

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lesterloo August 21, 2010 at 6:30 am

Avocados? Cake? My mind can’t understand this, but my tastebuds can. I made this (reluctantly) with a healthy dose of intrigue. I tasted it, I loved it! I had it again for breakfast the next day.
I halved the recipe and made w/ 6″ rounds bc they are the only cake pans I own. I also oiled the pans and dusted w a mixture of flour and cocoa powder. Turned out perfectly!
I took a sample to some girlfriends, under the guise of “Shamrock cake”, as I didn’t want to let the vegan cat out of the bag pre-review.
All parties raved…literally…with glow sticks.
Nice work J.

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Chelle August 21, 2010 at 4:17 pm

I am making this cake right now :)
My husband and I just got back from a vacation in Costa Rica where we had chocolate-avocado ice cream, and I found your website as I was Googling for similar recipes. The batter tastes wonderful, I’m sure the cake will too. Thanks so much for putting this up here! I will definitely be looking for more ideas on your website.

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Chelle August 21, 2010 at 4:21 pm

P.S.- is there a reason you don’t have a ‘frosting’ heading in your recipe index??

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