Vegan Hazelnut Coffee-Flavored Cake

Great news for all you coffee fiends — that also happen to be vegan — you can now have your coffee and eat it too!

Completely vegan and totally delicious, this moist and flavorful coffee-flavored cake features a rich cream cheese frosting.

Even better news, this recipe by Gina Marie Grimm of Fit Gina Marie is simple and easy to follow. No need to be an expert baker — you got this!

Vegan Hazelnut Coffee-Flavored Cake

Ingredients

Cake

50 g plant oil (preferably tasteless like sunflower/ rapeseed oil)

150 g coconut sugar (or regular sugar, xylit ect.)

100 g plant milk

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

pinch of salt

1 flax egg (1tbsp flax seeds+ 3 tbsp water)

100 ml aquafaba (~ water from 1 can chickpeas)

200 g hazelnuts, grounded

200 g flour (spelt flour used, type 1050)

1 tsp baking soda (Deutsch: Natron )

2 tsp baking powder

Filling

150 g vegan cream cheese

around 2 tbsp instant (depending on your coffee love) + 1 tbsp water, (alternatively 1 shot espresso/ strong coffee. Just make sure you don’t use too much liquid in total)

50 g powdered sugar (powdered xylit/sweetener)

40 g vegan butter/margarine

pinch of salt

1 package of cream stiffener (8g)

Instructions

Prepare the flax egg in a small bowl. Pour the oil and sugar into a big bowl. Warm up the plant milk in a microwave or on the oven. It doesn’t have to cook, but it should be a little warmer than room temperature. Add the plant milk to the sugar/oil mix and stir until the sugar begins to dissolve. Put the bowl aside. In a separate bowl, roughly mix hazelnuts, flour, baking soda and baking powder. Pour the aquafaba in a measuring cup or a narrows container and use a hand mixer and whip until stiff. It will work in a regular bowl too, but will take longer. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Add the flax egg and flour mixture to the liquid mixture and use the hand mixer or kitchen machine to stir everything well together. Carefully fold in the stiff aquafaba into the dough. It’s important that you take your time, so the cake will be nice and fluffy. Spread the dough on an even baking sheet prepared with baking paper. It should be 2 or 3cm deep. Bake for 10-15 min, check with a small skewer if it’s ready. Really important: Let it cool down! My tip to keep it moist: cover it with a kitchen towel.

Filling

Whip vegan cream cheese, powdered sugar, vegan butter, salt until it is a creamy texture. Add in the (instant) coffee. Adjust sugar and coffee to taste. Add in the cream stiffener and put the cream in the freezer.

Cake

Make a template out of cardboard with a 14-15cm diameter. diameter. Cut 4 circles out of the cake and carefully take them off the baking paper. Take your time, so they don’t break. If one breaks, don’t worry. It can be fixed when building the cake. Just make sure the edges are uniform. Spread cream cheese frosting on the first layer, put another cake layer on top and repeat the steps until you used all four cake layers. Use the rest of the cream to cover the cake. Take your time and use something like a spatula or a buttercream knife. Optional: top the cake with some vegan (espresso) chocolate. Store the cake in the fridge until you’re ready to serve and enjoy.

You can find this recipe and more on Gina’s Blog and Instagram.