Lilibeth's Low Fat Vegan Chocolate Cake

Mmmmmm, vegan chocolate cake! No eggs, no dairy, no vegan margarine. Whole wheat flour even makes an appearance.

I chose to use both unsweetened applesauce and mashed banana in my recipe. It may seem odd to utilize 2 different types of pureed fruit, but the applesauce subs in for some of the oil, and the banana is a substitute for eggs and helps with moistness. Cornstarch has been used as an egg substitute also, a bit of insurance if you will!


It calls for half the sugar of most recipes and is sweetened by the fruit which provides extra nutrition. Also, using a good portion of fruity sweetness allows for increasing the amount of cocoa! Always a plus!


Lilibeth's Low Fat Vegan Chocolate Cake

Like many cakes, they taste better after 24 hours. Make this a day ahead if you can.

DRY INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder

WET INGREDIENTS
1 ripe banana
2 Tbsp. almond or rice milk
3 Tbsp. oil (I use canola)....I may add an extra tsp. next time
1/2 cup organic cane sugar (or white sugar)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Grease or line with parchment paper an 8x8 square pan.

Blend dry ingredients together. Tip: I often sift the cocoa if it has any lumps.

Mash banana, leaving the least amount of chunks possible, and put into large bowl. Add 2 Tbsp. almond milk. Using hand mixer, blend these together well. Add oil, sugar, applesauce, and vanilla extract. Blend these together with mixer.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and gently blend the two together by hand just until combined.

If you have kids, make sure you let them lick the beaters, spoon and bowl clean! It's one of the bonuses of vegan baking!
Pour into pan and spread evenly. Mine was done in 20 minutes, so check it to see if a toothpick comes out clean then. I also covered it with foil midway through.

Let cool, cut into bars, eat....unless you just can't eat cake without frosting. I've included a bonus Vegan Chocolate Frosting recipe below.

frosting was an afterthought and since the cake was already cut up, it stayed in the bowl to be used at will.
Lilibeth's Vegan Chocolate Frosting

I asked my hubby to taste test this on a piece of chocolate cake but he was already quite stuffed from our supper. He did stick a finger in the bowl to give it a little taste. He suddenly had room for more cake and scrambled to get himself a piece to slather some icing onto. He said the icing is amazing, and it's one of the best I've ever tasted.

Yeild: 1 cup (let's try to be modest, but double if you have to!)

1/4 cup oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa
3/4 cups icing sugar
2 Tbsp almond, rice, or hemp milk (plus a little more if needed)

Measure out the oil, vanilla extract, and cocoa into a bowl. Mix with a hand mixer until well blended. Add icing sugar and blend. It will end up being crumbly. Add almond milk and whip. You'll probably need more, just keep adding by the teaspoonful. You don't want it too thick or it'll make a mess of the cake when you try to spread it.

If you want to test it out first, or you eat some unfrosted cake and decide to indulge in adding frosting, here are the quantities for a half batch:

2 Tbsp cup oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp cocoa
6 Tbsp icing sugar
1 Tbsp almond, rice, or hemp milk (plus a little more if needed)