A vegan chocolate oatmeal cake topped with a decadent coconut caramel frosting makes the perfect treat for any occasion!
Cake is a dessert that you can almost always find reason to make. Good day at work? Give yourself a pat on the back and eat cake. Successful long run? Congrats- refuel with cake. Made it another time around the sun? Happy birthday, here’s a cake. You get the idea. Any occasion, no matter how small, can, and should, be marked with this favourite dessert of mine.
This vegan chocolate oatmeal cake is inspired by a recipe that I saw on Pinch of Yum. It caught my eye because it reminded me of a chocolate version of my dad’s favourite dessert, Lazy Daisy Oatmeal Cake. As the primary chocolate connoisseur in my house, I couldn’t think of a better way to integrate the two!
While the original recipe sounded delicious, I wanted to put a slightly healthier (not to mention vegan) spin on my version (And for the record, I don’t think there is necessarily anything wrong with butter, white sugar, and white flour… but I just like to make things a little bit more redeeming, you feel?). I replaced the butter with coconut oil, white and brown sugar with coconut sugar, the all-purpose flour with light spelt flour (my favourite baking flour!), and the eggs with flax eggs. Instead of the chocolate marshmallow icing used in the orignal recipe, I veganized the coconut frosting that typically tops a classic Lazy Daisy cake.
The result was out of this world! This cake is:
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-Moist
-Dense
-Fudgey
-Undetectably vegan
-Refined sugar-free
-Made with good for you ingredients like spelt flour, oats, and coconut oil!
This cake pairs perfectly with a tall glass of non-dairy milk.
Now we’re talking.
Do you love cake as much as I do? Then check out my Vegan Banana Spice Cake with Cashew Buttercream, too!
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Vegan Chocolate Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Caramel Frosting
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 9 slices 1x
Description
Vegan Chocolate Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Caramel Icing is moist, fudgey, and decadent. Made with wholesome ingredients like oats, spelt flour, and coconut sugar.
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- ¼ cup virgin coconut oil, melted
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax mixed with 2.5 tbsp water)
- 1 cup light spelt flour (may sub all-purpose flour)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 heaping tablespoon cocoa powder
- ⅔ cup quick oats
- 1 ¼ cup boiling water
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Coconut Caramel Frosting
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- ⅓ cup virgin coconut oil or vegan butter or regular butter
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- Pinch fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly grease an 8×8 or 9×9 square baking dish with coconut oil.
- Whisk together the coconut sugar and coconut oil in a large bowl. Add the vanilla extract and flax egg.
- Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa in a medium bowl.
- Place the oats in a small heatproof glass or metal bowl and pour the boiling water over top. Let sit for 5 minutes to soften/thicken.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth. Fold in the softened oats and chocolate chips.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Let cool on a rack while you prepare the frosting. Melt together the coconut sugar and coconut oil in a small saucepan. Stir in the shredded coconut and a pinch of salt. Pour on top of the slightly cooled cake and spread evenly with the back of a spoon.
- Allow the frosting to set for at least one hour before slicing the cake and serving.
Notes
You can use regular rolled oats instead of the quick oats, but you will need to soak them in the boiling water for 10 minutes.
This recipe is inspired by/adapted from The World’s Best Chocolate Oatmeal Cake.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Vegan
If you make this Vegan Chocolate Oatmeal Cake and post it on Instagram, be sure to tag me @holisticallie and #holisticallie so I can see!
Lauren says
Fabulous cake! Love how dense and chocolatey it is. The frosting is good as well.
Marc says
Found this through a Google search and made it for a dinner I hosted tonight. Really delicious, you’d never know it’s vegan. Will be making it again.
Sarah K says
This was a big hit with my family! I did have to bake it for 40 mins, and even then the toothpick did not come out clean (I think due to the melting of the chocolate chips). My frosting also seemed drier—more like a flaky topping—than the images shown, and there was more of it than could fit on the cake (I might half the frosting recipe next time). But it was delicious and I will definitely make it again!
Allison says
Hi Sarah! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment! And thank you for the feedback. It’s been awhile since I’ve made this recipe, so I will take your feedback into consideration and see if I can make some tweaks!