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Vegan Brownie Cookie Dough Cake With Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Britt Berlin
|Updated Dec 15, 2021
@the_bananadiaries

The holidays are all about indulgence, but who says you can’t indulge while being vegan (and gluten-free, at that!)? This super fudgy vegan brownie cookie dough cake is the best of both worlds. This rich chocolate cake is almost like biting into a brownie covered in the best cookie dough frosting ever. Vegan or not, this entirely dairy-free and egg-free cake is sure to wow even the most difficult of crowds!

Brownie Cookie Dough Cake

Serves 16

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 33 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3 cups flour, sifted (or gluten-free flour)
  • 1 cup cacao powder
  • 1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond or coconut milk with 2 tsp lemon juice, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup dairy-free yogurt, room temperature
  • ½ cup melted chocolate
  • 1 cup just boiling water (just after boiling)
  • 2 tsp dissolvable espresso powder

For the Vegan Cookie Dough Frosting 

  • 1 cup vegan butter, softened
  • 1 cup flour, toasted and cooled
  • ¾ cup coconut sugar
  • 3  cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2-3 tbsp dairy-free milk
  • ¾ cup vegan-friendly chocolate chips

For the Vegan Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

  • 1 cup vegan butter, softened
  • 3  cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 1 cup cacao powder

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease three 8″ cake pans with oil and lightly flour. Alternatively, you can also insert a parchment paper slip at the bottom of the cake pan. See note for alternate cake sizes.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cacao powder, coconut sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.
  3. Add in the dairy-free milk mixture, applesauce, melted chocolate, and dairy-free yogurt, and mix until just combined. It won’t fully combine here, but just until the wet ingredients are incorporated.
  4. Add in the boiling espresso water and gently mix again until it becomes more like a traditional cake batter.
  5. Divide the batter evenly into each of the cake pans, and bake for 30-33 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Remove from the oven and let rest in the pan for 10 minutes while the pans cool. Then remove the cakes from the pans and place them onto a cooling rack to fully cool before frosting. When ready to frost, prepare the vegan chocolate buttercream and vegan cookie dough buttercream.
  7. Vegan Cookie Dough Buttercream: Beat the vegan butter until creamed, about 3 minutes. Sift in the powdered sugar, flour, coconut sugar, and vanilla extract and continue beating until it becomes a fluffy buttercream. Use the dairy-free milk if needed to help incorporate the dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  8. Vegan Chocolate Buttercream: Beat the vegan butter until creamed, about 3 minutes. Then sift in the powdered sugar and continue beating until it becomes a fluffy vanilla buttercream. Add in the cacao powder, and start by beating the cacao powder into the middle so as not to create a dust around the bowl, then beat the entire buttercream mixture together with the cacao powder until fully incorporated.
  9. Assemble the cake: Spread in between each layer the vegan cookie dough buttercream frosting. Use the chocolate frosting to coat the outside of the cake. Serve and enjoy!

Nutritionals 

Calories 562 | Total Fat 15g | Saturated Fat 4.7g | Sodium 275mg | Total Cabrohydrates 106g | Dietary Fiber 4.4g | Total Sugars 75g | Protein 5.8g | Calcium 262mg | Iron 3mg | Potassium 130mg |

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