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Vegan Chocolate Chip Cake Recipe. This Chocolate Chip Quick Bread is super easy and popular to everyone. Add seasonal berries, make cupcakes, add a streusel for variation. Vegan Soyfree Nutfree Recipe. GF option Jump to Recipe
If you loved the Cinnamon Swirl Cake, you’ll love this simple chocolate chip cake as well!
A simple vanilla cake batter with chocolate chips or chunks mixed in. Whats not to love! Add berries, pineapple, apple, nuts or other additions. Swirl in some nut butter. Make it into cupcakes. Loads of variations. This cake is not too sweet and more a quick bread. Add a decadent chocolate frosting or icing for dessert!
Make this loaf your own for breakfast. See GF and no oil options in the recipe notes. This quick bread is Soft, Easy, uses few ingredients and is flexible.
Try more Baked Quick Breads and Cakes
- Eggnog Pound Cake
- 1 Bowl Banana Apple Bread. Can be made into muffins
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Marble Cake
- Lemon blueberry pound cake
Gluten-free options
- GF Cashew Butter Chocolate Marble Cake.
- Gluten-free Cinnamon Roll Bread yeast-free.
- GF Carrot Banana Bread – Also grain-free.
- Sweet Potato Crumb Cake. GF
For no oil and no refined sugar cake, try this Turmeric Coconut Loaf.
Slices after sitting for a day above.
Chocolate/cocoa industry is known for rampant child labor and slavery in cacao bean farms. Thankfully, brands have been recognizing this and offering fair trade and slavery free options. See Food empowerment project’s list of companies and brands here. Most vegan brands, not all, offer ethical cocoa products.
Tips to Bake Soft, moist Vegan Cake/bread Loafs
- When baking loafs or thicker cakes, you want a thicker batter compared to cupcakes or regular cake batter. The thinner batter takes much longer to cook the moisture out and might tend to be gummy at the bottom or fall in the center.
- Many factors determine the consistency of the batter. How the flour is measured, the kind of flour etc. Start with less flour when using whole grain flours and add more as needed. Too stiff a batter will dry out faster while baking.
- Let the cake cool lightly covered with a towel or a container so that all the moisture doesnt evaporate out. This is esp helpful when baking without oil or with whole grain flours. If baking with no or less oil, add more topping such as a streusel, oats, more chocolate chips or berries. The thicker topping allows more moisture to stay in the cake.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Wet:
- 1 cup non dairy milk, , such as almond or soy
- 1 tbsp non dairy yogurt or applesauce or more non dairy milk
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, or other vinegar
- 1/3 cup unrefined sugar, , use 1 tbsp more for sweeter
- 1/4 cup oil (neutral such as organic safflower or canola), or use 3 tbsp applesauce to make oil-free
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- a few drops of almond extract, , optional but wonderful
Dry:
- 2 cups of flour, (I use a mix of unbleached all purpose(1.25 cups) and wheat(3/4 cup)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips, , I like a mix of mini and regular size vegan chocolate chips/chunks/chopped up dark chocolate
Instructions
- Line a 9 by 5 inch or smaller loaf pan with parchment or grease well. Preheat the oven to 360 deg F (182 deg C). In a bowl, mix in the wet ingredients until the sugar is fully combined.
- In another bowl, whisk 1 3/4 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add spices of choice if you like. See GF option in Notes below. (Optional: Add 2 tbsp almond flour to the dry for additional texture). At this point you can also toss in seasonal berries of choice.
- Fold the dry into the wet until just about combined. Add more flour if needed 1 tbsp at a time to make just slightly thick batter (you might not need any depending on the flours used).
- Add 1/3 cup chocolate chips and mix in. Pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top. or top with a streusel of choice.
- Bake for 50 to 55 mins. Cool for 10 mins, then remove from pan. Cool completely before slicing. Store on the counter for upto 2 days, refrigerated for upto 7 days, freeze (slices) for upto a month. See Tips above for troubleshooting.
- To make cupcakes/muffins: Bake for 22 to 24 mins for regular size muffinsBake in a brownie pan, bake for 40 mins.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I was just measuring out the ingredients for the gf mix and realized I forgot to ask! Can I use arrowroot starch/powder or corn starch? Potato does sit well in my stomach. Sorry for short notice…crossing my fingers you may be online 🙂
you should ping me on the facebook page. Much quicker response there. I havent had good luck with arrowroot. Mix the batter and bake 1 muffin to see how it works. i would bake all muffins coz loafs are have more tendency to fail(gummy or dry or fall) with the larger amount.
Do know what adjustments I can make to use maple syrup instead of sugar?
Thanks
just sub directly 1/3 cup maple syrup. you’ll probably need a tbsp or so more flour than what you would have needed with sugar.
Thanks!
Thank you so much. I was looking for this answer. Can I use just almond flour for the whole recipe?
nope. Almond flour doesnt have gluten, so theres no binding. youll need atleast a fourth of the amount in starch such as potato starch
This looks great! I’m going to try this out in a muffin tin. Also, thanks for the baking tips! For someone who is not very good at baking, I always appreciate any info that can help me out. ☺️
I’m gluten free but allergic to almonds. What flour could I use to replace the almond flour?
You can use a gf blend of choice + a bit of oat flour and bake into cupcake/muffins. Make the batter into a slightly stiff batter, then bake 1 muffin to see how the batter holds up. Cover the muffin pan lightly with parchment while baking if its gummy, then add some more oat flour and starch to make it a bit more stiff.
Yum! My stomach is growling!
Would 1/4 cup coconut sugar work in this recipe vs the sugar outlined in the recipe?
Thanks
Yes any sugar will work. You want to use atleast 1/3 cup as this is a mildly sweet batter since there are semi sweet chocolate chips to help balance. coconut sugar is a bit less sweet than regular sugar to begin with, so the batter might be a tad bit bland with low amounts. it will also add a bit of color to the batter.
I made this today and used 1/3 cup coconut sugar. It was delicious and very easy to make
I do not like an overly sweet bread and this one is perfect.
Thanks for an awesome recipe!
awesome!!
Looks great! Can’t wait to try
When are you writing an instant pot book?! I’ll be the first to buy it.
😃
Me too! I’ll be the second. 🙂
Its hard to post on the blog consistently and write a book :). Lets see. I need to hire an intern for the blog and also need a publisher who takes up a good load of the editing work 🙂
What type of oil did you use?
any neutral oil such as safflower or canola
This looks soooo amazing! And thanks so much for including a gluten-free option 🙂 I can have fat but very little sugar so I’m wondering how much I could decrease the sugar and still have this cake turn out. Thanks so much!
probably half. some sugar is also coming from the chocolate chips. so if you use berries or sthing, that will cut down a lot. Use cronometer.com to calculate and see the values and then change. Too low a sugar would also be a bit bland
I was planning on using unsweetened cocoa nibs. But I’m still not allowed 1/3c sugar in a loaf. So if I could decrease it to 1/4 cup without affecting the rising capability I’ll be ok….sweeter would be much nicer, but then I couldn’t eat it 🙂
1/4 cup should be just fine
Wonderful! thank you!
This looks fantastic! Omg, I love it!