Chocolate Salad Cake

published on

vegan chocolate salad cake with galaxy icing

♫ Listening to: Painful Like by Austra ♫

This recipe will make 24 cupcakes, four 4" cakes, or 18-24 donuts (depending on size and shape). These also passed the Twin Toddler Taste Test (without icing).

Vegan Chocolate Salad Cake Ingredients

Dollhouse Shortcut

Buy plain vegan donuts to decorate and skip making the chocolate salad cake

  • ½ cup nondairy milk
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
  • 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 ½ cups unbleached white flour
  • ½ cup cocoa powder
  • ½ tablespoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 egg replacers (I used ener-g)
  • ¾ cup sunflower oil
  • 2 cups organic, vegan, or raw sugar\*
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups finely grated zucchini (~10-12 ounces or 1 medium zucchini)
  • 2 cups grated carrots (~10-12 ounces or 4 medium carrots)

Vegan Chocolate Salad Cake Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Combine vinegar and nondairy milk and let sit.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder in their own bowl.

Mix together oil, sugar, 2 eggs worth of any egg replacer, and vanilla in a different bowl. Stir until combined. You can use a stand mixer or a handheld electric mixer, or you can also just do this by hand.

Sift dry ingredients into the wet and mix until smooth.

Add the grated veggies (I use my food processor to grate the veggies quickly) and mix until incorporated.

Fill the cake pans about ½ full. I used donut pans.

Bake for 22 minutes for cupcakes, 18 minutes for donuts, or 32 minutes for 4” springform cakes (If you’re using a different size/shape, just bake until when you insert a toothpick into the center of one, it comes out clean).


Vegan Galaxy Icing Ingredients

Vegan Galaxy Icing Directions

Whisk the oil and milk using a stand mixer or a handheld electric mixer on high until well mixed.

Whisk in the powdered sugar, slowly, one cup at a time. Stop adding powdered sugar when the consistency is dipable (slightly thinner than molasses).

Divide the icing into as many bowls as colors you want to use.

Add vegan food coloring to each bowl until desired color is achieved.

Decorate the chocolate salad cake with galaxy icing, pearl dust and edible glitter stars (optional).

vegan galaxy donuts

Video

Here’s a video that shows you how I did it.

vegan chocolate salad cake with galaxy icing

If you like these, you might also like my chocolate galaxy cake.

Disclaimer: While I know that the ingredients in edible fairy dust and glitter stars are vegan, they certainly aren’t good for you. However, I also realize that they are consumed in small quantities, so I’m okay with using them. I can also only attest to the ingredients being vegan. I cannot speak to the ethics of Wilton as a company or their stance on animal testing. If you know more than I do about this, I’d love to hear from you.

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* I use mostly organic ingredients when I cook. I realize that not everyone has the disposable income to buy only organic ingredients. So, I only specify organic on the ingredients that matter: when buying the organic (or non-GMO) version is the only way to ensure that an item is vegan.

This post links to items I used when I made this recipe. If you click on the purple Buy Now button on a product page, you will go to a website (like Amazon) where you can buy the same product I used. Sometimes, the store you purchase from (Amazon, Etsy, etc.) will pay me for referring you. This costs you nothing extra, and I would never recommend a product that I don’t use. These affiliate programs help me buy the ingredients to create these recipes for you. Read more about this in my privacy policy.

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Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Um. Yeah. You had me at "chocolate salad" :)
Zsu Dever -⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

And these are the prettiest doughnuts/cakes I've ever seen! I'm totally making these for a special occasion or when I want to impress the pants off of someone (not literally of course b/c my husband wouldn't be too fond of that).
Mary Ellen -⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Your Doughnut Cakes are just beautiful, wish I had one right now!
Miz Helen -⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Will powdered food coloring work in the icing recipe? Thank you.
Sarah -⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐