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This vegan chocolate marshmallow cake takes less than 2 hours of active time, but it looks like you spent way longer. It’s easy enough for a beginner baker. Decorate the sheet cake with pastel buttercream frosting right in the pan you baked it in. Then easily transport it to a birthday party, an easter dinner, or a spring baby shower. Omit the marshmallow peeps for a birthday cake.

This 9"x13" cake has 24 servings.

Table of Contents

(click the links below to skip to the section you’re looking for)

• Chocolate Cake Recipe
• Marshmallow Frosting
• Decorating Instructions
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Video
• Nutritional Information
• Contact Me with Questions
• Similar Recipes

This was such a fun cake to make! I love how easy it is and how it still looks so pretty. I almost feel guilty accepting compliments for it because it’s that easy.

When I first published this cake recipe in 2020, there were 2 popular cake trends. One was a sheet cake trend. The other was piping buttercream designs onto parchment paper and then waiting until they harden before placing them on the cake. I got the idea for piping bunnies that look like marshmallow peeps from Steph Q of Qookie The Cakery. Her cakes are so cute!

Since marshmallow peeps aren’t vegan, this is the closest I’ll be getting to having marshmallow peeps on Easter. They’re not technically made of pastel marshmallows, but they do taste like marshmallows.

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Ingredients for Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• 2 cups (458g) nondairy milk
• 1 tablespoon (14g) apple cider vinegar
• 2 ½ cups (325g) all-purpose flour
• ⅔ cup (55g) cocoa powder
• ½ tablespoon (7g) baking soda
• 1 teaspoon (4g) baking powder
• ⅔ cup (144g) sunflower oil
• 1 ½ cups (325g) organic or vegan sugar
• 2 teaspoons (9g) vanilla extract

How to Make Vegan Cake for a Chocolate and Marshmallow Cake

prep time: 15 minutes | bake time: 35 minutes

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Combine the tablespoon (14g) of vinegar and 2 cups (458g) of plant-based milk, stir, and let it sit to thicken.

Sift the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. This includes 2 ½ cups (325g) flour, ⅔ cup (55g) cocoa powder, ½ tablespoon (7g) baking soda, and 1 teaspoon (4g) of baking powder into another bowl. I also sift my 1 ½ cups (325g) sugar, but it’s probably not necessary to sift sugar.

Whisk all the dry ingredients (and sugar) until it’s all one color.

Coat a lasagna pan with any vegetable oil or vegan nonstick spray. I use an oil sprayer because I call myself an environmentalist (but I refuse to do the bucket in the shower thing). Don’t forget to also oil the sides of the pan.

Check the oven temperature before continuing. You want the oven to be at 325°F (165°C) at the minimum before starting the next step. The reason for this is because once the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients touch, they start their chemical reaction. We want that magic to happen in the oven, not on the counter waiting for the oven to heat up.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in no particular order. Add the buttermilk you made earlier (the vinegar mixed with nondairy milk). Also add ⅔ cup (144g) sunflower oil and 2 teaspoons (9g) vanilla.

Mix using a baking spatula. You can use a stand mixer for this step, but make sure you don’t over mix it. You only want to mix until you can no longer see any dry ingredients.

Pour the chocolate cake batter into the oiled 9x13 oven safe pan. Use a silicone spatula to get every last bit of batter out of the mixing bowl. Spread it out so it covers the entire bottom. Lick the spatula if you want. (If you don’t want to, please bring this up in your next therapy session.)

Bake for 35 minutes, or until when you insert a toothpick into a few places, it comes out clean every time. Don’t open the oven door until you’re ready to test the cake for doneness. Opening the oven door too soon could cause your cake to sink.

Set your baked chocolate sheet cake on cooling racks to cool. Mine takes 3 hours, but it can depend on the temperature in your kitchen. You can speed things up by cooling it in the kitchen for an hour and then transferring it to the fridge for an hour. You just want to make sure it’s completely cooled throughout before starting to frost it.

Ingredients for Vegan Pastel Marshmallow Frosting Recipe

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• ¾ cup (132-168g) vegan butter or margarine
• ¾ cup (144-153g) palm shortening
• 2 teaspoons (9g) vanilla extract
• 5 cups (600g) organic powdered sugar
• 2 jars (12.6oz/356g) vegan marshmallow fluff
• 4 colors of vegan food coloring

How to Make and Color Frosting for a Chocolate Marshmallow Cake

prep time: 50 minutes

Whisk ¾ cup (144-153g) Spectrum sustainable organic palm shortening and ¾ cup (132-168g) vegan butter or margarine. Use a stand mixer or a handheld electric mixer and let it run for a few minutes.

Add 2 teaspoons (9g) vanilla extract mix for another minute.

Stop mixing and use a silicone spatula to scrape the sides.

Mix again until it’s light and fluffy.

Sift in the organic powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing for at least minute between each addition. Start the mixer on the lowest setting (so the powdered sugar doesn’t fly everywhere), and then gradually increase the speed to high. After mixing in the last of it, scrape the sides with a silicone spatula, and mix again.

Fold in the vegan marshmallow cream with a baking spatula. If you have trouble getting marshmallow cream out of the jar, you can put it in the microwave for 10-second increments, and that should help.

Divide the frosting into 4 separate bowls.

Add the food coloring to each bowl until you have the desired colors. You can use any vegan food coloring you prefer. I chose colors that match easter peeps.

How to Decorate a Marshmallow Chocolate Sheet Cake

decorating time: 30 minutes

Fill a disposable piping bag with each color of frosting. You should have 4 bags when you’re done filling them: one lavender, one yellow, one light pink, and baby blue. This step takes about 5 minutes.

Cut the tips of each disposable piping bag if you haven’t already.

Fit a piping bag with a Wilton large round tip 1A and place one disposable piping bag inside that.

Cut a piece of parchment paper small enough to fit on a cutting board, and make space in your fridge or freezer for it.

Pipe 3 bunnies onto the parchment paper. Use the method in my video below. You really only need 2 bunnies for the cake, but if you make extra, then you can pick the cutest ones.

Remove that color piping bag from the outer piping bag. Replace it with a new color.

Pipe 3 bunnies of the new color onto the parchment paper, using the same method. You want all the bunnies to look basically the same, but with different colors.

Repeat with the remaining colors. When you’re done, you should have 12 bunnies (3 of each color).

Place the parchment-paper-covered cutting board with all the bunnies into the freezer to set.

Gather sprinkles or any other decorative treats you plan to use to decorate your cake.

Remove the round tip from the outer piping bag. Replace it with the Wilton star tip 1M (which also happens to be my favorite tip; shhhh, don’t tell the other tips).

Stick one of the bags with colored frosting into the bag with the large open star tip.

Pipe 3 large frosting flowers randomly on top of the cake.

Replace with a new color, and repeat. Do this with at least 3 of the colors, or until you feel like there are enough large roses.

Pipe smaller little dollops (I think the frosting community refers to them as stars) using the same star tip. The motion is to quickly lift the bag up after each squeeze so they make a point at the top. Pipe as many as you like with all 4 colors.

Remove the star tip from the outer piping bag and replace it with the tip 6B. Now repeat the step above, but this time the dollops will look slightly different. You want to fill all the blank spaces, so you can’t see the chocolate cake at all.

Sprinkle the entire top of the cake with vegan sprinkles.

Place the marshmallow peep bunnies on top of the cake in random positions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I double this cake recipe and make a half sheet cake?

If you have a half sheet size pan (18" x 13") with tall enough sides (at least 1 and a half inches), you can double this recipe for a larger crowd. Set the timer for a 35 minute bake time. Then do the toothpick test in multiple spots. If it doesn’t pass the toothpick test, bake it for 5 more minutes. Repeat the 5-minute bake as many times as is needed until it passes the toothpick test.

Can I make chocolate marshmallow cupcakes with this recipe?

To make marshmallow and chocolate cupcakes, follow the recipe but scoop the batter into cupcake papers in 2 cupcake pans. Bake them for 18 minutes, and do the toothpick test. If they don’t pass the toothpick test, bake for 4 more minutes.

Can I incorporate mini marshmallows into the chocolate cake batter?

Vegan marshmallows tend to dissolve when baked, so I do not recommend folding them into the batter before baking. If you like playing with your food and want to add extra marshmallowy goodness to this cake recipe, here’s an idea. Consider dying Dandies mini marshmallows and then sprinkling them on top of the frosting.

How can I store this vegan easter peeps cake once it’s baked and decorated?

Wrap the top of the lasagna pan with cling wrap to keep the cake from drying out. Then, store it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it. This is also how to store leftover cake. If you don’t think you’ll eat leftovers within a week, freeze them.

Ingredient Details and Substitutions

• Nondairy Milk: I usually use organic soymilk because it curdles well for the buttermilk. However, I’ve used oat milk and it worked great too. You can use any kind of plant milk. If you don’t have any, you can even use coffee or water. Buy the cheapest vegan milk you can find (if you have a Grocery Outlet near you, that’s a good place to look).
• Apple Cider Vinegar: You can replace the apple cider vinegar in this recipe with the same amount of white vinegar, lemon juice, or lime juice. You just need some sort of acid to interact with the alkalinity of the baking soda to make the cake rise.
• Flour: I use organic unbleached all-purpose flour for most of my cake recipes because it’s really cheap at Costco. To make a gluten-free cake, replace the all-purpose flour with a gluten-free flour blend.
• Cocoa Powder: I use fair trade, organic cocoa powder, but you can use whatever kind you have. Don’t have cocoa powder? Replace ⅔ cup cocoa powder and ½ cup liquid in this recipe with 1 cup (6oz/170g) of melted vegan chocolate chips. This will produce a less moist cake, but it still tastes good.
• Baking Soda: Out of baking soda? Replace the ½ tablespoon (7g) baking soda with an extra 1 ½ tablespoons baking powder.
• Baking Powder: I use non-aluminum baking powder. Out of baking powder? Replace the 1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder in this recipe with an extra ¼ teaspoon (1-2g) baking soda.
• Sunflower Oil: If you avoid seed oils, replace the sunflower oil with avocado oil or coconut oil. If you don’t worry about seed oils, use any other plant oil. Some options include safflower oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, etc. People even make cakes with olive oil, but I don’t recommend it.
• Vegan Sugar: For the sugar in this recipe, you can use any number of sugars. Just make sure they’re vegan. Sucanat, coconut sugar, raw sugar, organic sugar, or sugar that is labeled vegan on the packaging are all good choices. If you’re not sure if your sugar is vegan, you can contact the company and ask. Or just avoid conventional white sugar or granulated sugar, and you should be ok.
• Vanilla Extract: If needed, you can replace the vanilla extract in both the cake and frosting with the same amount of powdered vanilla. Just make sure if you make this modification that you add them with the dry ingredients.
• Vegan Butter: Why is the weight for the vegan butter so varied? I know it’s super weird. Basically, all vegan butter has a different weight due to the variety of ingredients they all use. So, if you use organic whipped Earth Balance, ¾ cup weighs 132 grams. But if you use Violife vegan butter, ¾ cup weighs 168 grams. My frosting always turns out great even with these fluctuations, so don’t be too concerned about it. If you avoid soy, try the soy-free earth balance. Vegan Shortening: I use Spectrum sustainable organic palm shortening because I agree with their values. Depending on what brand of vegan shortening you choose, ¾ cup can weigh between 144 and 153 grams.
• Powdered Sugar: I always use organic powdered sugar from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods because they’re the cheapest. If you’re not sure if your powdered sugar is vegan, read my list of vegan powdered sugar brands.
• Vegan Marshmallow Fluff: The only company I know of who makes vegan marshmallow fluff is Dandies. I used 2 jars in this recipe, but I’ve also used 3 jars before and it was even better!
• Food Coloring: I used wilton gel colors the first time I made this recipe. The second time, I used color garden natural food coloring. I used light pink, purple, light yellow, and sky blue. Look at my list of vegan food coloring for other brands of vegan food coloring.

Here is what it looked like using natural colors.

Video

Here’s a video of me decorating this cake.

Nutrition Facts

• Servings: 24
• Calories per serving: 418
• Calcium per serving: 41mg
• Cholesterol per serving: 0mg
• Dietary Fiber per serving: 1g
• Iron per serving: < 1mg
• Potassium per serving: 70mg
• Protein per serving: 3g
• Total Carbohydrate per serving: 63g
• Total Fat per serving: 17g
• Total Sugars per serving: 46g
• Sodium per serving: 155mg
• Vitamin E per serving: 3mg

Comments or Questions?

If you make this easy vegan cake recipe, I would love it if you’d snap a pic, post to instagram, and tag me @vegandollhouse. It seriously makes my day/week/month!

Please message me (instagram or email) if you have any questions or feedback about the recipe.

Similar Recipes

If you like bunny shaped treats with marshmallows, you might like my bunny lollipops. I have a funfetti vegan bunny cake that is another fun vegan easter cake.

For other vegan easter recipes, check out my category of vegan easter recipes.

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I mostly cook with organic ingredients, but only specify organic when it’s necessary to ensure the item is vegan.

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