Insanely delicious vegan coffee cake. This isn’t just a cake to eat with your coffee, this is a decadent coffee flavored cake!
It was a bit of a surprise to me when I found out that folks in America call something a coffee cake when it’s meant to be eaten alongside your coffee. It doesn’t necessarily have any coffee in it.
Whereas in the UK (and South Africa, where I’m from), a coffee cake is a cake flavored with coffee.
So this vegan coffee cake, is a coffee flavored cake. Just in case you were thinking it’s one of those ‘eat with your coffee’ kind of cakes, not flavored with coffee at all.
This isn’t one of those. But you CAN eat this with your coffee of course and the coffee flavor is just fabulous! If you love cakes then also check out the most amazing vegan chocolate cake and our awesome vegan biscoff cake.
The Coffee Flavor
I was vaguely considering going the route of using filter coffee in this, but decided against it because I’ve tried that before in a cake and the flavor doesn’t come through strongly enough.
So this coffee cake has 3 tablespoons of instant coffee powder, and the flavor is there, it’s sooo there.
And this way you don’t even have to put on a pot of coffee, you just have to spoon it in, it’s too easy.
What You Need For The Cake:
Ingredient Notes
- Instant coffee powder – we used instant espresso powder which worked great but any instant coffee will do perfectly.
- Canola oil – can be replaced with any vegetable oil.
- Apple cider vinegar – can be replaced with distilled white vinegar. This reacts with the baking soda and causes the cake to rise.
- Soy milk – can be switched for any non-dairy milk.
What You Need For The Frosting
Frosting Ingredient Notes
- Vegan butter – ideally choose a vegan butter that is as firm as possible. It can either be sticks or tub-style vegan butter, but the firmer the better. Very soft buttery spreads sometimes don’t work as well in frostings as they tend to be too soft.
- Coffee liqueur – you can use any coffee liqueur. We used kahlua. If you don’t want a boozy frosting then you can replace this with non-dairy milk.
- Instant coffee powder – this can be any instant coffee, we used instant espresso powder.
How To Make Vegan Coffee Cake
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Sift all purpose flour into your mixing bowl and add light brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and instant coffee powder. Mix together.
- Add soy milk, vanilla extract, oil and vinegar and mix into a batter. Don’t overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between two 8-inch cake pans (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with circles of parchment paper on the bottom).
- Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool for a few minutes before removing them from the cake pans and placing onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Add powdered sugar, vegan butter, coffee liqueur, instant coffee powder and vanilla extract to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth.
- When the cakes have cooled completely, frost them.
- Place the frosted cake into the fridge for an hour for the frosting to set.
Recipe Tips
Measure the flour correctly. Either weigh your flour on a food scale (for complete accuracy) or use the spoon and level method. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup.
Don’t over-mix your batter. Mix the batter until just mixed. Over-mixing the batter can affect the texture and the rise of the cake.
Bake immediately. When the batter is mixed, transfer to your cake pans and bake right away. Don’t let the batter sit for any length of time or it can affect the texture and rise.
Adapt for different cake pans. You can also make this cake in two 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 25 minutes.
Recipe FAQ
You can switch the regular flour for a gluten-free all purpose baking blend in the same quantity.
This recipe makes 18-24 cupcakes. Or you can check out our vegan coffee cupcakes recipe.
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay fresh for 2-3 days or covered in the fridge where it will last for up to a week.
You can freeze the frosted or unfrosted cake for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Cakes
- Easy vegan chocolate cake
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Vegan White Cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour (375g)
- 1 ½ cups Light Brown Sugar (300g)
- 1 ½ tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- ¾ tsp Salt
- 3 Tbsp Instant Coffee Powder or Instant Espresso Powder
- 1 ½ cups Soy Milk (360ml) or other non-dairy milk
- 3 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¾ cup Canola Oil (180ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 ½ Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Frosting:
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar (480g)
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- ¼ cup Coffee Liqueur (60ml)
- 1 Tbsp Instant Coffee Powder or Instant Espresso Powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 8-inch* cake pans with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.
- Sift all purpose flour into your mixing bowl and add light brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and instant coffee powder. Mix together.
- Add soy milk, vanilla extract, oil and vinegar and mix into a batter. Don’t overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared 8-inch cake pans and smooth down.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool for a few minutes before removing them from the cake pans and placing onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Add powdered sugar, vegan butter, coffee liqueur, instant coffee powder and vanilla extract to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth.
- When the cakes have cooled completely, frost them and then place the frosted cake into the fridge for an hour for the frosting to set.
Notes
- Measure the flour correctly. Either weigh your flour on a food scale (for complete accuracy) or use the spoon and level method. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup.
- 9-inch cake pans: You can also make this cake in two 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 25 minutes.
- Coffee Liqueur: You can use any coffee liqueur. We used kahlua. If you don’t want a boozy frosting though you can replace this with non-dairy milk.
- Gluten-Free: You can switch the regular flour for a gluten-free all purpose baking blend in the same quantity.
- Cupcakes: This recipe makes 18-24 cupcakes.
- Storing: Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay fresh for 2-3 days or covered in the fridge where it will last for up to a week.
- Freezing: You can freeze the frosted or unfrosted cake for up to 3 months.
- This recipe was first published in November 2017. It has been updated with new photos and the recipe itself has been increased to fit larger cake pans and adjusted for simplicity.
The best cake recipe ever! The only problem is you can’t stop eating it.
Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Jameelah!
Frosting is very sweet and doesn’t taste like coffee. Cake is a bit dry. Overall, just okay, but could be adjusted.
Really enjoyed this recipe! Thanks so much.
Thank you so much for your lovely review!
This cake was amazing. I have never weighed my ingredients before but I think it made a difference. I usually don’t enjoy the texture of vegan cakes but this was very similar to a cake made with dairy ingredients. This recipe goes into my permanent vegan folder!
Yes, weighing the ingredients really helps to get the best results! Thanks for your great review Kathy!
hi can it be made using swerve instead of sugar?
Hi Heidi, I’m not sure, we’ve only tested this recipe using brown sugar.
how long should I cook if I’m making cupcakes?
20 – 22 minutes. You can also check out our recipe for vegan coffee cupcakes
Genuinely couldn’t even tell it’s vegan! It has the taste and flavour of a regular cake which is AMAZING! My mum is vegan and struggles to find things like cakes that she likes in stores, so I bake things for her! I’ve made this to surprise her (and obviously I had to take a sample) and WOW. Honestly speechless! I’ll 100% be using this recipe in the future 🙂
So happy to hear you and your mom loved the cake Lee! Thanks so much for your great review!
Super delicious! Thanks for another great recipe, Alison.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Rosemary! Thanks for you review!
Hi, I’m sure this will be fantastic just like all your other recipes! Can i add chopped walnuts to the mix? And can I add coffee (liquid) to the icing instead of liqueur or milk for non-alcoholic coffee flavour? Thanks!
Hi Suki! That should be fine! Thanks for your review! 🙂
I added chopped walnuts to mine and a few on the top to finish it off to make Coffee and Walnut cake (my mum’s favourite) for Mother’s Day. She loved it and so did I! I’ve been vegan for 5 years but this was my first successful cake recipe! I’m delighted, it worked very well and was nice and light. Absolutely no heaviness in the sponge whatsoever. Now I’m excited to try more of your recipes! I didn’t have instant coffee so used ground instead which gave a nice, decently strong flavour but next time (and there’ll definitely be a next time!) I’ll use instant coffee to give a more intense flavour. Thank you, Alison.
Thank you so much for sharing and I’m glad you enjoy the recipe! The addition of the walnuts sounds delicious!
Made this and it was delicious. I didn’t have instant coffee or butter for the icing, so I made a strong shot of espresso coffee and added that and added a little less milk so it wasn’t too much liquid.
For the icing I found a vegan no butter icing on line and added another shot of espresso too that. It really worked and came out delicious! Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it and thanks so much for your review!
Hi, I haven’t yet made this recipe but just from reading it I can tell it will be good. I was wondering if the apple cider vinegar can be substitute for lemon juice, I have read that as it’s acidic like ACV that it would work perfect as a substitute. Apple cider vinegar is hard to come by here and is very expensive when you can find it. I also can’t stand the smell of vinegar, one whiff makes me sick so I would prefer to use something non-vinegar based. That’s why I think lemon juice should work but I was wondering your opinion and if you might have any other suggestions! Can’t wait to try this! Haven’t had a good coffee cake since going vegan so I really can’t wait! Lol
Lemon juice should work just fine Anna!
hi there, I’ve made this cake twice now, but the actual cake just doesn’t taste like coffee at all? it tastes like cinnamon, but I honestly can’t taste even a hint of coffee, what am I doing wrong??! help me!
Hi Hannah, maybe it’s the instant coffee powder? Have you tried experimenting with a different brand of instant coffee powder?
The best coffee cake ever! Non-traditional, but it is delicious
Thank you!