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Lightly frosted vegan black forest cake with cherries on top.
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5 from 2 votes

Vegan Black Forest Cake

Vegan Black Forest Cake is the best part of chocolate cake with a rich cherry filled and cream frosting. You'll love the intense flavor and how easy it is to get this together!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 16 slices
Calories: 563kcal

Ingredients

For the Cake

For the Frosting

Cherry Liqueur Syrup

  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup water
  • ¼ cup cherry liqueur (sub with cherry juice for non-alcoholic version)

To Assemble

  • 2 ½ cups pitted dark cherries, fresh (preferred) or frozen (thawed first)

Instructions

For the Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 350F and prep three 8″ cake pans (or 2 9" pans for 2 layers) with nonstick spray or vegan butter and parchment paper.
  • Combine dairy free milk, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract to make vegan buttermilk. Set aside.
  • Use a large bowl and hand whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
  • Next add oil and vegan buttermilk (vinegar, vanilla and dairy free milk mixture). Mix with a spatula until just combined. 
  • Pour in boiling hot water into the batter and carefully stir to combine. Batter will be loose and thin but this is 100% supposed to be this way. 
  • Evenly split up the cake batter into the prepared pans and bake them together for about 33 - 37 minutes (start checking at 30 minutes) or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 15 minutes in the pans, then remove and let cool to room temp before frosting.

For the Frosting

  • In a large bowl cream together butter and coconut cream. Add salt and beat again.
  • Add ½ cup of powdered sugar at a time, beating between each addition. Check consistency -If too thick add 1 tablespoon of coconut milk at a time until it's thick but spreadable. Otherwise, pour in vanilla and beat on high for 30 seconds.

For the Syrup

  • And sugar and water to a saucepan over medium heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Let It come to a boil.
  • Boil for one minute, then remove from heat. Add liqueur and stir together.

To Assemble

  • Place one layer of cake down. Brush the top with ⅓ of the syrup. Add ⅓ of your frosting on top and then push ⅓ of the cherries into the top of the frosting. Repeat with remaining layers.
  • Decorate the top with more cherries and/or shaved chocolate as desired.

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 563kcal | Carbohydrates: 93g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 592mg | Potassium: 365mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 64g | Vitamin A: 101IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 94mg | Iron: 3mg