My delicious Vegan Chocolate Orange Cake will satisfy your cravings for this classic flavour combination. Forget Terry's Chocolate Orange and bake yourself this quick and easy vegan loaf cake topped with light chocolate buttercream.
I don't know about you but I am partial to easy loaf cakes and this super quick to throw together vegan chocolate orange cake is one of my recent favourites and on par with my all time favourite - Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake.
It's moist, light and full of that classic chocolate orange flavour combination we all love. Covered with delicious and fluffy vegan chocolate buttercream with hint of orange in it as well.
What's not to like?
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✔️ Why you'll love this recipe!
- Quick and easy to make
- Classic chocolate orange flavour combination
- Perfect as a dessert or simply with a cuppa whenever you fancy
- Freezer friendly (without buttercream)
- Vegan, egg, nut and dairy-free
📝 Ingredients and substitutes
Here's what you'll need to make my Vegan Chocolate Orange Cake:
CAKE
Self-Raising Flour - To ensure that extra lift. If you don't have self- raising flour to hand, you can make your own by adding 2.5 teaspoon of baking powder to 250g of plain (all-purpose) flour.
Baking Powder & Baking Soda - Raising agents.
Caster Sugar - You could also use golden caster sugar. Granulated sugar will work as well but I tend to use caster sugar in baking as it's much finer and mixes in easier.
Cocoa/Cacao Powder - Our source of chocolatey goodness. Make sure to use pure cocoa/cacao and not chocolate drink powder.
Vanilla Extract - For added flavour and yes it does work with chocolate orange.
Soya Milk - I recommend soya milk in most of my vegan bakes as it gives the best and most consistent results. You could try using oat or almond milk here instead.
Oranges - Use your favourite oranges here. I like blood oranges (when in season) but for the rest of the year I tend to use Navel. Try using organic and unwaxed if you can especially as using zest. You could substitute orange juice from the carton and orange extract for the zest.
Olive oil - I use light olive oil in my baking but any neutral tasting oil will work.
Salt - Just a pinch for flavour (optional).
Buttercream
Vegan Block Butter - I use Flora Plant (Unsalted), Naturli or Stork Block (all available in the UK).
Icing (Powdered) Sugar
Cocoa/Cacao Powder
Plant Milk - You might need it to adjust consistency of your buttercream if it appears too stiff. See note on using orange extract below before adding plant milk.
Orange Zest or Orange Extract - If using orange extract, add it first before adjusting buttercream consistency with plant milk or you might end up with runny mess.
🔪 How to make Vegan Chocolate Orange Cake
Ingredient quantities & detailed instructions to be found in recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Preheat the oven to 160C(Fan)/325F/Gas Mark 3.
Lightly grease and line your loaf tin with baking paper overlapping on both sides for easy cake removal later.
Finely grate zest of one orange.
Add soya milk to a medium jug, squeeze 100ml of orange juice (or use one from the carton) and add it too. Acid from the juice will make soya milk curdle slightly which is what we want. Set aside.
In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, cocoa/cacao powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt (if using). Set aside.
To the jug with soya milk and juice add vanilla extract, orange zest and/or extract, oil and give it all a good whisk.
Next, add wet ingredients to dry ones and mix together until incorporated and you can no longer see any dry flour. It will be a pretty lumpy mixture which is fine.
Pour cake batter into prepared loaf tin and bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
Once baked, take the cake out of the oven and let it cool in the tin for a few minutes before you turn it out onto the rack to cool completely.
As your cake cools prepare chocolate orange buttercream by beating together vegan butter, icing sugar and cocoa powder until nice and fluffy.
Feel free to add a drop of plant milk to adjust consistency but hold off on it if using orange extract instead of zest.
Add orange zest or orange extract (to taste) and beat them in.
Once you've added the extract and mixture still appears stiff, add a drop of plant milk to loosen it a bit.
Once cooled, decorate your cake with chocolate orange buttercream and some extra orange zest on top (optional).
Enjoy!
🍽 Equipment
I use my old 2lb silicone loaf tin I've had now for 15 years for most of my loaf cakes but any 2lb non-stick loaf tin will do.
For making buttercream simple hand mixer with beaters and a large bowl will do the job.
I'm also considering getting myself this mixing bowl splatter guard lid to prevent icing sugar flying everywhere as that's my least favourite part when making buttercream.
🥡 Storage
The cake will keep in the airtight container for 2-3 days.
Freezer friendly without buttercream.
💭 Pro Tips
Use kitchen scales and oven thermometer for best results. Both will ensure the accuracy, you would be surprised how inaccurate built in oven thermostats are.
Take care not to overmix the batter. It will be lumpy but as long as there are no visible signs of dry flour mix it's fine.
Use orange juice from the carton to make up the difference if your oranges don't have enough juice. You can even use the carton version altogether.
Don't let your cake sit in a tin for long before putting it in the oven. Once your batter is ready, pour it into the tin and in the oven it goes.
For even more intense orange flavour add a teaspoon of orange extract to cake batter together with the zest or you could try a dash of orange liqueur.
❓FAQs
I haven't tried using gluten-free flour to make this cake but don't see why it wouldn't work. Use your favourite self-raising gluten-free flour or plain version with extra raising agents (make sure your baking soda and powder are gluten-free too).
Have you tried my Vegan Chocolate Orange Cake?
Please consider giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in recipe card below and share your views or tips in the comments.
😋 More orange recipes you might enjoy
📋 Recipe
Vegan Chocolate Orange Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake
- 250 g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 180 g caster sugar or use granulated sugar
- 40 g cocoa or cacao powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 100 ml neutral oil/ light olive oil
- 200 ml soya milk see notes
- 100 ml orange juice freshly squeezed or from the carton
- zest of 1 orange see notes
- 1-2 teaspoon orange extract (optional) see notes
Chocolate Buttercream
- 80 g vegan block butter I use Stork block, Flora Plant or Naturli
- 150 g icing (powdered) sugar
- 20 g cocoa or cacao powder
- zest of 1 orange or 1 teaspoon orange extract
- drop of plant milk to adjust consistency if necessary (see notes)
- extra orange zest for decoration
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160C(Fan)/325F/Gas Mark 3.
- Lightly grease and line your loaf tin with baking paper overlapping on both sides for easy cake removal later.
- Finely grate zest of one orange. You could also use 1-2 teaspoon of orange extract instead of zest or 1 teaspoon as an extra with the zest.
- Add soya milk to a medium jug, squeeze 100ml of orange juice (or use one from the carton) and add it too. Acid from the juice will make soya milk curdle slightly which is what we want. Set aside.
- In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, cocoa/cacao powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt (if using). Set aside.
- To the jug with soya milk and juice add vanilla extract, orange zest and/or orange extract (if using), oil and give it all a good whisk.
- Next, add wet ingredients to dry ones and mix together until incorporated and you can no longer see any dry flour. It will be a pretty lumpy mixture which is fine.
- Pour cake batter into prepared loaf tin and bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
- Once baked, take the cake out of the oven and let it cool in the tin for a few minutes before you turn it out onto the rack to cool completely.
- As your cake cools prepare chocolate orange buttercream by beating together vegan butter, icing sugar and cocoa powder until nice and fluffy.
- Feel free to add a drop of plant milk to adjust consistency but hold off on it if using orange extract instead of zest.
- Add orange zest or orange extract (to taste) and beat it in as well.
- Once you've added the extract and mixture still appears stiff, add a drop of plant milk to loosen it a bit.
- Once cooled, spread your cake with chocolate orange buttercream and some extra orange zest on top (optional).
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Nutritional information is approximate, per serving based on 10 servings and should be treated as a rough guideline only.
- If you don't have self-raising flour you can make your own by mixing together plain flour and 2.5 teaspoon of baking powder.
- Soya milk works best in vegan bakes but you could also use oat or almond milk.
- I like using zest of 1 orange in my cake but you could substitute it with 1-2 teaspoon of orange extract. You can also add 1 teaspoon of extract together with zest for even stronger orange flavour.
- When making buttercream and using orange extract instead of zest make sure to add it first before adjusting consistency with plant milk or you will end up with runny mess.
- Finished cake can be stored in the airtight container for up to 3 days or frozen (without buttercream).
Lisa says
I have meant to leave the comment for a while now... We love this loaf cake. It is my go to for when I fancy baking something quick and easy. Thank you!
joskitchenlarder says
Thank you for your kind comment Lisa, I'm so pleased to hear that! x