Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

I spent nearly two hours making and frosting this cake, and then I didn’t even have a bite until I came home from work the following day. It was without a doubt the best cake I’ve ever made […not that I’ve made a ton of them]. It’s [mostly] vegan, too, not that it matters. You’ll never know, and it’s just as light and cakey as the best of them.

I actually had to research what the hell makes a yellow cake different than a white cake; Egg yolk, apparently. So when you’re making the vegan version, you ditch the eggs and toss in some turmeric. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. You don’t taste it, it adds a splash of color, and all you have to do is make sure you whisk it well enough that it doesn’t leave weird clumps.

Cake flour. I have never purchased any. I’ve never used any. I did a little more research [the things I do for cake], and you can make your own with some sifted all-purpose and cornstarch. It’s probably not exactly the same, especially when you whisk it for a long time vs sifting [who owns a sifter], but definitely made a difference. The original recipe by Oh, Ladycakes utilizes two 6″ springform pans, which I wish I had, but definitely never will. Layer cakes are sooooo unnecessary in my house and my severely limited kitchen cupboard space. I went the 9″ single layer cake route.

The frosting, oh the frosting. I couldn’t bring myself to buy the non-hydrogenated shortening, so I just used more butter. See? Mostly vegan. It was so good. I ate a ton while making it. I ate a ton that didn’t make it onto the cake after it was frosted. I saved it and nibbled over the next few days. Who am I?

Inspiration: Oh, Ladycakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup minus one tablespoon coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup plus five tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 6 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350° and prepare a 9″ cake pan. In a liquid measuring cup, pour in the coconut milk and stir in the apple cider vinegar. Set aside while you prepare everything else.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour and cornstarch. Feel free to sift into a separate bowl if you have one of those fancy sifters. I didn’t. Add the salt, baking powder, baking soda, and turmeric. Continue to whisk until it is fully combined. Pour this into another bowl and set aside. In the stand mixer’s bowl, mix together the the oil, sugar, vanilla, and almond. Alternate mixing the coconut milk and flour into the sugar mixture. Start with the half of the flour, then half of the coconut milk, and then the rest of the flour. Continue to mix until there are no clumps left. Whisk in the rest of the coconut milk.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Let the cake cool in the pan for a minimum of 15 minutes. Because I didn’t use a springform pan, I needed to run a knife around the edge to finally get it to insert onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Cream together the butter, coconut milk, vanilla, powdered sugar, and cocoa to make the frosting. Frost only when the cake is completely cool so it doesn’t melt.