Vegan Cocoa Apple Cake

My another successful baking experience with Taste of Home’s recipe! I had bookmarked this apple cake recipe quite a while ago and got the chance to try it recently and it was a super duper hit. The original recipe by itself is egg free and vegan but I made some healthy changes.

I decided to use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour, reduced the quantity of oil and substituted some of it with unsweetened applesauce and the result was a very moist, delicious and guilt free vegan cocoa apple cake. This recipe is quite similar to the whacky vegan chocolate cake except for the fact that we are using lemon juice instead of vinegar. This is my first experience with lemon juice as an egg substitute and I was not sure what to expect but was super excited after tasting the cake because it was so soft and light. I was quite unsure about the quantity of lemon juice because I have read that 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of baking soda can be used to replaced 1 egg and that vinegar can be substituted with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and this recipe uses only 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. I was going back and forth about using 1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon but finally decided to follow the original recipe itself and was completely satisfied with the apple cake.

Recently I baked a peanut butter quick bread with whole wheat flour and it tasted yucky and I had to throw it away just like that. I don’t know if its the brand of whole wheat flour or the recipe. So I’m not sure how this recipe would turn out with plain whole wheat flour as against whole wheat pastry flour. So if you don’t have whole wheat pastry flour go with all purpose flour itself as mentioned in the original recipe. Regular whole wheat flour doesn’t work well in all recipes. But I have to mention that my bottle gourd chocolate cake came out very well with whole wheat flour. That was a different brand of flour, so I guess its the brand that makes the difference.

Vegan Cocoa Apple Cake Recipe
4.0 from 1 reviews
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Prep time: 15 Mins
Cook time: 35 Mins
Yields: 8×8 inch square cake cut into 16 squares
Check out this amazing vegan cocoa apple cake recipe. Its simple to bake but has a great taste!
Ingredients:
  • 1 and 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
  • 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 cup Water
  • 1/4 cup (dry measuring cup) Unsweetened Applesauce
  • 1 tablespoon Oil (I used canola)
  • 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 1 cup Peeled, Cored & Diced Apples into small pieces (1 medium)
  • 3/4 cup (See My Notes) Granulated Sugar
Procedure:
  1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C for 15 Mins. Lightly grease and line the cake tin with parchment paper. Spray the paper with non stick cooking spray as well.
  2. In a medium size bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Break the lumps in baking soda if any and mix it well with the flour.
  3. In another bowl mix together the water, applesauce, oil, lemon juice and vanilla extract.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry mixture and stir until just moistened.
  5. Fold in the apples and sugar into the batter and pour it in the prepared pan.
  6. Bake it for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. I checked mine after 30 minutes and it was done perfectly.
My Notes:
  1. The original recipe mentioned to use 2/3rd cup of sugar which is approximately 10 tablespoons. I read the review which mentioned that the apple cake was not sweet enough, so I increased it to 3/4th cup; which is approximately 12 tablespoons. I felt that the cake could have been a bit more sweet. I don’t mind the mild sweetness but another 2 tablespoons wouldn’t have hurt. So if you have a sweet tooth you may want to increase the quantity of sugar.

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63 Responses to “Vegan Cocoa Apple Cake”

  1. WorkingMaa says:

    Hi Madhuram,

    I love your recipes ! I have tried a few of them and they turn out great ! I have mentioned your site in my blog and I hope the word spread as far as possible ! Thanks for this great work ..

    – WorkingMaa

  2. Vera says:

    Today I tried this cake and its very delicious! I didn’t have applesauce, so I used butter instead. It needed around 45-50 minutes to be cooked though. All in all, I am thrilled to find this site. My hubby doesn’t eat eggs and this site is a lifesaver for me. Thx!

  3. Aarthy says:

    I tried this recipe today with little more sugar like you suggested
    and it came out great!!Now, I am excited to try more of your
    egg less recipes. Thanks :)

  4. Yojana says:

    I made this cake over the long weekend.. I actually made cupcakes
    and the recipe yielded 13 cupcakes.. I used just 1/4 cup brown
    sugar and 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp normal sugar.. The cupcakes
    turned very good, but i wouldn’t have mind a lil more sugar.. So I
    frosted the cupcakes following your buttercream icing recipe..
    This was the first time I tried frosting and had fun decorating them
    thanks for your recipes…

  5. Rupa says:

    Hi Madhu,
    I made this cake yesterday, but it ddint come out well.
    I followed the recipe exactly …dont know wat went wrong.
    The outcome was more like a Brownie than a cake.
    To start with the batter was very thick and so the cake / brownie was very very very chewy. There was not enough moisture either. I put 1 cup sugar and still it tasted very low on the sweet side. and so i made a vanilla frosting.

    - Rupa

  6. Neela says:

    Hi Madhuram,

    Any suggestions for diabetic say if a recipe uses 1 cup sugar what
    are other alternatives in a cake or cookie recipes. Please let me
    know. Thanks.

  7. priya says:

    Tried this cake twice.The first time it came out well.The second time it was more of a brownie…don’t know what went wrong.Will have to try it again.Wanted to share my feedback.Thanks.

  8. lakshmi says:

    Hello madhuram:

    You picture loks amazing and hence i tried it for my sisters birth day. I followed the ecipe to the T but it did not come out well. the cake was undercooked and i could taste the batter

    • Neela says:

      Hi,

      I was just looking for cake recipes, and I came across this
      website. [www.blog.fatfreevegan.com] I have not tried the recipes
      but worth looking at it. (In google also you can search
      (fatfreevegankitchen) – sinlessly deliciously same site.)
      Chocalate-Orange Cake recipe seems interesting or worth
      experimenting.

      Neela

  9. Allen Davis says:

    Thank you for publishing these eggless recipes. I have been trying to stay away from eggs because I need to keep my Cholestrol down.

  10. Rathi says:

    I just made these today and after reading the reviews, tweaked the recipe. I added 1 cup sugar and the sweetness was perfect and made and baked them as cupcakes. As I did not have wholewheat flour , I used 1 cup of chapathi flour and 1/2 cup of wholemeal flour. They came out pretty good. Am looking forward to trying out your other recipes too.

  11. Dipika says:

    Hi Madhuram,
    I love the concept of eggless baking. I am thoroughly making use of your website :)
    Really helps me prepare recipes instantly at anytime. very handy website..Appreciate it !!

    I see some of the recipes need apple sauce. Can I use orange marmalade instead?

    -Dipika

  12. Moco says:

    Hi! I tried this cake today, everything went well except it needs more sweetness in it. I didn’t know that it needed more sugar. So I just put icing on it.
    Thanks.

  13. Devi says:

    Hi !! i cannot find Unsweetened Applesauce can you please tell me what can i replace it with and even how can i prepare applesauce??
    Thank looking forward for your reply .

  14. momchef says:

    hi Madhuram:

    I plan to make this next week for my wedding ann. Can i substitute Pastry flour (which I dont have) with a mix of APF and wholewheat atta?

    Pls do let me know
    thx

  15. Vandana says:

    Hi, thanks for the recipe. I tried it with WW flour and it still came out good.

  16. maddy says:

    Nice Cake. I did make a sub by taking 3 medium Fuji apples,peeled and cored them and zipped them up in my Vitamix. This was in place of both the chopped apple and the apple sauce. I made a quick maple cinnamon soy cream cheese icing for it and dusted the top with a little cocoa.

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