A rich vegan chocolate layer cake, with caramel frosting and toffee popcorn topping. An indulgent celebration cake, great for birthdays!
Recently I had the very exciting opportunity to work with The Vegan Society, creating a cake recipe to start on the front cover of their magazine!
As you may know, it’s World Vegan Month so to celebrate, they were looking for a drool-worthy cake made with ordinary ingredients you can find in a supermarket.
I couldn’t decide between chocolate and caramel so I combined the two with the addition of popcorn for decoration.
It was such an honour to have a recipe on their front cover and I’ve included a few extra recipes inside the magazine too.
So if you’re a member, you might have already received the magazine in the mail – let me know if you try any of my recipes featured!
But now onto the recipe.
Admittedly, there are a few components to this cake so it is a bit time-consuming. But SO worth it. I swear.
The vegan popcorn cake is a chocolate sponge made in four layers, sandwiched and frosted with caramel-infused buttercream.
Drizzled with extra caramel sauce and decorated with toffee popcorn.
📖 Recipe
Vegan Chocolate Toffee Popcorn Cake
An incredibly indulgent and delicious celebration cake, perfect for celebrations!
Ingredients
For the chocolate cake
- 375 g self-raising flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 350 g light brown sugar
- 100 g cocoa powder
- 120 ml vegetable oil , (sunflower or coconut oil work well)
- 680 ml dairy-free milk
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
For the caramel sauce
For the caramel buttercream frosting
- ⅓ batch of the caramel sauce
- 300 g good-tasting dairy-free butter
- 300 g icing sugar
For the caramel popcorn
- 1 small bag of popped salted popcorn, in a large bowl
- 100 ml water
- 200 g white sugar
- 1 tbsp dairy-free butter
Instructions
To make the toffee popcorn
- You need to work quickly making this so have a prepared large flat baking tray ready to set the popcorn and all the ingredients to hand.
- Add the sugar and water to a large pot on a medium-low heat. Don't stir but you can shake to stop it burning.
- Once the sugar turns a deep caramel colour, remove from the heat and add the tablespoon of dairy-free butter. It will bubble up, keep stirring until smooth.
- Then pour over the bowl of popped corn. Quickly transfer to the tray to set.
To make the chocolate cake
- Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and grease and line two 8-inch cake tins.
- Mix the wet ingredients together in a jug or medium bowl. Mix all the dry ingredients into a large bowl, and the whisk together until well combined. The vinegar will react with the rising agents so don't let it sit too long.
- Pour the batter equally between the two cake tins and bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Once baked, leave to cool completely before removing from the tins. Then freeze the two layers for a few hours, so it's easier to trim.
- Remove from the freezer and trim the tops to make them even. Now slice each layer in half, length-ways, to create four cake layers.
To make the caramel sauce
- Follow instructions from my "5 Minute Caramel Sauce" recipe. Allow it to cool before using, but note it will harden if chilled too much.
To make the caramel frosting
- Whisk the dairy-free butter in a large mixing bowl, adding the icing sugar a small bit at a time.
- Then whisk in the caramel sauce, working whilst the sauce is room temperature and at a pourable consistency to stop it from hardening.
- Let the buttercream chill in the fridge for at least a couple of hours before using.
To assemble the cake
- Add buttercream to the top of the first cake layer and sandwich together with the next layer, repeating and covering all layers with a generous dollop of the buttercream.
- Then frost the outside of the cake, starting with a thin crumb layer before adding a more generous coating.
- When the caramel sauce has cooled but is still a thick, pourable consistency, pour over the top of the cake, letting it run down the sides.
- Pile the popcorn on top and pour more caramel over to keep it in place.
- Leave in the fridge for a few hours to set and keep fresh, before serving.
Yukti Arora says
Nice cake recipe………….keep posting such mouth watering cakes.
Biz says
I made this for a friend’s birthday. It came out beautifully and was a true stunner. The only modification I made was to make another half batch of the frosting so I could really fill my layers, crumb coat, and cover. This was likely because I only had 9 inch pans so it made the cake a bit wider instead of tall. I used Miyoko’s vegan butter and it worked beautifully. The vegan butter itself is a bit salty, so if you use this one don’t add extra salt, but the salt really helps cut through all that sweet and makes a wonderful finished product. I used full-fat coconut milk for all of the non-dairy milk parts. It has a richer taste than almond or soy, so helps give the right mouthfeel.
Really delicious, easy to make, and was GONE in about 20 minutes. Leftover hack: I’ve been putting a spoonful of leftover caramel in my coffee in the morning… soooooooo good. Also good on sliced apples.
Abby says
Hi, I want to make this cake for my husband’s birthday next week, but I can’t find the recipe for the caramel sauce. The 5 minute vegan caramel sauce under ingredients isn’t hyperlinked, and this cake is the only thing that comes up when I search for the recipe. Did you remove it? Thanks in advance.
Aimee says
Oops! I’m so sorry about that. Yes, the hyperlinked got removed – just replaced it. Hope you enjoy :)
Janet monks says
200g Brown suger light
4tbsp soy milk
8tbsp dairy free butter 1tsp vanilla ess
pinch of salt
Mix alltogether apart from vanilla bring to boil for 5 mins untill thickerd add vannilla use a once or store in fridge
Haidee James says
Hi Amiee, I made this sponge twice cause I was so disappointed with the first bake. I purchased fresh ingredients just to be certain and made sure it was in the oven as quickly as possible after the cider vinegar had been added. The second batch was slightly lighter but I am still disappointed with the result, it’s a very dense sponge. Any tips please? Thanks
Simon Urwin says
This cake tastes delicious! My son has a dairy and egg allergy and sometimes the cakes we make tast oily; this however tastes perfect
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe!
Simon x