One Bowl Vegan Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (Sugar Free and Gluten Free options)
The best red velvet cake you will ever eat, vegan or non-vegan! This cake is rich, moist, and fluffy, and generously frosted with the most luxurious cream cheese frosting imaginable! Plus it is quick, easy, and can be made sugar free AND gluten free!
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients - note this makes THREE layers
- 3 1/3 cups gluten free flour can sub all-purpose if desired. This links to my favorite store bought gluten free flour blend that works best with all of my recipes, or see "Ingredients Needed" section for further info.
- 6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1¾ cups granulated sugar *if you want a sugar free option, this links to my favorite sweetener, you can substitute it 1:1 in place of regular granulated sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups non-dairy milk
- ¾ cup + 2 tbsp neutral oil
- 4 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp red food coloring gel
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter
- 8oz vegan cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar *if you want a sugar free option, this links to my favorite powdered sweetener, you can substitute it 1:1 in place of regular powdered sugar
- pinch of salt optional
- ½ – 1 cup cornstarch optional if you want thicker frosting but don’t want to keep adding sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease 3 8-inch cake tins plus line with parchment rounds. Note – this recipe has amounts for THREE layers of cake. If you are doing more layers or fewer layers, adjust the amounts accordingly!
- In a large bowl, mix together the gluten free flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Then add in non-dairy milk, neutral oil, unsweetened applesauce, vanilla extract, and red food coloring gel. Mix together until just combined.
- Pour evenly into your greased and lined cake pans. Bake for 23-28 minutes – mine are perfect at exactly 25 – check to be sure they’re done by sticking in a toothpick and removing the pans when the toothpick comes out with just crumbs, not wet batter.
- Set aside your cake pans to cool for about 15 minutes before removing the cake from the pan and putting onto a cooling rack to come to room temperature. Personally I like to let them come to room temperature for a few minutes and then stick in the fridge, as I find it easier to build a layer cake when the cake itself is cold.
- While your cake layers are cooling, it’s time to make the frosting. Note – this amount of frosting will make what you see in these pictures, which is enough to frost between layers and on top, then do a sort of “naked cake” look on the outside. If you want to go heavier on the sides of the cake, I suggest making 1.5x the amount written above.
- To make the frosting, simply add the vegan butter, vegan cream cheese, and vanilla extract to a bowl and mix first for a minute or two using a hand mixer or stand mixer. Then add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time. You can add a pinch of salt to taste. Also as I note above, if you want a thicker frosting but don’t want to keep adding more and more sweetness to it, you can use some cornstarch to get your desired consistency.
- Eat and enjoy!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!