Jaw-Droppingly MOIST Vegan S’mores Cake Recipe

This molten vegan s’mores cake contains layers of super rich, moist chocolate cake, crushed homemade graham cracker, warm chocolate ganache, silky chocolate buttercream, and toasted vegan marshmallow fluff! And each bite gets better and better!!

Key components to a perfect unbelievably vegan s’mores cake

You’ve had s’mores, heck maybe you’ve even had other s’mores creations, like s’mores stuffed cookies and brownies.

But you haven’t seen ANYTHING until you’ve tried the ultimate s’mores cake.

And guess what? This s’mores cake is naturally vegan, eggless, dairy free, and can be both gluten free, and nut free. I mean, I was absolutely speechless, as was my family. They didn’t believe me first, especially with the eggless marshmallow frosting.

Here are the key components to the ultimate s’mores cake and why this one stands out:

• Molten chocolate cake: some s’mores cakes choose to do a “graham cracker” style cake, but I really wanted chocolate to be the star of the show. So we went with a chocolate cake. However, chocolate cakes, weirdly enough, are really hard to get right. It’s a delicate balance of being moist and fluffy yet soft and tender, rich with chocolate and sweetness. This vegan chocolate cake does just that and more, which is why I’m repeatedly asked to make this vegan chocolate cake for birthdays, whether or not the requestor themselves is vegan. We also added in chocolate chips to the cake, which helps to create that molten texture that, when paired with marshmallow, makes you think you’re eating a real s’more!
• Decadent chocolate buttercream: we’re actually using a vanilla buttercream for the filling with the graham crackers, and then coating the entire cake in chocolate frosting. It’s absolutely decadent, and super delicious.
• Homemade cinnamon graham crackers: you can purchase store bought graham crackers, but honestly, this cake really deserves an award-winning title when using homemade graham crackers. Don’t worry, they’re super easy and SO worth it. You can even make them gluten-free as needed.
• Eggless marshmallow fluff: this is really what made my taste testers speechless when they tried this cake. The marshmallow fluff tastes JUST LIKE marshmallows, yet we’re using just aquafaba, powdered sugar, cream of tartar, and vanilla. Not even a single marshmallow!
• Homemade chocolate ganache: because we’re extra, we’re decorating this s’mores cake as a drip cake. Which just honestly adds to the decadence and deliciousness of this chocolate marshmallow cake!

Helpful tools you’ll need for this cake recipe

Most of my vegan cake recipes are super simple and straight forward, and while this s’mores cake is definitely easy once you’ve read through the instructions, it definitely requires some equipment for the ultimate s’mores cake.

The below kitchen tools are highly recommended and will make your cake baking life so much easier. But of course, you can get away with not using most of them! It’s just they really will help. For this s’mores cake, I recommend having on hand:

• Three 6″ cake pans: you can use 8″ cake pans if you’d like. Please see the recipe card at the bottom of this post for how long you’ll need to bake the cakes.
• Cake turn table: this helps with frosting the cake, and creating the perfect drip!
• Piping bags: these can be purchased in the cake section of any grocery store or online.
• Food processor: this is just to blitz the graham crackers. You can also use a blender or a plastic bag and a tenderizer to crush the graham cracker crumbs.
• Offset spatula: For applying the frosting!
• Culinary torch: Also known as a kitchen torch. unfortunately, there’s really no way to get the toasted look of this marshmallow fluff without one. BUT you don’t need to spend a lot of money. I bought this $10 culinary torch off Amazon, along with a small bottle of butane for $5, so my total was $15. Some retailers will sell these torches for up to $50, and it’s just unnecessary.

Overview: How to make a homemade s’mores cake from scratch

Now that we’ve gone over some of the basics, let’s start discussing how we can make a s’mores cake from scratch that’s undetectably vegan, eggless, dairy free, and gluten free!

The full written recipe & instructions are found down below in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. However, we’re going to go over an overview of the process, along with giving visuals, to help you achieve the ultimate s’mores cake.

Super rich chocolate cake & chocolate buttercream

We’re start by making the undetectably vegan chocolate cake. This cake recipe is very similar to other cake recipes on the blog. If you’ve never made a vegan cake, don’t worry. It’s super easy, and honestly, my family now prefers my vegan chocolate cake over any store bought chocolate cake, vegan or not!

What makes this slightly different than other vegan chocolate cakes is that we’re adding chocolate chips to the batter. This will help create that molten chocolate texture that we want when eating regular s’mores. I made this s’mores cake as a three layer 8″ cake, but you can also make it as a two layer 8″ cake or a three layer 6″ cake.

Then the chocolate buttercream is actually two recipes in one. I started with my regular vegan buttercream and used that as the filling, along with graham crackers, and the base crumb coat. Once the crumb coat was set, I used the remaining frosting as the chocolate buttercream. To do this, you’ll simply add in cocoa powder and vegan butter to the frosting and cream together until fluffy. Then I applied the final frosting coat (more on that in the assembly section!).

Homemade vegan graham crackers

If you’re making this cake entirely vegan, like I did, then you’ll find that it’s pretty hard to find vegan graham crackers in stores. They’re definitely out there, but it’s few and far between. That’s why I decided to make my own homemade graham crackers.

The recipe is super simple and quick to make, and honestly, they taste just like store bought graham crackers….but better.

For this recipe, I slightly altered it because I wanted to ensure that this could be an entirely gluten free s’mores cake as well. So instead of regular flour, as Camila suggested, I used gluten free 1:1 baking flour. I cannot recommend this recipe enough, and have instructed how I used it in this chocolate marshmallow cake found in the recipe card below.

I made the graham cracker portion of the recipe while the cakes were cooling. This will give you time for the cakes to cool and the graham crackers to harden once baked. Once you’ve made the graham crackers, you can use half of the batch for the filling, and the remaining graham crackers for decorating (and even real vegan s’mores too!). I blitzed half of the batch in a food process to create a graham cracker crumb that works perfectly for the s’mores cake filling.

The eggless marshmallow fluff 

If you’ve never made a marshmallow fluff without eggs , you’re in for a treat. My 80 year old grandmother, who has made regular meringue for years, is now fully using the aquafaba version. I’m 100% serious. This is essentially a vegan meringue. It toasts so perfectly too, and tastes like melted gooey marshmallow. Trust me, you’re just going to LOVE how not only easy this vegan marshmallow fluff is, but also how delicious.

The aquafaba whips up to be stiff peaks, just like egg whites, and creates the glossiest and sweetest marshmallow fluff.

You could honestly eat this vegan marshmallow fluff with a spoon, it’s so good. Or you can pipe it onto the cake, or spoon globs of it on top, as I did (I wanted that kinda rustic and home-y look for this s’mores cake!).

Please note: It’s easiest to make vegan meringue with a stand mixer rather than a hand electric mixer. This is because it takes a lot to whip the aquafaba to be fluffy like regular meringue. Simply use the whisk attachment and add the aquafaba to the bowl of a stand mixer to make this vegan meringue. 

How to decorate a s’mores cake

Once you have all the components of the s’mores cake ready, now it’s time to assemble! This is my absolute favorite part of any cake baking process.

A s’mores cake can come together so easily, but it requires some patience. You’ll first start with the cake filling and crumb coat, then the final layer of frosting, the chocolate drip, and finally the marshmallow meringue frosting and decorations.

I recommend using the cake turn table here for starting to assemble the cake. You’ll start by filling the cake with the vegan buttercream and graham crackers. Check out this really helpful article on how to create a frosting dam for the filling. You’ll do this for the first two layers, then use a small amount of vegan vanilla buttercream to create the crumb coat.

Place the cake into the fridge to set, then make the chocolate buttercream and the vegan ganache. The ganache is not necessary for this s’mores cake, but it certainly adds a really beautiful decoration to the cake!

Once the crumb coat is set, apply the remaining chocolate frosting to the cake, smoothing out any bumps and gaps with the bench scraper. If you’re new to frosting cakes, check out this awesome video tutorial on how to create smooth edges of frosting for cakes.

Top the cake with the vegan chocolate drip using a piping bag. I also sprinkled more crushed graham cracker on top before the ganache set for the ultimate s’mores cake effect. Then place the cake back into the fridge to set while you make the vegan marshmallow fluff. 

Once you’ve made the vegan meringue, you can either pipe the marshmallow fluff onto the cake or spoon it on. You’ll then take the culinary torch and lightly toast the marshmallow. Please be careful and read all instructions for how to use a culinary torch. 

Then you can decorate the cake with final touches, like adding graham crackers to the top of the s’mores cake! Slice, serve, and ENJOY!

Pro tips for this cake recipe:

• Read through the instructions and the ingredients before beginning. This is a really good practice to do for all recipes and will help ensure that you achieve major recipe success! 
• Weigh out all ingredients. I’ve included gram measurements and cup measurements for this recipe. As always, the gram measurements will always yield a more accurate bake. If you are using the cup measurements, be sure to use the spoon & level method when measuring flour and sugar.
• For the aquafaba: chickpea brine is a bit different from egg whites, in that it takes a bit longer to achieve stiff peaks. It takes even longer if you’re using a hand mixer. I would really recommend using a stand mixer here, as the machine is just so much more efficient at achieving stiff peaks with aquafaba. Another note is that if you’re concerned about using chickpea water from a can, or can’t find unsalted chickpeas, you can make your own aquafaba from dried chickpeas. Ania’s recipe works so well here. It is a bit more work, but can be worth it if you’re concerned about using canned aquafaba!
• Make sure your cake layers are completely cool before beginning to assemble the cake. This is so crucial, as you don’t want any cakes falling onto the floor from melted frosting!

You are just going to absolutely love this ultimate s’mores cake! It honestly tastes like a s’mores but in cake form…and maybe even better!

If you make this vegan cake recipe, be sure to please leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ down below. This helps other readers find this recipe!

As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!

Happy cake baking!

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