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slice of vegan chocolate butterbeer cake on a plate

Rich & Moist Vegan Harry Potter Chocolate Butterbeer Cake

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review
  • Author: Britt Berlin
  • Prep Time: 35
  • Cooling Time: 60
  • Cook Time: 35
  • Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
  • Yield: 16 1x
  • Category: Cakes
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: British
  • Diet: Vegan

Description

This ultra decadent vegan chocolate butter beer cake is baked with a butterbeer reduction, filled with butterscotch sauce, and topped with a silky dairy free butterscotch cream cheese frosting!


Ingredients

Scale

Vegan chocolate butterbeer cake:

  • 2 355-mL glasses vegan butterbeer
  • 1 1/4 cup (300 mL) vegan buttermilk, room temperature
  • 3 cups (375 g) all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour, sifted
  • 1 cup (95 g) all natural cocoa powder, sifted
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 3/4 cups (350 g) granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup (110 g) brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted vegan butter*, melted and cooled to room temperature
  • 1/2 cup (110 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup (110 g) vegan sour cream, room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup (120 mL) hot butterbeer + 1 tsp dissolvable espresso powder (or 1 cup (240 mL) brewed coffee, decaf if desired)
  • 1 batch vegan cream cheese frosting 

Vegan butterscotch sauce:

  • 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar
  • 1 cup (240 mL) vegan heavy cream
  • 8 tbsp unsalted vegan butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 2 tbsp (30 mL) golden syrup, corn syrup, or brown rice syrup

Instructions

  1. Prep: We’ll first start by making the butterscotch reduction, then we’ll move onto the cake. The butterscotch reduction will take about 20-25 minutes, so I wouldn’t preheat the oven until after I’ve made the reduction. You can line three 8″ cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. Make the butterscotch reduction: Add the 2 bottles of butterbeer to a small saucepan and heat on medium high until it reaches a boil. Allow the mixture to boil and reduce down to 1/2 cup (120 mL) of butterbeer reduction. This will take about 20-25 minutes. Then pour into a glass and set aside.
  3. Cake prep: Preheat the oven to 350F. Make sure that the buttermilk is made and that you’ve mixed together the separate measurement for butterbeer and coffee (NOT the butterbeer reduction- this is an additional 1/2 cup of butterbeer).
  4. Make the batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Set aside. In a large bowl and a whisk, whisk the vegan butter, sugar, and brown sugar until integrated.  Then add in the dairy free yogurt and vanilla extract, and whisk again until combined. To the mixture, add in about half of the flour mixture, along with half of the buttermilk. Whisk gently until the flour starts to combine with the wet. Add in the remaining flour mixture and buttermilk, and whisk again just before there are no more dry streaks. Slowly pour in the butterbeer reduction, and butterbeer and coffee mixture, and whisk gently until the coffee has just mixed into the batter.
  5. Bake the cakes: Pour the cake batter into the three cake pans evenly. Place the cakes into the oven and bake for 33-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. If using three 6″ cake pans, the cakes will bake a bit longer. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool in their pans for 10 minutes. Then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely, about 45 minutes. While the cakes are baking, begin to make the butterscotch sauce
  6. Make the butterscotch sauce: In a medium saucepan, heat the vegan butter until melted. Then add in the brown sugar, vegan heavy cream, sea salt, and golden syrup. Stir to combine. Then bring the mixture to a boil, and boil for 4 minutes. This will help to thicken our butterscotch sauce. You can scrape down the sides as needed, but you really don’t need to stir anything here!
  7. Cool the butterscotch sauce: Once mixed, pour the butterscotch sauce in a separate baking tray (different from the one that is lined). This will help expedite the cooling process of the sauce. Then we can make the frosting once the cake layers have cooled.
  8. Make the cream cheese frosting: Follow the instructions for making the cream cheese frosting, adding in about 1/4 cup of butterscotch sauce to the frosting. You may need to add in a touch more powdered sugar to help ensure the frosting doesn’t split. Also please make sure your butterscotch sauce is truly cool and not at all warm!
  9. Assemble and frost the cake: You’ll need to work quickly here to ensure that the cake can get into the fridge to cool once the crumb coat is on. Place one cooled cake layer onto a plate on a turn table and scoop about 2/3 cup of frosting onto the cake. Spread the frosting around, creating a wall with the offset spatula for where the butterscotch sauce will go. Spoon about 1/4 cup of butterscotch into the middle, and place the second cake layer on top. Repeat for this cake layer, placing the third cake layer on top when finished. Quickly frost the sides of the cake (it doesn’t need to be perfect here- only a crumb coat that you’ll smooth later), and place the cake into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
  10. Finish the frosting: Remove the cake from the fridge and smooth the edges. Frost the rest of the cake as desired (you can leave almost like a semi-naked cake or frost it entirely). Pour the remainder of the butterscotch sauce on top and drip over the edges.
  11. Slice and serve! Serve immediately or store for later. Slice and enjoy!

Notes

Butterbeer: See blog post for how to swap out the butterbeer

Frosting: You can also use my vegan buttercream frosting instead if it’s easiest!

Caramel: Feel free to swap in my vegan caramel sauce if that’s easiest!