MOIST Dirty Chai Latte Cake with Toffee ‘Cream Cheese’ Frosting- Vegan!
This ridiculously tender, MOIST chai latte cake is infused with a chai “milk” and soaked in rich espresso before filling with a homemade 3 ingredient toffee sauce and slathering in a creamy toffee “cream cheese” frosting. And you don’t need any eggs nor dairy to make it- it’s all VEGAN!
Tell me about this dirty chai latte cake:
You don’t have to love tea or be a coffee drinker to be absolutely obsessed with this dirty chai latte cake. Inspired by my caramel latte cake, but with a definite fall-twist (because who doesn’t love a comforting, warm & spiced cake during the autumn months?!), this chai latte cake checks all of the boxes:
- Moist & soft: After spending 7 years perfecting my vanilla cake, I finally found the perfect ratio of cake flour to (vegan) butter and oil that yields the most soft, “buttery” delicate cake texture that also has some structure to it. Then we add in dairy free yogurt to really lock in that moisture for the ultimate melt-in-your-mouth cake!
- Perfectly spiced: This is truly a chai latte in cake form. We not only are using a chai-infused milk for our cake batter, but the cake itself is also swirled with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice to really bring home the warming spiced flavors that are so beautifully complemented by rich toffee sauce.
- Worth the steps: I purposefully kept the cake as a sheet cake because I wanted you to have fun with the assembly process. To make it a dirty chai latte cake (in which there’s a coffee element to it!), we soak the cake in espresso and stuff it with a homemade dairy free toffee sauce, which is also infused in our dairy free cream cheese frosting. The result is an elevated yet approachable cake that you’re going to be obsessed with serving your loved ones!
- Unbelievably vegan: Yep, absolutely NO eggs nor dairy in this cake. And yet with a texture that soft and “buttery,” you’d truly never know. Plus, you really only need a bowl and a whisk! So let’s set aside the more traditional baking ingredients and have some fun with this one 🙂
Assembling a dirt chai latte cake:
For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.
The toffee ‘cream cheese’ frosting:
This is one of my favorite creations. Much like my caramel frosting in my caramel cake (and my caramel latte cake!), the toffee sauce is integrated into the cream cheese frosting to give a balanced sweetness to the incredibly satisfying tang.
Now, because it’s dairy-free, we’re of course using dairy-free cream cheese (which can be homemade- my homemade vegan cream cheese recipe REALLY works for more than just cheesecakes and bagel fillings!).
But the rest is very straightforward- whipping the butter and cream cheese together until fluffy, then adding in the powdered sugar and toffee sauce to be mixed until integrated.
The only real key to this frosting is ensuring that both the cake and the toffee sauce are completely cooled. There should be ABSOLUTELY no warmth whatsoever to either. Otherwise, you risk your frosting either splitting or sliding off your cake entirely. Trust me- been there, it’s not very fun (though still delicious 😂).
If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
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MOIST Dirty Chai Latte Cake with Toffee ‘Cream Cheese’ Frosting- Vegan!
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 9–16 1x
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Diet: Dairy-Free, Vegan
Description
This ridiculously tender, MOIST chai latte cake is infused with a chai “milk” and soaked in rich espresso before filling with a homemade 3 ingredient toffee sauce and slathering in a creamy toffee “cream cheese” frosting. And you don’t need any eggs nor dairy to make it- it’s all VEGAN!
Ingredients
Chai Milk:
- 1 1/4 cup (300 mL) dairy-free milk, heated until boiling
- 1 black tea bag (decaf if needed)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Chai cake:
- 1 1/2 cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (150 g) light brown sugar
- 1 cup (220 g) salted vegan butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) neutral oil, such as avocado oil, olive oil, or sunflower oil
- 1 cup (240 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature*
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 4 cups (500 g) cake flour (see notes for all-purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour)
Toffee Sauce:
- 1/2 cup (120 mL) creamy coconut milk or vegan heavy cream or cashew cream
- 1/4 cup (57 g) vegan butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 g) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) maple syrup
Toffee Frosting & Assembly:
- 2 ounces freshly brewed espresso (decaf if desired)
- 1 batch of vegan vanilla cream cheese frosting
- 1/2 batch of the toffee sauce from above
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt, to garnish
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F, and line a 9×9 baking pan with parchment paper.
- Prepare the chai milk: You’ll need the chai milk to be near room temperature by the time you’re ready to bake the cake, so give yourself 15 minutes or so to let it steep and cool. Heat the dairy free milk until boiling then steep the black tea for 3 minutes in the hot milk. Stir in the spices and set aside.
- Make the batter: Whisk together with the melted vegan butter, oil, sugar, light brown sugar, dairy free yogurt, and vanilla extract and paste. Then add in the all of the spices, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt and whisk again. Add in the cake flour, and pour in the cooled vegan chai milk as you gently whisk JUST until the dry ingredients are incorporated (it doesn’t have to be a super smooth batter- DON’T over mix).
- Bake: Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean the cake passes the bounce back test with a lightly golden top.
- While the cake is baking: prepare a batch of the vegan toffee sauce, In a medium sauce pan, add in all toffee sauce ingredients, and bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat, whisking while you do this so all ingredients melt together. Once boiling, let boil for 1 minute then remove from heat and cool until your cake is ready to cool. There should be NO warmth whatsoever to the toffee sauce. Prepare a portion of espresso as well (allowing it to cool to room temperature as well).
- Cool: Let the cake fully cool before assembling. There should be absolutely no warmth in any of the of the components.
- Assemble: We’ll assemble the espresso and toffee portions first. Brush the top of the cake with the espresso using a pastry brush. Then use a large skewer, and poke holes into the top of the cake, like in the photos above. You want to go only about 1/2″ into the cake with skewer, not all the way through. Fill a piping bag with 1/3 of the cooled toffee sauce, and pipe the toffee sauce into the holes you made using the skewer.
- Make the frosting: When you’re ready to frost, make the cream cheese frosting according to instructions. Then add in 1/3 of the toffee sauce from the batch to the frosting and whisk until incorporated.
- Finish assembly: Frost the cake with the toffee frosting on top. Drizzle the remaining toffee sauce onto the frosting and top with flaky sea salt.
- Slice and enjoy! Store any leftovers in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 7 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Notes
See blog post for all tips & tricks!
