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sliced vegan chai spice cake
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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!
Course Cake
Keyword chai latte cake, chai spice cake
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 9 -16
Calories 800kcal
Author Britt Berlin

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:

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 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!

Nutrition

Calories: 800kcal | Carbohydrates: 115g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 35g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 16g | Trans Fat: 4g | Sodium: 751mg | Potassium: 217mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 71g | Vitamin A: 133IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 214mg | Iron: 2mg