Chocolate Loaf Cake with Salted Peanut Butter Frosting
A moist, deeply chocolatey vegan + whole grain loaf cake made in 1 bowl with simple pantry ingredients. Topped with a thick layer of peanut butter frosting and a generous sprinkle of flaky sea salt!
Ingredients
cake
- 1 1/3 cups strong coffee, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup avocado oil or olive oil
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar or organic brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat all-purpose flour white whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, or whole spelt flour can all be used interchangeably here
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
salted peanut butter frosting
- 1/2 cup salted peanut butter
- 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil, soft at room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- generous pinches flaky sea salt, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Grease a loaf pan with a drizzle of avocado or olive oil, and use your fingers or a paper towel to spread evenly in the pan.
- Place coffee, oil, sugar, and vanilla into a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add all remaining cake ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder + soda, salt) and whisk again to fully combine.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting (about 1 hour)
- Once cake is cool, make the frosting. Stir together peanut butter and coconut oil in a small bowl until completely smooth. Add vanilla and powdered sugar, and stir again until smooth. Taste and add more powdered sugar, if needed, to achieve your desired sweetness level.
- Place cake on a serving dish and cover top with frosting. Sprinkle generously with flaky sea salt- using more or less depending on how much you enjoy the combination of salty-sweet. Slice and serve immediately.
- Leftovers can be kept covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Notes
If your coconut oil is not soft and spreadable at room temperature (i.e. the consistency of softened butter), run the jar under hot water for a few minutes before using. Alternately, if it's hot where you live and your coconut oil is already melted, you can make the frosting with melted coconut oil and place the bowl in the fridge for about 10 minutes to firm slightly, stirring every few minutes to make sure no lumps of coconut oil form. Storing in the fridge for any longer will make it hard and impossible to spread on the cake, so keep a close eye on it, and remove when it's a thick, but spreadable consistency. An equal amount of softened butter (vegan or not) can be used in place of the coconut oil in the frosting.
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