Years ago, Teresa Makin submitted a recipe for one of our recipe contests, which she called “decadent chocolate ice cream cups.” They’re really vegan mini chocolate cakes baked in a shortcake pan to make a perfect “cup” for your ice cream. But the recipe will work in any single-serve style cake pan. We’ve included some more notes on cake pans below.
Vegan Mini Chocolate Cakes are Perfect for Ice Cream Sundaes
As mentioned, Teresa uses a shortcake pan, which is like a muffin pan, but each well has a bump at the bottom to make a “bowl” for your dairy-free ice cream on top. There are fancy shortcake pans and even silicone shortcake pans. We’ve also seen them called brownie bowl pans, and mini bundt pans would also work well.
If you don’t have any of these pan options, you can bake these vegan mini chocolate cakes in large muffin tins. Technically you can even bake this recipe as a full cake. Just be sure to adjust the baking time if changing the pan sizes. If using smaller pans, like muffin tins, keep a close eye since they will bake faster. You’ll know you’re using a smaller pan if the batter fills more than 12 wells!
Special Diet Notes: Vegan Mini Chocolate Cakes
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian. Just be sure to choose the milk beverage and yogurt alternative that suit your dietary needs.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ¾ cup natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 cup plain dairy-free milk beverage
- ½ cup canola oil (or your baking oil of choice)
- ¼ cup plain dairy-free yogurt
- Dairy-free ice cream, for serving
- Grease a mini shortcake pan or mini cake pan with 12 wells (see post above).
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the boiling water, milk beverage, oil, and yogurt, and mix with a hand mixer until smooth.
- Pour the batter into your prepared pan.
- Bake the cakes for 30 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool completely before removing them from the pan.
- Top with frozen dessert and other toppings as desired.
More Mini Vegan Desserts
Mini New York-Style Vegan Cheesecakes
Frozen Key Lime Pie Tartlets
Easy Mini Apple Pies with Dairy-Free Vanilla Whip
