A fresh Vegan Blackberry Cake, with homemade blackberry compote, blackberry swirled cake’s and the most incredible blackberry frosting! What could be better’? Oh yeah… the addition of some zesty Lemon of course, *que the drooling!!
I’m so excited to share this recipe with you! Get your apron on, and grab your punnet of blackberries… let’s make a cake!
I’ve been on a fruit hype recently, firstly with my Vegan Strawberry Flødebollers, then with my Vegan Raspberry Cake, No-Bake Strawberry Shortcake Cheesecake and now this!
This cake is a real showstopper, perfect for an afternoon tea. All the elements work beautifully together resulting in a scrumptious bake, perfect for for any time of year and any sort of occasion!
How to make a Vegan Blackberry Cake?
Firstly, you’ll want some delicious sponge cakes. I swear by my vegan sponge cake recipe! It’s super easy to make, doesn’t take long in the oven and best of all, it results in a really spongy, light and flavoursome cake (which you won’t even be able to tell it’s vegan!). That’s when you know it’s a winner!
The key to this cake is to make some blackberry compote. If you’re familiar with my Vegan Raspberry Cake, then this will be familiar to you.
You’ll want to make the compote ahead of time so it has time to cool down before use! I like to make mine the day before making and assembling the cakes!
I use the compote swirled in the cake batter before baking, in the filling and mixed into the buttercream. Compote is so versatile, easy to make and best of all… delicious! It really adds a pop of flavour to any fruity dessert!
What is compote?
Compote is quite like jam. It uses fruit, sugar and a thickening agent like cornstarch / cornflour. It resembles jam in it’s taste and texture but has a stronger flavour, which is why I love baking with it! Plus, its super easy to make!
I have on of the best compote recipes in my brand new book ‘The Little Book of Vegan Bakes‘, where I feature it in Lemon & Raspberry Cookies. Make sure to check it out!
What makes this cake special?
This cake is bursting with blackberries, from the sponge to the filling and frosting! Before baking the cakes, I swirled some blackberry compote into the cake batter. I also added a filling of homemade blackberry compote, which is super quick and easy to make and makes for the most incredible flavour explosion!
The colours are all 100% natural, from the fresh blackberries. As this cake is baked in two 6 ” cake tins, making it a small batch cake, it’s ideal for a small gathering or for two to share for Valentines day!
Make sure to ‘PIN’ the photo below to your favourite Pinterest board!
What makes this the most delicious cake ever, and why you NEED to make it?
- The sponge cakes are perfectly light and fluffy.
- It’s 100% vegan!
- There isn’t any nasty food colours in this cake. All the colours are natural from Blackberries!
- I used cream cheese in the frosting which makes it extra creamy!
- The addition of the lemon gives a fresh and fruity bust of flavour.
- You can make the cakes the day before decorating, just keep them in a tight and sealed container at room temperature.
- The buttercream can be whipped up in minutes.
- The compote can be made days in advance. It’s super versatile to work with!
- You can decorate this cake however you fancy, with fresh blackberries, flowers or even some fresh lemon.
Vegan Blackberry Cake
- Total Time: Overnight
- Yield: 8–10 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Make THE BEST Vegan Blackberry Cake with light vanilla & blackberry sponge cakes, a homemade blackberry compote and blackberry buttercream! Perfect cake for a hot summers day!
Ingredients
Ingredients for the compote
- 150g of of fresh / frozen blackberries
- 50g of caster sugar
- 2 tablespoons of cornstarch / cornflour
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
Ingredients for the sponge
- 240ml of dairy-free milk
- 1 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
- 210g of self-raising flour
- 200g of caster sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 60g of sunflower oil
- 1 lemon (zest only)
- 2 tablespoons of blackberry compote
Ingredients for the buttercream
- 160g of dairy-free block butter*
- 40g of dairy-free cream cheese*
- 200g of icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 40ml of aquafaba (chickpea brine)
+
- Fresh blackberries (for decoration)
- Mint leaves (for decoration)
Instructions
Method (blackberry compote)
- Place the blackberries into a medium-sized saucepan and sprinkle over the sugar, cornflour / cornstarch and lemon juice.
- Place on top onto the hob over a medium to high heat and bring to the boil. This will take around 5-8 minutes. Keep stirring with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon to prevent the mixture from sticking and burning. It will start to turn thick. Once thick, remove from the heat and allow to cool before using. As it cools, it will thicken up even more and turn into a jellified sauce.
- Store in a sealed container in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. As the compote cools, it’ll turn thick. If this happens, give it a vigorous whisk before using.
Method (Cakes)
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c fan and line two, 6 inch loose base / push up cake tins with grease-proof paper. Set aside.
- In a bowl, combine the dairy-free milk with the apple cider vinegar and whisk until fully combined. Set aside for 10 minutes to curdle. This creates a vegan ‘buttermilk’.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well to combine.
- Add the oil and lemon zest into the ‘buttermilk’ and whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix.
- Pour equal amounts of batter into the lined cake tins (it should be around 350g of batter in each tin). Make sure to tap the tins on the worktop to remove any air bubbles.
- Add some of the blackberry compote (approximately 2 teaspoons into each batter), and swirl around the a knife. Don’t add too much compote, as this can effect the texture of the cake.
- Pop the cakes into the centre of the preheated oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes. You will know they are done when you put a knife or skewer in and it comes out clean and they are springy to the touch. As the cakes have the compote, they might be sticker than usual when first out of the oven.
- Place the cakes on a cooling rack and allow to cool fully. Once cool, pop them into a sealed container to keep them fresh before frosting.
Method (buttercream)
- In a large mixing bowl, add in the dairy-free butter and cream cheese, whip until creamy. I use a stand mixer with a balloon whisk attachment, a hand mixer will work great too.
- Sift in the icing sugar and add in 2 tablespoons of blackberry compote, whip on high speed for a couple of minutes to incorporate it.
- Pour in the aquafaba and whip for 5 minutes until it turns light and creamy. Don’t over whip it or it can become too soft. If it does, just add in more icing sugar until it’s thick and creamy. The buttercream should be airy and light. You might need to add in some more butter to get it to the right consistency. Tip- If the buttercream ever looks like it’s splitting, add chunk’s more butter at a time while its still whipping on medium / high speed. It’ll come back together within a minute or two.
- Stack and fill the cakes with some buttercream and compote (watch how i decorate this cake here).
- Place the second cake layer on top. Press it down gently so it sticks.
- Crumb coat the whole cake with a little buttercream, then place into the freezer to firm up. This will take 3-5 minutes. You don’t want to actually freeze the cake, just set the buttercream firm. This helps with ease at applying the final coat. If you’d like to learn ‘how to ice cakes’ and applying buttercream, make sure to pick up a copy of my book. It will really help you!!
- Apply a thick coat of buttercream all around the top and sides of the cake. Use a cake scraper or pallet knife to make it smooth.
- Make decorative lines in the.buttercream using an small off set spatula (watch me do this step here).
- Transfer any left over buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star tip nozzle (I use a Wilton 2D), and pipe a decorative swirl along the top edge of the cake.
- Cut some fresh blackberries in half and stick them scattered around all over the sides of the cake. Finish with a mint leaf for decoration (optional). Check out the photos on this post for reference.
Notes
To store: Keep this cake stored in a sealed container in the fridge. Best eaten within 3 days of making. Un-iced cakes can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature for 2 days.
What is aquafaba? Aquafaba is the water from a can/tin of chickpeas. The chickpea water or brine as it’s called, acts as an amazing egg substitute for cakes, cupcakes and delicious meringue buttercream. You can also get aquafaba in a carton for easy use. Check it out here.
My favourite vegan block butter to use is Flora Plant Based Block and Naturli Block.
Dairy-free cream cheese: Any vegan friendly cream cheeses would work fab for this recipe! My favourite vegan cream cheese to use is Violife or Sainsbury’s own dairy-free cream cheese.
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Cakes and layer cakes
- Method: Baking
Hi! thank you for the amazing recipe!
i just bought your book! so excited to try them all 🙂
I just have few questions.
I live in South Korea so here we don’t have self-raising flour. Could you tell me what I should do to make my own self-raising flour?
One more basic question is, as I know of self-raising flour, it already includes baking powder, doesn’t it?
Hey! I also didn’t have self-raising flour, but when I Googled it, it just said to add 1.5 tsp of baking powder and 1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt for every cup of flour. In this recipe, 210 grams works out to around 1 2/3 cups of flour, so I put about 2.5 tsp of baking powder and just over 1/2 tsp of salt, and quickly whisked it together. Then continue on with the recipe adding the rest of the baking powder and soda that she lists. It has worked out amazingly for me both times that I baked this cake – it’s amazing!!!
Hope that helps 🙂
This recipe is so delicious – literally the best cake I have ever had in my life! My only problem is getting the buttercream to be thick and firm like yours is. I’ve made this cake twice now trying different techniques; the first time it separated and wouldn’t go back, and last night it just melted instantly, even after putting it in the freezer for a while to firm up! The cake is completely cooled, and I followed your measurements to the gram/mL. I live in Canada so I don’t have access to the same block butter that you do, but I still used block butter we have here with no success. I really want to make this cake (properly) for our guests when we move into our new house, is there any advice you can give me to help me make the buttercream like you do?? It would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you for creating all of the most amazing vegan recipes! I absolutely LOVE your blog!!!!
Let me just say, this recipe is FANTASTIC!! It popped up on my Instagram feed and I knew I had to try it. I made a gluten-free version and it was a huge hit! 12/10 recommend!
I just made these with wild blackberries (the small ones found in NW Washington) for a friend’s birthday. The buttercream is to die for! I doubled the recipe and made a dozen cupcakes. Baked the cupcakes 20 minutes but I think they’re slightly over cooked so between 15 and 20 would probably be more appropriate. I will definitely make this recipe again!
This cake is a beauty! I hope to make it soon for a cheery spring celebration. One question, what is chickpea brine? What is it used for and where would one even find it?
Thank you!
I made this for a vegan friend and we all loved it! Better than many non-vegan cakes I’ve made! I’m definitely checking out your other recipes:) Thank you so much!