Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake (Whole Foods Copy Cat Recipe)

Have you ever been completely obsessed with a dessert from Whole Foods that you’ve justified paying the outrageous price for simply a small amount of it? I have. So much so that I decided to go back to Whole Foods one day, find their incredible vegan chocolate mousse cake, and snap a sneaky picture of the ingredients list to take home and examine like the sneaky little blogger that I am.

If you haven’t tried it before, the vegan chocolate mousse cake from WF is crazy good, and I figured out how to replicate it almost IDENTICALLY. Go me. The chocolate cake was both rich and moist, with an even richer chocolate mousse in between each perfect layer. The secret to their silky, decadent mousse? Soft tofu. I remember thinking to myself how I couldn’t even taste the tofu, yet the texture was exactly like a non-vegan mousse. I had always wanted to try using soft tofu in sauces and desserts, and it seemed like the perfect time.

Of course I needed an excuse to bake this giant chocolate cake. Luckily, birthdays of loved ones were coming up and it was an excellent time for cake experimentation. I called my friend Shadi (my baking co-partner) with the idea and she was immediately into it. Since I only had an ingredients list from Whole Foods, I needed an easy vegan chocolate cake recipe to start with. So, with help from the lovely Sam at It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken, I found a lovely 2-layer chocolate cake recipe, with some substitutions of my own (I like to bake with coconut oil, so I subbed that for light olive oil, and I decreased the sugar by half a cup because the mousse was already going to be sweet on its own). I didn’t try Sam’s frosting recipe, but it did look tasty, so if you have a soy allergy or don’t want to use tofu, feel free to use her recipe for the mousse. 🙂 

I brought this amazing cake to a birthday party last weekend where it was tried and tested by plenty of non-vegans. I didn’t tell them what my secret ingredient was until after they had tasted it, because I didn’t want to scare anyone off. Luckily, nobody had suspected the tofu, and some didn’t even realize that it was vegan! SUCCESS. This recipe is my now my go-to for the ultimate chocolate cake, and it was relatively easy too. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! XO

Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake (Whole Foods Copy Cat Recipe)

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Serves: 8-10 Prep Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 30 Minutes

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 2½ cups all-Purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 2⅔ cups almond milk
• ⅔ cup coconut oil 
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the mousse:

• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1 block soft or silken tofu, drained
• 1 tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp. vegan sugar or sweetener of choice 

Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake (Whole Foods Copy Cat Recipe) was last modified: April 24th, 2018 by themindfulstrawberry

Instructions

To Make the Cake:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Prepare two 8″ round baking pans by lightly greasing them, and then cut a circle of parchment paper to fit into the bottom.
2. In a large bowl, stir together all of the dry ingredients, then set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
4. Divide the batter into the prepared pans, then pop them in the oven. Bake for about 30-40 minutes (until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean).
5. Let the cakes cool completely before frosting.
   Note: I baked my cakes the night before so I could wrap them in plastic wrap and leave them to cool in the fridge overnight. This resulted in a denser cake, but it was also sturdy enough to withstand the thick mousse without breaking and still remained moist.

For the Mousse:

1. Heat coconut oil on stovetop until melted. Add chocolate chips and stir well.
2. Add almond milk and mix on low-medium heat until all chocolate chips have melted. Remove from heat.
3. Add chocolate mixture, desired sweetener, vanilla extract and tofu into a small food processor and blend until smooth.
4. Transfer mousse to a container and refrigerate for 1 hour minimum. The mousse may appear liquidy at first, but do not worry. It will fully thicken in a few hours in the fridge.
   Note: You can prepare the mousse the night before so it can fully thicken in the fridge overnight.

To Assemble the Cake:

1. Run a knife around the edges of the cake pans, and flip the pans over to remove the cakes.
2. Remove the parchment paper and discard.
3. Place the first cake on your cake plate, and spread about half of the frosting on top.
4. Place the second cake on top of the frosted cake, and spread the remaining frosting on top of that cake.
5. Add swirl patterns with your spatula to make it pretty, and add chocolate chips or fruit to decorate the top.
6. Store the cake in the fridge or a cool place until you are ready to serve.

Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake (Whole Foods Copy Cat Recipe) was last modified: April 24th, 2018 by themindfulstrawberry