Vegan Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Vegan Buttercream Frosting (Lion King cake)

I recently had the pleasure of making this cute Lion King cake for a little girl named Lily who was turning 7.  I had made cupcakes for her birthday last year and her parents contacted me again this year and requested this cake.

Lily has a lot of food allergies (eggs, dairy, nuts, casein) so the cake was a challenge from that aspect.  I very rarely make vegan cakes but the recipe that I have listed below has worked really well for me and gets a thumbs up from those who have eaten it.




The cake before the finishing touches were added and below the finished product.

Everything on the cake was edible except for the figures and trees.

I'm not going to go into step-by-step instructions on how I decorated the cake b/c that would make this a very LONG post.  However, I will share a few tips and of course feel free to leave a comment below if you have any other questions.

My favorite part of this cake was "Pride rock" and the small boulders.  They came out exactly as I had hope and I thought they looked pretty realistic.

Pride rock was a small 5 inch cake that I first frosted with the buttercream and then covered in fondant.  The boulders were also made out of fondant as were the African violets.

I also want to point out one of the ingredients I used to make the frosting that many of you might not be familiar with.  This is high-ratio shortening.  High-ratio is a bakery grade shortening that has a higher fat content than regular vegetable shortening (such as Crisco).  I hate regular shortening in frosting but I really like the high-ratio.  It seems to make the frosting extra light and fluffy and does not add any strange flavor.

High-ratio shortening can be hard to find.  I get mine from a local baking supply shop.  However, you can order it through Amazon.

The cake all boxed up and ready to go.  

Happy Birthday Lily!!

Vegan Chocolate Cake*

Ingredients: 

2 1/4 cups flour

5 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons apple sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups cold water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Prepare cake pans.

Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients.  Add wet to dry, mix well, but don’t over mix.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 – 35 min.  Let cool completely before icing.

Vanilla Vegan Buttercream Frosting*

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening (vegetable or hi-ratio)

1/2 cup soy butter (such as Earth Balance)

3 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar 

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup soy creamer (such as Silk)

Directions:

Cream together shortening and soy butter for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Then add confectioner’s sugar and beat for a couple of minutes. Add soy milk and vanilla, and beat for 7-8 minutes, until fluffy.

*  I tripled this recipe to make this sheet cake and a separate 5" cake.