I’m obsessed with Ombre! I can’t help it!
This 7 Layer Mocha Cake in Ombre shades is going to change your life!
It’s surprising that many people think Mocha is pure coffee flavored icing with a vanilla cake.
When actually it’s a combination of chocolate and coffee
Ombre effect was so easy with just one vanilla cake recipe as the base
Then gradually adding cocoa powder to the layers for an eye catching Ombre effect!
Turning this cake into a more fudge-y brownie-like cake layer by the very last addition!
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE!
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Notes for Success:
**In the video you may notice I keep saying 1/4 sheet pans! this was an error!
While I don’t often try to talk you guys into buying “more stuff” it would be worth the investment as these pans sure do make the work fast and efficient.
One more note about this cake before we begin, is that this is a giant cake!
7 Layers of cake with the filling and icing makes a really tall cake that will serve close to 16 people!
So if you don’t need that much cake you can scale it down to just half recipe of cake batter for a very beautiful ~ 4 layer cake instead!
As you already saw my recent Matcha Green Tea Cake was only 4 layers and quite stunning!
Notes about measuring flour:
Highly recommended to use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients, mainly the flour
A heavy hand with cups/volume measure can really throw off the measurements and cause a heavy, dry cake
Yield: serves 16-20 people
Mocha Ombre Cake
Prep Time
1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time
18 minutes
Total Time
1 hour 48 minutes
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- Vegan Butter *room temperature 1½ cups (336g)
- Granulated Sugar 3 cups (600g)
- Golden Flax Meal 8 Tablespoons (64g)
- Hot water 1 cup (237ml)
- Plant Milk * I use soy 2 cups (474ml)
- Vinegar 2 Tablespoons (30ml)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons (10ml)
- All Purpose Flour 5 cups (625g) *see notes
- Baking Powder 6 teaspoons (12g)
- Salt 1 teaspoon (6g)
- Cocoa Powder 8 Tablespoons (48g)
for the icing
Instructions
- Combine the flax meal with the hot water & whisks smooth, set it aside to thicken
- Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt
- Combine the apple cider vinegar with the soy milk and the vanilla extract and let it stand to thicken for approximately 5 minutes.
- With an electric mixer cream the softened vegan butter with the granulated sugar on medium to high speed for approximately 5 minutes until light & fluffy.
- Scrape the bottom & sides of the bowl as you mix and then add the flax paste while mixing on medium speed.
- Increase speed to high and whip for 30 seconds to emulsify
- Add 1/3 of the sifted dry ingredients mixing only until combined then add half of the soy milk mixture mixing just until combined
- Scrape the bottom & sides of the bowl and then add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients
- Add the rest of the soy milk mixture and then the last of the dry ingredients.
- Mix well
- Spread approximately 1¾ cups of the batter into one of your prepared pans.
- The first addition of cocoa powder will be 2 Tablespoons to the remaining batter in the bowl and mix well.
- Spread approximately 1¾ cups of the light cocoa batter into another pan
- The remaining cocoa additions will now only be 1 Tablespoon at a time to the remaining batter until all the cocoa powder is gone and you have spread the graduating layers of cocoa batter into each of your prepared pans.
- If you are like me and only have 4 – 1/8 sheet pans, you will have had to stop and wait for the first 4 to bake.
- The bake time in a preheated oven for these thin layers of cake are approximately 15-18 minutes or until springy to the touch when you gently press the centers.
- Cool the cakes, then re-grease & parchment line the cake pans again for the remaining batter and layers.
- Once the cakes are completely cooled, fill & ice with mocha buttercream
- Garnish with cocoa nibs and ganache drip * optional
Notes
7 Layer Mocha Cake can be stored at a cool room temperature for up to 2 days.
For longer storage keep refrigerated for up to 10 days
Freeze wrapped well for up to 2 months
