Vegan vanilla coconut cake with key lime cream cheese frosting

This cake is an adaptation of the vanilla cupcake recipe from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and a key lime cream cheese frosting from Bon Appetit magazine. The addition of coconut milk to the cake recipe gives it a wonderful dense texture. Surprisingly, the cake does not have a coconut taste.


Ingredients for cake:

* 1 cup coconut milk
* 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
* 1 1/4 cups flour
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/3 cup canola oil
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla


Directions for baking cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Whisk the coconut milk and the vinegar together and let sit a few minutes until curdled.

3. Beat together the coconut milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until no large lumps remain.

4. Pour batter into a 9 inch springform pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 25-35 minutes until done (toothpick comes out clean and top is golden brown.) Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.


Frosting – Note this creates a lot of frosting which is useful if you plan to cover the entire cake in frosting including the sides. If you just want to cover the top or do not want a thick frosting layer then just use ½ or ¾ of the recipe.

* 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature (IMPORTANT that it is soft)
* 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 tablespoon finely grated key lime peel
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat all ingredients in medium bowl until smooth. Spread over cooled cake.