Ari's Picks

Brand New Vegan Chocolate Cake from the Bakehouse

a vegan chocolate cupcake with vegan vanilla ermine frosting on a white stand

Tasty and terrific with vegan vanilla ermine frosting

The Bakehouse team has unveiled a newly created vegan chocolate cake! That’s right—lots of flavor and verifiably vegan!

Ermine frosting may be new to most 21st-century Americans, but its origins go back to the 1880s, when it was also known variously as “milk frosting” or “boiled milk frosting.” It was made as frosting for the then-popular mahogany cake that later came to be called red velvet cake. The frosting is basically made by starting with a flour-based roux—it would typically be made with butter and flour cooked together, but for this vegan cake we’re using oat milk. The chocolatiness comes from cocoa powder crafted by the Dutch firm of Bensdorp, one of the first in the world to make cocoa powder. The vanilla is the real deal—from the island of Madagascar.

The results are terrific! Great any way you like to eat your cake—alongside an AeroPress-brewed cup of the January Roaster’s Pick at the Coffee Company, the marvelous Mexican Chiapas. Or enjoy it with a cup of great tea, like the Milk Oolong (which, vegans rest assured, has no milk in it), that we have at the Deli. Be sure to serve your cake at room temperature to get the full flavor!

Also available as cupcakes

P.S. If you’re looking for other vegan desserts, try the terrific Chocolate Millet Muffins we make at the Bakehouse and the Italy Meets San Fran dessert platter at the Roadhouse—fresh fruit, warm Better Than San Francisco sourdough bread, and the terrific Noccioliva hazelnut and dark chocolate spread.