Vegan Dominican Cake (Bizcocho Dominicano)

I grew up having Dominican cake at so many birthdays and family gatherings. Since becoming vegan, I’ve never had a vegan Dominican cake. I missed eating this cake so much that I wanted to see if I could create a vegan version of my own. You can make this recipe with whatever flavor of filling you like, but pineapple is one of my favorites. This cake is so buttery and light with a little fruity flavor from the orange juice and lime zest. The best way to eat this cake is at room temperature!

The frosting is called suspiro and is made from vegan meringue. The aquafaba used to make it is just the liquid from a can of chickpeas or other mild-flavored and light colored beans.

This vegan Dominican cake recipe uses Just Egg. We will try to work on a substitute and add it here in the future. Also, please use a kitchen scale to measure the ingredients. The ratio of the ingredients is really important in this recipe.

Make sure to check out the recipe notes for additional information and tips.

If you try this recipe, leave us a comment below to let us know how it goes. We would love to hear from you!

Vegan Dominican Cake (Bizcocho Dominicano)

Little Lighthouse Baking Co.

A buttery rich cake with a pineapple filling. The resting time is the estimated time it takes for your ingredients to come to room temperature.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep 30 minutes mins

Cook 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Rest 2 hours hrs

Total 4 hours hrs

Course Dessert

Cuisine Dominican, Vegan

Servings 10 big slices

Equipment

• kitchen scale
• two 9-inch round cake pans
• electric hand mixer or stand mixer

Ingredients  

Cake

• 280 grams all-purpose flour
• 5 ½ tsp baking powder
• 280 grams salted vegan butter
• 280 grams granulated sugar
• 158 grams Just Egg (roughly ⅔ cup)
• 122 grams applesauce
• ½ cup + 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 lime (for zest)

Pineapple Filling

• 2 cans crushed pineapple in juice (20oz cans)
• 2 ¼ cups water
• ¾ cup granulated sugar or brown sugar

Meringue

• ⅔ cup chick pea aquafaba (about one 15.5oz can)
• ¼ tsp cream of tartar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (alcohol free)
• gel food coloring (optional)

Instructions 

Measure and prepare your ingredients.

• It's really important for all the ingredients to be room temperature for this recipe. I add the vanilla extract to the orange juice and mix the baking powder into the flour. Once you've measured everything, let the ingredients sit out for an hour or two. You can make the pineapple filling during this time.
  
• Line the cake rounds with parchment paper and grease the sides with butter.
  

Make the pineapple filling.

• You can make the filling the night before and then refrigerate it. If you do, you can leave the filling out with the other ingredients in the first step.
• Combine the pineapple, water, and sugar in a saucepan. Using brown sugar makes the mixture darker and adds a nice color contrast to the yellow cakes.
  
• Cook on high heat until it reduces to a thick jam-like consistency. This can take between 1.5 hours and 2 hours. I split the mixture between two pans and each took only one hour to reduce down. Once most of the water evaporates, be sure not to let it burn by mixing it.
  
• Place into a container and allow to cool while making the cake.

Make the cakes.

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Mix the Just Egg and applesauce together in a measuring cup before adding to the mixing bowl later.
• Add the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat together for 3 minutes or until light and well combined.
  
• Next add in the Just Egg and applesauce mixture about a third or fourth at a time. Allow to fully incorporate until smooth before adding each additional portion. If the ingredients aren't all at room temperature, the mixture will split and be chunky at this step.
  
• Add the lime zest.
  
• Alternate adding the orange juice and flour a third at a time. I just estimate. Basically don't add all of each all at once. Add a bit of the orange juice and allow to fully incorporate. Then add in some of the flour. Continue alternating until everything is smooth and combined. Don't forget to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix for another two minutes to make sure everything gets mixed in properly.
  
• Evenly divide the cake batter between the two cake pans.
  

Bake.

• Place both pans on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 32-35 minutes. The tops should be golden and the edges will be brown.
• Remove from the oven and allow to fully cool while you make the meringue. Do not remove them from the pans at this time. Allow them to cool in the pans. The cakes are very light and fragile.
  

Make the meringue.

• Combine the aquafaba and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl. Whip until light and stiff peaks form when you remove the whisk from the bowl. You can do this in a stand mixer, but I like to use a hand mixer because it whips up in a much shorter time. If using a hand mixer, it should take about 5 minutes.
  
• Slowly mix in the sugar as you continue to whip the aquafaba for another few minutes. The aquafaba should become really glossy.
  
• Add in the vanilla extract and whip for another minute. If you don't have alcohol-free vanilla extract, you can leave it out. Alcohol-based extracts will deflate the meringue.
• Place most of the aquafaba meringue into a large piping bag. Leave about 1 ½ cups of meringue in the bowl to color if you are going to add extra decorations. Add gel food coloring of your choice until you reach your desired color. Place the remaining meringue into another piping pag.
  

Assemble.

• Once the cakes are fully cooled, flip the first layer onto the dish or surface you will be serving the cake on. You will notice that the edges of the cake will have pulled away from the sides of the pan after cooling. Place the dish over the top of the cake pan, and then flip the dish and pan together upside down. The cake should just slide out.
  
• Pipe a ring of meringue around the top edge of the cake.
  
• Fill the inside of the ring with as much of the pineapple filling as you would like. I had about two tablespoons of the filling that I did not use.
  
• This next step can be tricky. The cake is too light to just grab with your hand and place onto the other layer. Flip the second layer onto another flat dish or cutting board. And then I used two wide spatulas to carefully carry the cake and place over the first layer.

  You could also refrigerate the layers to make them more solid and easy to move. There’s so much butter in it that it will firm up a lot when cold.
  
• Pipe the aquafaba meringue over the top and sides of the cake. Use an offset spatula, knife, or rubber spatula to spread the meringue evenly over the cake.
  

Decorate.

• The decoration steps are optional. You can serve the cake plain if you'd like. The decorations you choose are up to you and depend on your decoration skills. I piped a ring of the colored meringue around the top edge and bottom edge of the cake.
• For the marshmallow fondant flowers, I used vegan mini marshmallows and powdered sugar. I actually always make too much of the fondant. I would recommend using ½ cup of marshmallows.
  
• Melt the vegan marshmallows in a bowl in the microwave. Mix it every 20-30 seconds.
  
• Once mostly melted, add in about ¼ cup of powdered sugar and mix until it becomes pasty. Then knead with your hands until it isn't too sticky to work with. Add more powdered sugar as needed. Also, not all of the powdered sugar will become incorporated into the fondant.
  
• Divide it up into pieces for the different colors you would like to make. Knead in gel food coloring with food-safe gloves or oil your hands first. When mixing with bare hands, all of the dye washes out of my hands after a few hours.
  
• Allow your fondant decorations to dry out in the fridge the night before you make the cake.
  
• You can serve the cake right away or allow the meringue to dry out a bit overnight.
  

Notes

About the meringue: The consistency of the meringue can change so much depending on the temperature and humidity of the space you make it in. Also using alcohol-based extracts can deflate the meringue a bit as well. It is possible to get a solid defined shape when piping meringue. It just doesn’t always happen for us.

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