If you love chocolatey brownies and creamy cheesecake, this vegan brownie cheesecake will be your new favorite dessert! It’s moist, rich, can be made gluten-free, and it’s topped with a delicious peanut butter frosting! The perfect vegan cream cheese swirl brownies as a chocolate cake for any time!
For some reason, I get chocolate cravings more often on cold and cozy winter days. Does anyone else feel the same? I mean, I really love Christmas treats that are spiced with cinnamon and fall flavors, but honestly, I can’t eat them all the time. So I decided to make easy vegan chocolate brownies but swirled with a creamy cheesecake layer in a brownie cake! Anyways it turned out so good that it’s definitely a must try!
Chocolatey Vegan Brownie Cheesecake
This delicious Vegan Brownie Cheesecake is inspired by my vegan pumpkin cake with cheesecake swirl. It looks quite similar (except the color and toppings) but it tastes totally different. While my pumpkin cake is loaded with warming fall flavors and spices, this brownie cake (chocolate cake) is just loaded with lots of chocolate. I’m pretty sure it will definitely satisfy your chocolate cravings! Actually, this brownie cheesecake is just a combination of vegan brownies and vegan cheesecake. So it’s a kind of vegan version of cream cheese swirl brownies as a chocolate cake. Also, it’s topped with a creamy peanut butter frosting which makes this cake even more tasty!
This vegan Brownie Cheesecake is very easy to make!
What I really love about this recipe is that it’s not only super delicious but also very easy to make! You only need two bowls and a few simple ingredients. In one bowl, mix the ingredients for the vegan brownies and in the other bowl mix the ingredients for the vegan cheesecake. Then using heaping spoonfuls simply layer the chocolate brownie batter and the cheesecake batter into a greased baking dish. You don’t have to put in much effort because it doesn’t have to look perfect. I mean, the prettiest swirls for a marble cake are created by accident, right?
Make Vegan Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies with this recipe!
As I mentioned before this vegan brownie cheesecake is actually made of chocolatey vegan brownie batter, which makes a moist, rich and dense texture. Which means you can also make vegan brownies with this recipe. Simply bake it in a baking dish or brownie pan instead of using a round springform. Also make sure to reduce the baking time to 30 minutes, if using a bigger baking dish, such as a 9×9 inch, because the brownies are done faster when the batter isn‘t layerd so high. Then you’ll have tasty vegan cheesecake brownies in a few minutes!
I hope you’ll love this Vegan Brownie Cheesecake too. It’s:
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Moist
- Rich
- Loaded with chocolate
- Swirled with a creamy cheesecake layer
- Topped with peanut butter frosting
- Can be made sugar-free and gluten-free
- The BEST vegan brownie cheesecake recipe that is
- SO DELICIOUS!
If you’re looking for more creamy or chocolate recipes, don’t miss my classic recipe for easy vegan brownies or my vegan cheesecake recipes. There are already so many cheesecake recipes here on my blog, so maybe you’ll find some more recipes that you’d like to try. Have fun baking and please let me know if you liked it!
Brownie Cheesecake (easy, vegan recipe)
Author:You do not have a fitting cake pan at hand right now? Try my Cake Pan Conversion Calculator!
Ingredients
Brownie Cake:
- 1 cup (gluten-free*) flour (120 g)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 4,2 oz dark chocolate (120 g)
- 1/3 cup vegan butter (120 g)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar * (150 g)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 flax eggs (or 100 g unsweetened apple sauce*)
- approx. 1/4 cup plant-based milk (60 ml)
- a pinch of salt
Cheesecake:
- 1 cup dairy-free cream cheese (225 g)
- 1/2 cup plant-based yogurt (125 g) (or silken tofu)
- 2-3 tbsp sugar (40 g)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Peanut butter Frosting:
- 1/2 cup dairy-free cream cheese (112 g)
- 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter unsweetened
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar (50 g)
- 2-4 tbsp plant-based milk optional
Topping:
- salted peanuts
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Prepare the flax eggs by stirring 2 tbsp ground flaxseeds in 5 tbsp of hot water. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes.
Cheesecake:
- Add all ingredients for the cheesecake in a mixing bowl and blend until creamy using an electric hand mixer.
Brownie Cake:
- Melt the vegan butter and chocolate in a pot. Stir in vanilla.
- Mix the flour with salt, baking powder, baking soda and sugar in a bowl. Add the flax eggs and melted chocolate butter and mix until combined. The batter should be creamy. Add a little bit more of plant-based milk, if needed.
Layer the cake:
- Spread 1/3 of the brownie cake batter into a greased 7-inch (18 cm) round baking tin. Continue dollop the cheesecake batter and the brownie batter by a heaped spoonful in exchange until the batter is empty.
- Bake for about 50 minutes, (or until an inserted tooth pick comes out almost clean). Then let cool completely.
Frosting:
- Blend all ingredients for the frosting using an electric hand mixer until smooth and creamy. (Add a little plantbased milk if it’s too firm).
- Spread frosting over your cooled brownie cake and you can also pipe on some decorations if you like. Also, decorate with salted peanuts or just enjoy as they are!
Notes
- To make this cake gluten-free, you can use a gluten-free flour blend 1:1 instead of all-purpose flour.
- To make this cake sugar-free you can use erythritol instead of regular sugar.
- Instead of flaxseed eggs you can use 100 g applesauce or one mashed banana. I recommend you to add a little less sugar then.
- You can keep leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze.
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Hi Bianca! 🙂 I’m about to make this as a birthday cake. I wanna ask sth about the swrils. Did you add chocolate or cocoa powder to create them? And how much did you add?
Hello Afrodite. I don’t get what you mean. The swirls are created by layering brownie batter and cheesecake filling. Please read up on the instructions and you will see it. 🙂
This looks amazing and the reviews are exciting.
I think will make a perfect desert for Easter!
Has anyone use creamy almond butter instead of peanut? How did it turn out?
Thanks for your reply.
I haven’t tried it yet as I can’t find creamy almond butter. I can only find the oily one.
Hi, this recipe looks great 🙂 When it says to spread 1/3 of the brownie cake batter into the tin, I’m assuming that includes around the sides of the tin as well, not just the bottom?
Yes! 🙂
Can I use a 9 inch spring form pan? Or must it be a regular cake pan?
Yes, you can use a 9-inch springform pan! 🙂
Hi there,
I love this idea and want to make it for my in-laws but they’re in a small town and some of the vegan ingredients will be hard to find. Am I able to sub in non-vegan ingredients in the same measurements to make this dish? Also do you think this will turn out ok in a 6-inch round pan?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Laura,
yes, you can use non-vegan ingredients!
A 6-inch baking pan is too small for this recipe but you can use a larger pan or a square pan and then reduce the baking pan a bit if you’d like to make traditional cheesecake brownies.
These brownies are so easy too make and so delicious! My whole family loved them, even my stepdad who isn’t a brownie fan. This recipe is definitely worth giving a try! ❤️❤️😍😍
So glad everyone loved them! Thank you 😉
Okay, wow. Dieser Kuchen ist saftig, cremig, schokoladig und der Cheesecakepart bringt das gewisse etwas mit sich.
Dieses Rezept werde ich noch öfter nachmachen!
Es freut mich total, dass dir der Cheesecake so gut schmeckt! 🙂
Vielen Dank für das super tolle Feedback!
Ganz liebe Grüße,
Bianca <3
This might be a silly question… store in fridge immediately???
Allow to cool to room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator and chill overnight to set! 😊
Hello,
Is it possible to use regular eggs for this recipe? I need to make a dairy free cake but not necessarily vegan.
You can substitute the flax-eggs with regular eggs! 😊
Loving it that there’s a veganized version of this cake that combines so many addictive flavors!!! 🍫🧀🥜
I made the cake twice already and each time, it turned out a little bit different – the taste changed with the brand of vegan cream cheese as well as the peanut butter. Both times, the final cake was a rich, sweet, very filling and satisfying dessert! 🤩
However, I adapted the recipe as follows:
– no plant milk in the brownie batter – otherwise the dough would have been too liquid to make the crust
– added some lemon juice to the cheesecake batter because… cheesecake💛🍋
– increased the baking time to at least 60 minutes at 180°C
– decreased some of the sugar and butter (personal preference)
Overall, I’m very grateful for the recipe and the inspiration! (And to my friend who suggested it!)
It managed to convince me that baking good-tasting vegan cheesecake is possible! 💪🌱
Much Love 💚
BonBon
(from http://www.sesame-sprinkles.com)
Thank you so much for your amazing feedback! So glad that you love this brownie cheesecake recipe, even though you made some twists! Lots of love to you! 🙂
Hi Bianca, I made these brownies last night and they taste nice but my cheesecake filling did not work out well. Yours looks more like a baked cheesecake filling and on your Instagram story your cheesecake mixture looked thicker than mine. I used 200g Violife dairy free cream cheese, 125g Alpro vanilla yoghurt, 40g sugar, 1tbsp cornstarch and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Any advice as to why my mixture didn’t form a cheesecake style filling? Thank you. P.S. I love all of your recipes!
Hi Lindsay, to me your ingredients sound great! Maybe you can use a thicker yogurt? I prefer “Alpro Skyr” which is a kind of vegan quark. It’s a very thick non-dairy yogurt that creates a wonderfully thick and creamy cheesecake filling. Alternatively, you can also use more vegan cream cheese instead of the yogurt.So glad you love my recipes. Thank you! 🙂 <3
Der Kuchen war super lecker.
Die Rezepte bieten immer viel Abwechslung!
Das freut mich sehr, liebe Melanie! Danke, für dein tolles Feedback. 🙂
My cake was still too soft after 50minutes of bakeing. Although I used all the ingredients. What went wrong?
Hi Hendrik, which baking pan did you use? Maybe you added too much batter? I recommend using a slightly larger pan or better a square or brownie pan. Keep in mind that this is not a dry and firm cake as you may think. These are actually moist, fudgy and soft vegan cheesecake brownies that I just baked in a round pan so it looks like a cake.
Hi!
I want to make this recipe next weekend for my birthday, but I want to make it for 20 servings. My questions is, what size baking pan would I need?
Cheers,
Raiza
Hi Raiza, that sounds like a great idea! You can double or better triple the recipe and bake it on a large baking sheet. You can really prepare a large amount of dough to bake on a sheet, and if you have any leftover dough, simply fill it into another square pan to use it up. Regarding the baking time, I suggest checking after 30-40 minutes. When you insert a tooth-pick into the center, it should come out almost clean. If it’s still too wet, bake it another 10 minutes, then test again. For moist brownies, please make sure not to overbake them. Let me know how it goes! Have fun baking! 🙂
This looks amazing! Is it okay to do it in an 8-inch round baking pan or does it have to be 7-inch?
I think 8-inch will do too! Let me know how it turned out 🙂
Thank you so much for the recipe 🙏🏼 It was delicious like always 🤤
Thank you! So glad that you liked it 🙂
Can I sub salted coconut oil for vegan butter? And if I don’t have dairy free cream cheese, what else can I use?
Hi Keira, yes you can substitute coconut oil for vegan butter but I suggest not using salted oil. You can use another dairy-free spread that has a similar consistency to cream cheese if you can find any. Maybe you could also try using thick coconut cream, however, I haven’t tried it yet so I’m not sure how it’ll turn out. Let me know how it goes if you give it a try! 😉
I love this recipe so much! I made it for my mum and her friends and they all loved it so much (me as well of course). It has the perfect combo of rich chocolate taste and fluffy fresh cheesecake. I transformed the cake into brownies so I could cut smaller pieces. Also: Don’t skip the frosting on top it tastes sooo good together 😍
So glad that you liked the recipe! Thank you! I love turning the recipe into brownies too because the texture is better that way 🙂 🙂
I made the Cheesecake-Brownies and they turned out AMAZING. They are easy to make and taste so good. I really like the consistency! My sister, my boyfriend and a friend of mine are already big fans and ask for more, haha!
So glad that you like them! Thank you 😀 🙂
I made cheesecake brownies with that recipe and they turned out so well. They taste even better after a few hours in the fridge, they’re addictive ❤️
So glad that you liked them! Thank you 🙂
really, really easy recipe. tastes amazing!! my family and i love it and we will definitely come back to follow more recipes from you
So glad that you liked it! Thank you so much! 🙂
I give it a 10/10
Thank you so much ?❤️
Hi! I’m just here to say thank you so much for the recipe! I just cooked it the last evening and now that I’ve tried it it’s so delicious! The combo is bomb! Hope to make even more recipes of yours soon!
So glad that you liked this recipe! ?
Thank you so much! ❤️
I made this cake for the first time today and while it’s delicious I did have a couple of points:
For the brownie cake on step 2 you miss put when to add a bunch of ingredients I.e the sugar, plant based milk and vanilla essence. I had to go back and work out which ingredients I’d missed and guess when to put them in
For the frosting, are the measurement correct? I tried making it and it ended up a sloppy, running icing rather than a frosting. Not sure of you meant teaspoons rather than tablespoons in your measurements?
I will definitely make again but with my own frosting mix!
Hi, I‘m sorry that it was not clear enough when to add these ingredients exactly.
Anyways, it doesn’t matter when you add the vanilla extract and sugar. I usually stir vanilla into the melted chocolate mixture, and mix the sugar with the flour. The plantbased milk is just an optional ingredient if the consistency is too firm and not smooth (it always depends on which kind of cream cheese or yogurt you use, if it’s liquid or more firm). The same happens to the Frosting. It’s very important to use creamy peanut butter, because the regular peanut butter makes a runny texture. The milk is also just an optional ingredient, depends on the texture. I hope it will turn out better next time.
Let me know if you have still any questions.
Much Love,
Bianca ❤️
I am probably the biggest fan of brownies and this brownie cheesecake looks spectacular! I am sure I would eat the whole cake in one sitting lol! Looks fab!
Much love, Ela ❤️
Thank you so much, Ela!❤️
So glad that you like this recipe.
Lots of love,
Bianca ?