Biscoff Drip Cake!

This vegan Biscoff drip cake will make your friends drool with envy. Bite into layers of cookie-studded cake covered in Biscoff Swiss meringue buttercream and topped with a crown of cookie butter drip.

This cake is a remix of all my favorite recipes. It also makes an amazing birthday cake.

You get layers of my favorite vegan cake with some Biscoff cookies mixed into the batter and some silky Swiss meringue buttercream flavored with both cookies crumble and cookie butter.

Add in some extra cookie butter in the filling and as a gorgeous drip and you got a winner cake right there that your friends will rave about for years.

RELATED: If you're like me a big Biscoff fan, you need to try out my easy Biscoff cookie pie crust!

📋 Ingredients + Substitutions

Having the right ingredients can make or break a cake, especially since there is a lot of variation between vegan products. Here is some extra info for some of the products I used in my recipe to guide you once it's time to go grocery shoping.

See the recipe card for quantities.

Biscoff cake

• Biscoff Cookies - Biscoff are a spiced and caramelized cookie made by the brand Lotus that are accidentaly vegan. They might also be called Speculoos where you live. You'll want to pick up 2 packs of their regular cookies (or 1 pack of regular and 1 pack of their sandwich cookies) for this recipe.
• Vegan margarine and butter- For the cake, any sort of soft margarine in a tub will do. However for the buttercream, you'll want something a bit more firm (and unsalted) so get one that comes in block form like Becel plant-based bricks, Flora, or Naturli'.
• Yogurt - I used coconut yogurt for my recipe but any kind of vegan yogurt will do.
  • Substitution: Blended soft silken tofu.
• Aquaflaxa- Aquaflaxa is a type of flax egg that you make at home by boiling whole flax seeds and then straining it.
  • Substitution: You could also use a traditional flax egg in this recipe by mixing 23 g (4 heaping tablespoons) ground flax seeds with ½ cup + 1 tablespoon (140 g) of hot water.
• Cornstarch - It is also known as cornflour in the UK and Australia

Swiss meringue buttercream

• Aquafaba - It's the liquid you find in a can of chickpea or white kidney beans. It replaces egg whites.
  • Substitution: 2.8 g (1 ½ teaspoon) of Versawhip 600K mixed with 190 g (¾ cup) of water. If you are using Versawhip, no need to use xantan gum in the buttercream recipe.
• Cookie Butter - Lotus (the same company that makes the Biscoff cookies) makes a delicious cookie butter. Look out for the smooth one, just 1 jar should be enough. Trader Joe's also has it's own cookie butter, but you can also make your own at home by blending some of the cookies until smooth.

💭 Top tips

• This cake uses a method called "reverse creaming" to get a very moist cake. Double-check the recipe instructions before starting since it's not your typical "cream the sugar and butter together" cake recipe.
• For the cookie crumb border at the bottom of the cake, wait for the cake to be very cold and firm. Then pick it up with your non dominant hand and press handfulls of cookie crumbs into the bottom of the cake with your dominant hand. Rotate the cake as you go.
• Use a scale! A digital scale is so much better to measure cookie butter (and other sticky ingredients) than having to deal with measuring cups.
  • Using weight is more accurate than cups since they can vary in volume worldwide. The only exception to this is when using small measurements like teaspoons and tablespoons.

🍰 Decoration alternatives

If icing the side of a cake to perfection has no interest to you, here are 2 decoration alternatives that would look awesome on this cake.

Naked Cake - Go with a naked cake look. Crumb coat the cake and then scrape off all the excess icing so that the cake layers show through. Then spoon some of that cookie butter on top and make it drip down.

Sandy Cake - After covering the cake in a thin layer of Biscoff buttercream (no need to be perfect), refrigerate the cake until firm and then cover completely in Biscoff fine cookie crumbs. The crumbs will hide any imperfections. This is also the perfect cake look for any beach-themed party.

🥣 Cake truffles

Here is an idea to reduce cake trimming waste. If you have made cake pops before, this will be familiar.

First, mix together any cake trimmings with some leftover icing (a little goes a long way) until you get a smushable consistency. You can then use a small ice cream scooper to make balls that you freeze until very firm.

Then, roll the balls in liquified cookies butter, and right away, roll them in Biscoff cookie crumbs to coat. You now have bite-size pieces of cakes for when you have a sweet tooth but don't feel like eating a full slice.

🔪 Equipment

Stand mixer - This is one of those recipes where it's important to have a stand mixer, since using a hand mixer to make Swiss meringue buttercream could result in you getting cramps in your arm and hand.

6-inch metallic cake pan (3-inch deep)- I love using my Fat Daddio or Wilton brand metallic cake pans for these types of cakes. If you only have 1 cake pan, you can definitely bake each cake layer one after the other. I do not recommend baking them together as 1 cake.

Pastry Bag and tip - You will need a small pastry bag and an Ateco 844 pastry tip if you want to pipe erfect rosettes on top of this cake. A large pastry bag also comes in handy to fill and ice this cake.

I love making tall cakes but if you want to make a shorter one that can feed more people, feel free to use a 7 or even 8-inch cake pan. No need to change the baking temperature but you'll have to start checking if the cake is done at the 45-minute mark and adjust from there.

🌡️ Storage

Keep this cake in the refrigerator until ready to eat. Bring it to room temperature 1 hour before serving to let the buttercream soften, if not the buttercream will be too hard.

Can be frozen for up to 2 months if completely covered in plastic wrap or refrigerated for up to 4 days. After that, you risk the cake getting dry.

Recipe

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Vegan Biscoff Drip Cake Recipe

This vegan Biscoff drip cake will make your friends drool with envy. Bite into layers of cookie-studded cake covered in Biscoff Swiss meringue buttercream and topped with a crown of cookie butter drip.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cookies, drip cake

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 1 hour

Resting Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 1 tall 6-inch cake

Ingredients

Biscoff Cake

Dry Ingredients

• 660 g all-purpose flour (5 ½ cups)
• 40 g cornstarch (¼ cup)
• 400 g white granulated sugar (2 cups)
• 14 g baking powder (1 tablespoon)
• 5 g baking soda (1 teaspoon)
• 6 g fine sea salt (1 teaspoon)
• 100 g Biscoff cookies (13 cookies)

Wet Ingredients

• 180 g vegan salted margarine (¾ cup)
• 177 g light-tasting vegetable oil (¾ cup)
• 10 g white vinegar (2 teaspoons)
• 560 g plant-based milk (2 ¼ cups)
• 165 g aquaflaxa (⅔ cup)
• 65 g vegan yogurt (¼ cup)
• 12 g vanilla extract (1 tablespoon)

Biscoff Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 180 g aquafaba* , reduced until viscous as needed (⅔ cup)
• 350 g white granulated sugar (1 ¾ cup)
• ⅛ teaspoon xanthan gum , optional but recommended
• 454 g firm vegan unsalted butter , room temperature (2 cups)
• 100 g Biscoff cookies , finely crushed (13 cookies)
• 120 g smooth Biscoff cookie butter (½ cup)

Garnish + Fillings

• 60 g smooth Biscoff cookie butter , for the filling (¼ cup)
• 120 g smooth Biscoff cookie butter , for the drip (½ cup)
• finely crushed Biscoff cookies
• 8 Biscoff cookies , either classic or cream-filled sandwich cookie

Instructions

Biscoff Cake

• Preheat your oven to 325°F (165°C) and lightly oil 3 6-inch cake pans.
• Sift together all the dry ingredients except the Biscoff cookies. Add the margarine to the dry ingredients and mix with a paddle or hand-held mixer on low for 1 minute, or until you reach a crumbly and sand-like texture.
• All at once, add the rest of the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and continue mixing on low until there are no more dry ingredients left. Scrape the sides of your bowl with a silicone spatula to dislodge any dry ingredients stuck in the bottom of the bowl. Add the cookies to the batter and mix on low for 1 minute, or until the cookies are roughly crushed.
• Divide the batter equality between the cake pans (approximately 750g of batter per pan) and lightly tap each filled cake pan against your countertop to release any air bubbles. Bake the cakes in the middle rack for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean and free of crumbs.
• Let the cakes rest in their pans for 5 to 10 minutes, before removing them from the pans and leaving them to cool down completely on a wire rack.
• With a sharp serrated knife, trim the bottom and top of each cake layer to remove the domed part and to make even and flat cake layers.

Biscoff Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• Mix the aquafaba and sugar together and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Transfer into the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, add the xanthan if using, and whip on medium-high speed until you get a stiff meringue.
• Once the bowl of your stand mixer doesn't feel hot to the touch anymore (slightly warm is ok), cut your room temperature butter into 1-inch cubes and slowly add them one by one, waiting between each addition that the previous cube is almost completely incorporated before adding the next one.
• Increase the speed to high and whip for an additional 10 minutes, or until the buttercream is light in color and has a subtle butter taste. Change the whisk for the paddle attachment beat on low for 2 to 3 minutes to remove any air bubbles.
• Transfer 130 g (1 cup) of plain buttercream into a small pastry bag with a closed star-shaped pastry tip. I used an Ateco 844 pastry tip.
• Add the cookie butter and crushed cookies to the leftover buttercream and paddle on low speed for 2 minutes, or until the icing is a pale tan color with small specks of cookie. Optional: Transfer into a large piping bag with no pastry tip for easy filling and cake decorating.

Assembly

• On a cake board, add a small dab of icing to act as glue and place your first cake layer.
• Lightly heat the cookie butter for the filling until liquid but not warm to the touch, or about 30 seconds in the microwave.
• Spread half of the cookie butter on the cake layer leaving half an inch of free space around the outside of the cake. Add a small layer of frosting on top of the cookie butter and level it out with an offset spatula. Add the next layer of cake on top and repeat the filling process a second time. Finish by placing the last layer of cake on top.

Decorating

• Crumb coat the whole cake with Biscoff buttercream and refrigerate until the crumb coat is firm, about 30 minutes
• Add a second layer of icing on top of the crumb coat and smooth it out using a metal spatula or cake scraper. Refrigerate until cold and firm, about 1 hour.
• Pick up the cold and firm cake by the bottom in one hand and press in crumbles Biscoff cookies all around the bottom of the cake with your dominant hand.
• Lightly heat the cookie butter for the drip until liquid but not warm to the touch , or about 30 seconds in the microwave, and pour on top of the center of the cake. Using a small offset spatula, quickly spread it to cover the top of the cake and guide the cookie butter over the edge of the cake to make drips.
• Using the plain buttercream your set aside, pipe 8 tall rosettes and place a Biscoff classic cookie, or sandwich cookie, in between each rosette. Add leftover crushed cookies as wanted on top of the cake. Enjoy!

Notes

• Aquafaba: Can be replaced with 2.8 g (1 ½ teaspoon) of Versawhip 600K mixed with 190g (¾ cup) of water. No need to use xanthan gum.
• Keep in the refrigerator until ready to eat, then pull it out 1 hour before serving to let the cake come back to room temperature.
• Can be frozen for up to 2 months if completely covered in plastic wrap or refrigerated for up to 4 days.

Did you try this Speculoos cake recipe?

Don’t be shy and let me know how it went! Leave me a comment below and share a picture on Instagram!