The best vegan pound cake is moist, rich, buttery and dense (but not heavy) and topped with a delicious almond glaze. It’s also easy to make.
This vegan pound cake with an almond glaze is simply perfect. It’s rich, moist and dense like a pound cake should be.
Traditionally a pound cake is made with a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs and a pound of butter (and usually makes more than one loaf).
So with this vegan pound cake, I had to do a lot of improvising and I tried all sorts of combinations, and in the end did not replace the eggs at all.
I used vegan butter, sugar, flour and vegan buttermilk as the main ingredients and the result was total pound cake perfection.
We’ve now also made a vegan lemon pound cake that is equally delicious, so check that out too.
How To Make Vegan Pound Cake
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add vegan butter and white granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together. Add vanilla extract and mix in.
- Prepare your vegan buttermilk by adding 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding in soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line. Let it curdle into buttermilk.
- Add the vegan buttermilk to the mixer and mix in with the vegan butter and sugar. It will look curdled but this is fine.
- Sift all purpose flour into a separate mixing bowl, add baking powder and salt and mix together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix into a batter with a spoon. Be careful not to overmix.
- Transfer the batter to a 9×5 loaf pan (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with parchment paper so that there is overhang on either side) and smooth down.
- Bake at 350°F for 60 minutes. At the 40 minute mark, bring out the cake and tent it with foil and then return it to the oven for the final 20 minutes.
- It’s ready when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Lift the cake out of the loaf pan using the parchment paper overhang and place it onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare the almond glaze by adding powdered sugar, soy milk and almond extract to a bowl and mixing in until smooth.
- Spoon this on top of your cooled pound cake and smooth it down. It will likely run down the sides a little, this is fine.
- Top with almond flakes or slivered almonds and then place it into the fridge for 10 minutes for the topping to set.
- Cut into slices and serve.
Tent With Foil
Tenting your pound cake with foil for the last 20 minutes of baking, stops it from over-browning on top. And if you’re wondering what ‘tenting’ is, it’s exactly like it sounds.
Take foil and place it in a tent like shape over the top of your loaf pan. It allows it to continue to bake without over-browning on top, while also protecting your cake so that the foil doesn’t push down on it from the top (the reason for the ‘tent’, rather than just putting foil over the top).
Since it’s only for the last 20 minutes, the cake has done all its rising by then so opening the oven at this point to put a foil tent over the top doesn’t interfere with your cake rising and doesn’t cause any sinking side effect.
Almond Glaze
As delicious as this vegan pound cake is, well sometimes pound cake can be considered a little…. boring. The almond glaze on top takes care of that!
It jazzes it up very nicely and it looks and tastes absolutely delicious.
Storing Instructions
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay good for a few days or covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week.
It’s also freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
More Delicious Vegan Cakes
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Coconut Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Pound Cake
Ingredients
For the Vegan Pound Cake:
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Vegan Buttermilk (240ml) 1 Tbsp lemon juice + soy milk up to the 1 cup line
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
For the Almond Glaze Topping:
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar (120g)
- 1 ½ Tablespoons Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
- Few Drops Almond Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray a 9×5 loaf pan with non-stick spray and line it with parchment paper so that there is overhang on either side.
- Add vegan butter and white granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together. Add vanilla extract and mix in.
- Prepare your vegan buttermilk by adding 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding in soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line. Let it curdle into buttermilk.
- Add the vegan buttermilk to the mixer and mix in with the vegan butter and sugar. It will look curdled but this is fine.
- Sift all purpose flour into a separate mixing bowl, add baking powder and salt and mix together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix into a batter with a spoon. Be careful not to overmix.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared 9×5 loaf pan and smooth down.
- Bake for 60 minutes. At the 40 minute mark, bring out the cake and tent it with foil* and then return it to the oven for the final 20 minutes. It's ready when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Lift the cake out of the loaf pan using the parchment paper overhang and place it onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare the almond glaze by adding powdered sugar, soy milk and almond extract to a bowl and mixing in until smooth. I didn't use the stand mixer for this, I found it was easy to mix up in a bowl.
- Spoon this on top of your cooled pound cake and smooth it down. It will likely run down the sides a little, this is fine.
- Top with almond flakes or slivered almonds and then place it into the fridge for 10 minutes for the topping to set.
- Cut into slices and enjoy!
Notes
- Vegan buttermilk – is best made with soy milk as it curdles really well. Almond milk also works.
- Tenting with foil. At the 40 minute mark, bring out the cake and add foil to the top in a tent shape. So let the top be quite high (in a tent shape) so that it doesn’t press down on the cake from the top. Put the cake back in for the last 20 minutes.
- Storing: Keep your pound cake stored at room temperature (covered) for a few days or in the fridge (covered) for up to a week. It’s also freezer friendly up to 3 months.
What size loaf pan?
Hi Petra, it’s a standard 9×5 inch loaf pan (I’ve updated the recipe). 🙂
Can I substitute vegan butter with olive oil or vegetable oil in this recipe?
If you read the other comments, someone tried it with coconut oil and it worked. But I wouldn’t think a different oil would work well here.
Hi
Can I flavour this recipe by adding other extracts? Thanks x
Sure! 🙂
So delicious!!!
Can I sub almond milk for soy?
Sure! 🙂
I’ve ran out of all purpose can i just use self raising? Also does it have to be buttermilk or can I use milk only.
I’m not sure about using self raising, it might work or it might not. It has baking powder and salt added so it could end up being too much for the structure of the cake. Regarding vegan buttermilk, since you make it yourself, it’s definitely recommended to do it since that’s how the recipe was tested and the best results obtained. If you don’t have lemon juice to make the buttermilk you can use apple cider vinegar instead.
Hi, I will try out the cake as soon as possible! I have had the same problems with the sinking of the cakes. So much so, that it really made me almost depressive and giving up on vegan cakes (after almost 12 years). Thank you!! Alexa
Hi Alexa, hope it will work out much better this time! Let us know how it goes. 🙂
Ali
I think your recipes sound divine ~?
So I’m gonna try one today…
It is a Sunday…so will keep you posted ✏️
It’s either the pound cake or the Vegan Vanilla
Strawberry ??
?
Hi, i came back to your recipe and said let me retry to make this again. So i did. It reminds me of a maderia cake, dense fluffy and yet moist. I love maderia cakes for that but they have egg! Jamaican cakes are usually dense but sometimes dry, this was my perfect dream dense but FLUFFY AND MOIST! I personally find light and airy just “missing” something. I made cupcakes out of these, they melted in my mouth, soft like candyfloss, and i used oil, vegetable oil, i believe if i went with oil maybe it would of been much denser, i dunno but i like the oil.
Awesome Kelisha, so glad you enjoyed the recipe and wonderful to hear that it worked for cupcakes! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
I made this pound cake today in a round cake mold. I love it! I followed the recipe and it tastes just like a regular pound cake. It rose perfectly and the texture was perfect. What I did was I beat the batter with a spatula for a long time until smooth, although the recipe says not to overmix. I did this because a pound cake recipe I used to use before asked to beat the batter a bit longer to strengthen the cake’s structure. I used a spatula instead of a mixer to make sure I didn’t over do it.
What I love about this recipe is that it uses regular baking ingredients like flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, vegan butter, vanilla, plant based milk+lemon juice. Many other recipes use vegan yogurt or silken Tofu or cream cheese, which may not aways be at hand.
Thank you so much for this recipe. It will be my go to recipe for my favorite cake. And the baking powder tip was very useful. Thank you!
Hi Abby, so happy to hear it was a success! I definitely try (usually) to stick to easy to find ingredients so it’s awesome to hear you enjoyed that aspect, thanks a million for the great review! 🙂
Hi, I’ve notice my cake cracks even when temp is lowered, now my baking powder says to use 2tsp per 150g flour do you think it rises too quick that it crusts on top and cracks before inside is cooked?
Hi Kelisha, mine is also a little cracked on top as you can see in the photos. If it’s not ruining your cake I wouldn’t worry about it? If you have a fan setting on your oven, you can bake it like that at 320°F (160°C) as this can sometimes result in more even baking and reduce cracking on top. But if it’s not ruining the cake, a few cracks on top are not something that concern me usually.
Hi, in the uk we would call this maderia cake, so would you say that this cake is perfect for carving as its firm and dense?
Hi Kelisha, it is firmer and denser than a regular cake for sure and has a tighter crumb. So it’s ideal to slice as you can see in the photos. 🙂
Thanks for responding why didn’t you add baking soda in this one but you did to the lemon cake? Xx
Made this one and it was lovely dense fluffy i would like to try making this dense but not so dense what would you advise please
Can I use oil instead of butter?
Hi Kelisha, I haven’t tried it with oil, but if you read the comments above – someone said they made it with coconut oil and it worked. 🙂
Simple and delicious cake
My wife made this cake today and I don’t know what went wrong, but it was moist and delicious. Not only that, it also seemed to be twice the size of the one in your pictures. I asked her how she got it to raise so much. She said the trick is in the buttermilk. Rather than let it curdle for about 15 minutes. Also instead of vegan butter she used coconut oil. I thought it was going to be a flop, but I am very impressed with the results.
Hi Bob, I must say when I read the first line and saw ‘I don’t know what went wrong’ my heart sort of sank a bit as I thought something bad was coming, and then I was super pleased to read the rest! So happy to hear about the adjustments and that it was such a success! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
When using vegan butter in baking do you use stick or soft? Have you found it makes a difference? Loving your recipes.
Thank you.
Hi Jamie, I use soft vegan butter usually, but I don’t think it would make a difference, so long as you cream it quite well I think the end result would be the same. 🙂 Thanks so much, so glad you like the recipes!