This vegan vanilla cake is light fluffy and dreamy! But what you’re going to like most about it is how EASY it is.
I’m going to admit, I had to play around with this recipe for quite a bit before I got it right.
The first time it was delicious, but I used a flax egg and while a flax egg is GREAT for most cakes, in the case of a vanilla cake when you want it to have the glorious light color, well….it didn’t work out so well.
I ended up with a delicious cake that looked like a seed cake and nothing at all like a vanilla cake.
The next time I tried it, it ended up way too dry, so I knew I needed to adjust the flour ratio.
I’m happy to report that the recipe you see below delivers the ideal level of moistness and as you can see, the color is totally gorgeous!
The vanilla flavor comes through perfectly, and by pairing it with vanilla frosting, you get yourself a whole lot of vanilla heaven going on!
Strawberries on top add a dash of gorgeous color and offset the vanilla flavor just right. However, feel free to use whatever cake decorations you please.
The strawberry dilemma…
I love the fresh fruit, but of course it doesn’t keep. You also have the small problem of the strawberries running and making the cake soggy.
So it really only works if you’re going to serve it within minutes of placing those strawberries on top.
So if you’re going to keep the cake around for a few days, then choose a different decoration OR just add some sliced strawberries to the individual slices as you serve them.
Even kids can do it…
I made this with my niece when she came for a sleepover at her aunt and uncle’s house. Since vanilla is her favorite flavor for everything, she was well enamored with this cake.
So seriously – this cake is easy enough that a kid can do it (with supervision, of course).
It’s really quite petite.
Just a little note that this cake is quite a small petite cake!
I used cake pans which are 7 inch round. The layers on this cake are not very tall, but I think it’s a perfect size and you get 10 nice sized slices out of it.
If you want to adapt this cake to larger cake pan sizes, see our notes on how to do that below.
Vegan Vanilla Cake Q&A
Can I make this gluten-free? There are a few changes that are needed to make this cake really work great for gluten-free. We made the adaptations for gluten-free with our vegan gluten-free vanilla cupcakes and they came out beautifully. You can adapt that recipe from cupcakes to a layer cake (two 7″ layers) just like this one if you like.
Can I make this in 8″ cake pans? Yes, but because the maths can get a little tricky sometimes when you increase a recipe, I recommend you take a look at our vegan vanilla sheet cake recipe, that recipe adapts perfectly to two 8″ cake layers. Just bake it for 30 minutes instead of the shorter baking time recommended for a sheet cake.
You can also take a look at our vegan white cake which is made for 8″ cake pans. That recipe was adapted from this one and is basically a perfect vanilla cake, just adapted to be a little more ‘white’ in color (to fit the ‘white cake’ description) and to be 8-inches.
Can I make this in 9″ cake pans? This exact recipe will make a single layer 9″ cake. So if you want to make a single layer cake, you can make this vegan vanilla cake recipe exactly as is, but just have a single layer instead of a 2-layer cake. We did this for our vegan pineapple upside down cake. Alternatively, you can double this recipe for a 9″ cake with two layers.
Our vegan white cake also adapts to 9″ cake pans, the layers are just slightly thinner than what you see in our white cake, but it still works just fine.
Can I make this into a bundt cake? Some have done it, if you read the comments below, it has been done. I don’t have a bundt cake pan so I haven’t got personal experience with that (yet!).
Can I make cupcakes from this recipe? Yes you can! We have already done it, check out our recipe for vegan vanilla cupcakes, which is adapted from this recipe.
I’m pretty sure you’re going to love this vegan vanilla cake! It is:
- Light and fluffy
- Perfectly moist
- Spongey!
- Frosted with velvety vanilla frosting!
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay perfectly fresh for a few days or keep it covered in the fridge to stay good for up to a week.
Love cakes?
Oh my word, you are SO in the right place! We are crazy about vegan cakes and have made a bunch of them. Here’s just a few:
- Classic Vegan Chocolate Cake – also a 7-inch layer cake
- The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake – a 9-inch layer cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake – a divine 8-inch beauty
- Vegan Carrot Cake – our super popular 7-inch layer cake
- Vegan Red Velvet Cake – also 7-inches
- Vegan Banana Cake – a 9×13 sheet cake
If you make this cake (and I hope you do!) then please let us know how it goes by rating the recipe and leaving a comment. It’s so helpful and we love to hear how it worked out for you. Thanks so much.
And sign up to our email list for a gorgeous (and free) recipe ebook containing 10 delicious vegan dinner recipes and you’ll also stay updated with all our latest recipes.
Vegan Vanilla Cake
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Prep Time: 15 mins - Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 45 mins
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Yield: 10 -
Category: Dessert, Baking -
Method: Baking -
Cuisine: Vegan
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Light fluffy and delicious vegan vanilla cake! Two layers of vanilla sponge, topped with a velvety vegan vanilla frosting and fresh strawberries. Ideal for special occasions.
Ingredients
For the Vanilla Cake:
- 1 and 3/4 cups (220g) All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup (200g) Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 cup (240ml) Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or other vegetable oil)
- 1 Tbsp White Vinegar (or Apple Cider Vinegar)
For The Vanilla Frosting:
- 3 and 3/4 cups (450g) Powdered Sugar
- 3 Tbsp (45g) Vegan Butter
- 4 Tbsp Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)*
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
For Decoration:
- Fresh Strawberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.
- Add the sugar, baking soda and salt and mix together.
- Add the soy milk, vanilla, oil and vinegar and give it a quick whisk with a hand whisk until just combined.
- Grease two 7 inch round cake tins with coconut oil (or spray with non-stick spray) and cut parchment paper into circles to fit the bottoms.
- Divide the batter evenly between them.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and using a toothpick, insert into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean then your cake is done.
- Move to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Prepare your frosting.
- Add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, vanilla and half of the soy milk.
- Beginning on low speed, mix with an electric mixer, slowly increasing speed. Add the rest of the soy milk, only as much as needed until it is smooth and creamy. If your vegan butter has a higher water content, you may not need to use all of the soy milk.
- If your frosting is still a little thin, add more powdered sugar, if it’s a little thick, add more soy milk (a drop at a time). The consistency must be thick enough that it doesn’t slide off the cake, but thin enough to be spreadable.
- When your cake is completely cool, add frosting to the top of one of the layers.
- Add the second layer on top and frost it completely, using a knife to carefully frost the sides of the cake.
- Decorate with fresh strawberries and serve right away.
- If you’re not serving right away, then omit the strawberries or serve them on a plate alongside the cake, so it doesn’t get soggy.
Notes
*I highly recommend you weigh the flour for the best results. Flour measures can be tricky, so weighing it on a food scale is the best way to ensure accuracy.
*The cake tins used in this recipe are 7 inches round. If you want to make this cake for different sized cake pans, see our notes in the recipe post about adapting it.
*Only add fresh strawberries to this cake if you’re going to be eating it right away. The strawberries are a fabulous addition to the flavor of this cake, BUT they run and can cause sogginess. So if you are keeping this cake for a few days, then either don’t use strawberries at all or just add some strawberry slices directly to the individual cake slices when served.
*Nutrition information is based on 1 serve of 10 with a very generous amount of vanilla frosting.
*Vanilla Frosting is from this recipe.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Serve (of 10)
- Calories: 441
- Sugar: 65g
- Sodium: 290mg
- Fat: 11g
- Saturated Fat: 1.6g
- Carbohydrates: 83g
- Fiber: 0.8g
- Protein: 3g
Keywords: vegan vanilla cake
hi,
Can i use sunflower oil instead of olive oil?
Definitely. 🙂
I love this recipe. I enjoy to cook, but baking not so much. I hate that vegan cake recipes are sometimes so complex. What exactly is Agar Agar? Why do I need it in a cake? This is delicious and simple.
★★★★★
Haha, so happy you like the recipe Theresa and I totally agree, vegan cake recipes can be so simple so they should be!
Hi, do you this recipe would work as a swiss roll? Do you think it would roll if baked thin on a baking tray? thanks xx
★★★★★
Hi Georgie, sorry I have NO experience with making swiss roll though I have it on my list as something to try! It would be an experiment but I have no idea at all how it would go. All the best! 🙂
I’m super excited. Tomorrow is Christmas and I have a few vegan guest coming over for dinner. We are not vegan but we don’t eat meat so my dinner is already about 95% Vegan aside from Parmesan cheese here and butter there. But I do have some all vegan dishes. I decided to search online for an all vegan cake recipe and came across this one. It’s baking now and the frosting is ready. I’ve already allowed my daughter and hubby to lick the bowl and the mixtures for both are wonderful. Can’t wait to taste the final product! Yay and thank you for creating this recipe! I didn’t tweek anything. I made it to the T!
★★★★★
Awesome Melanie, hope it was delicious and you had a great Christmas dinner! 🙂
How did it go?
I only have one 9” cake pan (I then plan to cut the cake in half to make two layers) — how would I adjust the baking time and/or baking temperature? Thanks!
This recipe as is will only make a single layer 9-inch cake. It will be fine as a single layer but too thin if you cut it in half. Rather take a look at our vegan white cake which can be made in 9-inch pans.
Can you swap the soy milk for coconut milk? since coconut milk is so full of fat i have no idea if it will affect the recipe. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
You can use it, it will be fine.
If I have vegan kefir to sub for the soy milk should I reduce the vinegar down or omit it ?
Hi Pamela, I don’t have any experience with using vegan kefir so really not sure what impact that has.
Normally I don´t eat cakes this rich – because of that I personally would have liked a little bit less frosting on it.
The sugar content is very high, so we couldn´t eat all of it at once ;-).
I made a smaller cake of 12cm, so I reduced the ingredients (x0,44). This worked well for me.
Thank you for this recipe!
★★★★★
This came out beautifully! Thank you so much for posting this. I doubled it and did 9” pans and filled it with raspberry filling. Only the 2nd scratch cake recipe without eggs and milk that I have made that worked out. It rose beautifully and did not stick to the pan and it was so moist. My allergic son was thrilled. Thank you!
So pleased to hear that Jeanne! Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
Today I made a practice run of cupcakes from your recipe–we are choosing a vegan birthday cake for our daughter’s first birthday. Just wanted to tell you that they are outstanding and we can’t wait to try all the variations, and some other recipes from your blog!
★★★★★
Wonderful! Thanks so much for the great review. 🙂
This recipe is sick yo. I’ve been vegan for maybe a year now and this is I think the only (vegan) recipe I’ve looked up and actually made. Most of the time I just eat the lowest effort stuff possible like raw carrots, or black beans and hot sauce on a slice of toast. I think I don’t ever really look for recipes because though I like to cook and bake, I don’t actually care that much to vary what I eat to any substantial degree.
Though I make this with a variation: I put half a crushed lindt 85% chocolate bar, add a few tablespoons of matcha and cocoa powder, and swap the soy milk for almond, and white vinegar for rice (though neither of the latter probably make much of a difference and are probably not that important to mention). For a chocolate green tea cake. It’s really good this way. For anyone trying out variations of this recipe
And I like how this is just a simple recipe.
Hi Shay! Sounds like an awesome variation and I’m so glad you like the recipe! Thanks so much for your post! 🙂
I’ve tried this recipe 10 times. But most of the times, cake comes out chewy and sticks to the pallet. What can be the problem? Please guide.
★★★
Hi there! Just curious, I have to use coconut flour, do I use the same amount or do I divide the amount of flour and only use 20%? (This is what the box says) thank you!
You can’t use coconut flour as a substitute for all purpose, it definitely won’t work on this cake, if you want it to be gluten-free, see my notes about gluten-free in the post. 🙂
How do I make this cake gluten free as well as Vegan
Hi Sue, this is all discussed in the post.
Hello, I am new to vegan baking and tried this recipe and it tasted very salty to me…is that normal and just something my palate needs to get use to? I was thinking I put too much flour at first but I did weigh it and follow the recipe exactly besides using almond milk and vegetable oil. The cake itself turned out so light and fluffy! Any suggestions?
Hi Christine, it definitely should not be salty. It could be a case of accidentally using too much baking soda and/or salt. Be very careful with your measuring spoons, they must be proper measuring spoons and should be levelled off at the top. Hope that helps! 🙂
Made the lemon version of this and it was heavenly!! Just made this one and there was a slight strange after taste. I think I used different olive oil. Is it best to use a very flavourless oil instead of like a extra virgin olive oil that tastes and smells strongly of olives? Or perhaps my vanilla wasn’t as strong and should have added more? Trying to perfect this for my sons birthday cake and prove to people how good vegan baking is!!
Thanks for the great recipes!!
★★★★★
Hi Liz, definitely switch the oil for a different option if you’re getting that result, with the brands I use I have never had that happen, but you can definitely use any vegetable oil here so use whatever you know will work well for you. All the best! 🙂
Hi, can I use brown sugar instead of white sugar?
Can I use any milk Instead of soy milk?
You can use brown sugar, but the color of the cake will be much darker and the texture will be just a small bit ‘heavier’ so it will be less ‘light and spongey’ but only by a little bit, so no big issue there but the color will change a lot. And yes you can use any milk.