Light fluffy and delicious vegan vanilla cake! Two layers of vanilla sponge, topped with a velvety vegan vanilla frosting and fresh strawberries.
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 loved 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 inches 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. You can also make this cake as a three layer 6-inch cake, or a single layer 9-inch cake.
To adapt this cake to different size cake pans, see our notes on how to do that below.
Vegan Vanilla Cake Q&A
You can try simply swapping the regular all purpose flour for a gluten free all purpose flour blend.
Yes, this recipe makes a perfect three layer 6-inch cake cake. Bake for 20 minutes.
Yes, but the layers are just a little thinner. You can also take a look at our vegan Victoria sponge cake recipe which is this recipe, adapted for 8-inch cake pans. 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.
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. I have included the exact measures for doubling this recipe in the notes section of the recipe card below.
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!).
Yes you can! We have already done it, check out our recipe for vegan vanilla cupcakes, which is adapted from this recipe.
Storing and Freezing
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay perfectly fresh for a 2-3 days or keep it covered in the fridge to stay good for up to a week.
The cake is also freezer friendly for up to 3 months. You can freeze it either frosted or unfrosted (but definitely don’t add strawberries if you plan to freeze it).
More Vegan Cakes
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- Vegan Red Velvet Cake
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Strawberry Cake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
For the Vanilla Cake:
- 1 ¾ cups All Purpose Flour (220g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 cup Soy Milk (240ml) or Other non-dairy milk
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ⅓ cup Canola Oil (80ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
For The Vanilla Frosting:
- 3 ¾ cups Powdered Sugar (450g)
- 3 Tbsp Vegan Butter (45g)
- 4 Tbsp Soy Milk or Other non-dairy milk*
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
For Decoration:
- Fresh Strawberries Optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 7-inch round cake pans (*see notes) with non-stick spray and cut parchment paper into circles to fit the bottoms.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Add the soy milk, vanilla, oil and vinegar and give it a quick whisk with a hand whisk until just combined.
- Divide the batter evenly between your two prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire 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.
Video
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. This cake recipe as is will also make a three layer 6-inch round cake (bake for 20 minutes) or a single layer 9-inch round cake (bake for 30 minutes). It can also be made as a 9×9 square sheet cake (bake for 20-25 minutes). If you want to make this cake for 8-inch cake pans, see our vegan white cake recipe which is an 8-inch cake or the cake recipe for our vegan Victoria sponge. If you want to adapt this recipe to fit two 9-inch round cake pans see our full instructions below.
- If you want to double this recipe for a 9-inch round two layer cake, then the ingredients list will be as follows: 3 and ½ cups (438g) All Purpose Flour, 2 cups (400g) White Sugar, 2 tsp Baking Soda, 1 tsp Salt, 2 cups (480ml) Soy Milk, 4 tsp Vanilla Extract, ⅔ cup (160ml) Canola Oil, 2 Tbsp White Vinegar. Everything else including baking times (30 minutes), remains the same. The frosting as listed in the recipe above will be enough to spread generously onto the top and middle of a 9-inch layer cake but not enough to frost the sides as well. Take a look at our vegan buttercream frosting recipe which is enough to frost this whole cake when made as a two layer 9-inch cake.
- 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.
Monika says
Hi Alison,
This recipe looks great and easy. But I am looking for a vegan and gluten free cake. Can I substitute flour with gluten free all purpose flour mix and add xanthan gum to it? Will it change the consistancy of the cake?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Monika, I have made gluten-free vanilla cupcakes from this recipe, so you can see from there what adjustments were made. All the best! 🙂
Jess says
Yesterday I made my sister a vegan pistachio and rosewater cake using the base from this recipe, throwing icing (with a dab of rosewater essence in there) on it, sprinkling crumbed pistachios over it, and decorating with edible flowers. Everyone loved it! Here’s a picture! https://imgur.com/a/DXQMhLE
TIPS:
– Gluten-free flour does not work (it tastes fine, but sinks in the middle, I only tried this with self-raising GF, so maybe plain GF might work?)
– weigh everything, my aussie measuring cups use different amounts for a “cup” compared to american
– double the recipe, don’t split the mixture, just cook the whole base twice, stack them to get a decent size cake (as I have done in the picture)
Thank you for the base recipe! It’s fun to play around with. 😀
Alison Andrews says
Gorgeous picture! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Jessica Kang says
I am not the best baker but was looking for a vegan recipe for an apple upside down cake! This recipe worked beautifully- however I subbed 1/2 of the milk for ginger ale! The cake was amazing and moist and had no issues with rising! Will be looking at more of your recipes and saving them! Haha! Thank you sooo much!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome Jessica! Thanks so much for sharing! I’m thrilled to hear that ginger ale makes a good sub too! 🙂
Julie says
Made this recipe yesterday into cupcakes as didn’t have 7-inch pans. So moist and delicious! Only used about 3/4 cup sugar. And put strawberries in the frosting. Next time will try subbing some applesauce for the oil to reduce the fat. Great recipe!!!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome Julie! It does make perfect cupcakes! We did a recipe with a strawberry vanilla frosting you can check out next time. 🙂 Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Shelisah says
Wow! Just made this cake after alot of trial and error with others. This is absolutely DELICIOUS! This recipe is a winner! Can’t wait to try it with the frosting. I cut into it and couldn’t stop eating it lol. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Liliana says
I used lemon juice instead of the vinegar it turned out amazing!!!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Elena says
Hi! Would it be ok if I tried lemon flavoring instead of vanilla? Or almond?
Alison Andrews says
Sure! 🙂
B says
Would it be possible to reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup without impacting tbe texture? If not, what about only subtracting a tablespoon?
Alison Andrews says
I think that should be fine. If you read the other comments I think you’ll see that reducing the sugar has been done by others successfully. All the best!
Lauea says
Double the recipe it’s very small and I only put 1/2 cup of sugar
Denise says
I made this cake. It’s easy and delicious! I used 9 inch cake pans and doubled the recipe. I had no problems. The cake rose beautifully! The icing was creamy and delicious. Instead of strawberries, I topped my cake with blueberries for my husbands birthday!
Alison Andrews says
Excellent! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Olga says
Hi, can i use Japanese rice wine vinegar? Thank you
Alison Andrews says
I’m not entirely sure, the vinegars I’ve used are the white spirit vinegar, or apple cider vinegar, both of which are very acidic, so it reacts with the baking soda. I believe wine vinegar is less acidic, so it might be fine, but I can’t say for sure since I haven’t used it.
Tara says
Is there any way that I could use maple syrup in place of the sugar? This is a beautiful cake.
Thanks,
Tara
Alison Andrews says
Unfortunately no, because maple syrup as a wet ingredient would throw off the balance of wet and dry ingredients so it would require the whole recipe to be adjusted.
Natalia Chraim says
Just made this recipe for my vegan sisters birthday and it came out very nicely 🙂 i used a little less sugar as she doesn’t like too much sweetness and i feel the frosting balanced it out very well. i put the strawberries on top as well as in between the layers. the frosting was a bit runny but i feel that was because the cakes were still slightly warm. Delicious, thank you!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome, thanks for sharing Natalia! 🙂
michelle fehlman says
This cake was AWESOME! I made it for my boyfriend’s father for his birthday. No one could believe it was vegan! I did make a few adjustments. I did one and half times the recipe and substituted one cup of all purpose flour with one cup + 2 TBS cake flour for a softer cake and used canola oil rather than olive oil. I also baked it in three 7″ pans for a triple layer cake. The cakes came out so moist moist and wonderful. The smell of vanilla filled my kitchen while baking! To finish the cake I spread some of the frosting (which I added a hint of cinnamon to) and a few tablespoons of fresh smashed raspberries in between each layer in lieu of frosting the whole cake, so it was more like a vanilla raspberry torte. It turned out beautiful and was delicious! The hit of the party!
Sydney says
Will a larger cake pan the measures 33×22.9×5.08cm work for baking this cake? I was going to put all the mixture into one pan instead of making a layered cake.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Sydney, I think you might like to try my Vanilla Sheet Cake. The pan you’re describing is I think a quarter sheet pan, so it’s a smaller pan than I used for that cake (half sheet), but I think it will work just fine it will just need a longer baking time (not sure how much longer exactly).
rela says
This is the bomb! Seriously the best vegan white cake I HAVE EVER HAD. It takes like a betty crocker cake. I will say my frosting came out really watery, but I didn’t do proper measuremants.
Overall two thumbs up!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome Rela! Thank you! For the frosting, even if you don’t do measurements, just add more powdered sugar if that happens, and you can fix it up. Thanks for posting! 🙂
Brandi says
The BEST vegan vanilla cake recipe I’ve found!! The texture is actually like a cake cake– all the others I’ve tried have been heavy or soggy or crumbly or something. (I noted that this recipe does not use baking powder, whereas the others I’ve tried do use it, along with the soda and salt. I wonder if the lack of powder is what makes this one “work?” )
I was very skeptical about how thick the layers would turn out when I was pouring the batter– it didn’t seem like enough to do anything. So much so that I almost decided to just pour it all into one pan. But it did great– it did rise close to double (not quite) the batter depth.
But, no, these aren’t as thick as you’d get with a cruelty-added box mix. I’m fine with that. This was thick enough, and one could always make another mix and stack ’em up, or add more to the 2 pans, etc.
FYI, I made mine in square pans (7.6″ x 7.6″).
End verdict: This one DOES actually work!!!! 😀
Now, if I can just find instructions somewhere for letting out the waist in my jeans…
Alison Andrews says
Love your comment Brandi and the end made me laugh out loud! ?So awesome that the cake came out so well! Thanks so much for sharing about your pan sizes as well, that is so helpful! ? I also think if you wanted to you could stack up this cake 4 layers high and it would be awesome! But probably best to make in two batches, just because of how tricky cakes like to get when you try and double them (I have yet to figure out why!). Thanks so much for your comment! 🙂