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.
Sy says
Just made this for Easter and even my husband loved it. The only thing I changed was cut the sugar to half a cup and it was sweet enough. Almost a pound cake texture. A keeper. Thank you for sharing this
Heidi says
I’ve made this at least three, maybe four times in the past few years. I just pulled three of these cakes out of the oven tonight and will frost in the morning. My son specially requested this cake for his birthday and Easter. The family loves them!! Tripled the recipe for a 3-layer vanilla birthday cake with vanilla frosting. We also love your lemon cake recipe! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful, scrumptious, and easy enough recipes. We really appreciate the effort you put into formulating and testing your recipes to make it easier for us. Very grateful for you and hope you stay well!
Alison Andrews says
Thanks so much Heidi!
Linda says
I love this Recipe so much This is my 6th time using it! I am baking because we are all inside and I needed to brighten the family up thanks to you it worked! Everyones face was happy for once. Thank you SO MUCH!
Alison Andrews says
Thanks Linda!
Megan Lopez says
Hi Alison! This recipe looks amazing! I have one question, would it be possible to substitute the sugar for banana? Or would that create chaos for it? 🙂
Thanks so much!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Megan, hmmm, I don’t think so. I think you can reduce the sugar a little though if you prefer it like that!
Megan Lopez says
Awesome, Thank you!
Julie says
Made this for my daughters birthday cake & everyone loved it including non vegans. Like it was suggested weigh everything. Cake was very spongy, best vegan cake ever!! Thank you
Alison Andrews says
Thanks Julie!
Hels says
This cake was so flavoursome however instead of having it as a split cake i thought I’d do it as one cake and used a wider circle tray.
Cooked it for 35 min, did the toothpick test and it came out clean.
After cooling down I realised the cake was undercooked and was like a big fat pancake.
I will not give up 🙂
Alison Andrews says
Haha oh dear! sorry to hear it didn’t work out this time!
Michelle says
Thanks for a great recipe! I love that you have answered so many questions about conversions for size and time, took the guessing out for me! This was delicious! I made it for my family because if my son’s allergies to milk and eggs but I’d make it as a go to anytime. I used rice milk in the batter and unsweetened vanilla almond milk for the frosting. I baked it in a 9in round exact as posted and it was perfect. Thanks!
Any idea on the bake time for cupcakes?
Alison Andrews says
Thanks so much Michelle! So glad it was a success! Bake time for cupcakes is around 22-25 minutes. 🙂
Xaray Vega says
i had never tried a vegan dessert, but this cake is the best cake ever, it’s fluffy and delicious. I loved it .
Alison Andrews says
So happy to hear that! Thanks so much!
Amore says
Hi Alison as I’m sure you’re aware it’s kind of hard to get flour these days so only managed to get self-raising flour. Would I still be able to use this? And if so would I have to omit the baking soda or still add it in?
Thank you 🙂
Alison Andrews says
Hi Amore, I think it should be fine, I would possibly reduce the baking soda by half (still use it though as it reacts with the vinegar) and also omit the salt from the recipe since self raising already has added salt. All the best!
Jennifer says
Pretty tasty but when I removed it from the pan, it completely crumbled. Like into a pile. Not at all salvageable but pretty tasty!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Jennifer, did you make any substitutions on the flour? This has happened if someone has made a substitution on the flour and used something like rice flour. The result doesn’t hold together in this case. Also, make sure you line the bottoms of the pans with a circle of parchment paper. 🙂
Carla says
Live and Learn… I want it to make it a bit more healthier so’ I used oat flour, which it works perfectly for pancakes, and it was not that firm. Still Yummy!
However, I made this recipe in the past following your instructions and it was Amazing!
Haven’t been able to do it on 7’pan, hard to find in stores, need to check online.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Carla, yes the issue with alternate flours can be that they don’t support the structure of the cake. Glad it was still yummy though! If you have 9-inch cake pans then this works great for that size too (measurements in the notes section of the recipe).
Laurie says
Hi there Alison,
Several members in our family are planning on baking this cake in honor of my granddaughter’s first birthday next week.
Since we can’t be together due to current events, we plan to connect remotely to celebrate this sweet girl! Yesterday, I read through all the comments and noticed someone had success with baking in a bundt cake pan. Today, I have searched through the comments twice and don’t see this comment. I wanted clarification to see if they use the recipe for the 7″ round or if they used the 9″ amount. What would you recommend?
We look forward to tasting this!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Laurie, what size is your bundt pan? The main concern with baking it in the bundt pan is it will take a lot longer, so in that respect, using the smaller scaled recipe (7-inch) would probably work best unless your bundt pan is enormous!
Laurie says
Hi! My bundt pan is a standard size?? I ended up and used the 7″ proportions and baked it for 30 minutes. Once baked it rose up to about an inch from the top of the pan . The finished cake was about 2″ tall, so maybe not as tall as I was expecting but once iced and decorated with strawberries, it look super! Thanks so much!
This recipe will be a keeper!!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Laurie!
Jenna says
I’m excited to try this recipe on the 9th for my birthday – do you have any recommendations for flavored icing recipe’s that might go well with it? I was thinking of just playing with icing flavor to mix it up a little. I’m so excited – great reviews and looks delicious!!!! Thank you for sharing this! ????
Alison Andrews says
Hi Jenna, something like the strawberry frosting from our strawberry cake would be great!
Anya says
Can I substitute white sugar for brown sugar or coconut sugar? These are the only ones I have and I can’t get any other ones right now.
PS: I havent tried this yet but I rate it 5 stars anyways cuz I love ur blog, website, writings, photography and recipes anyways.????
Alison Andrews says
Hi Anya, yes you can, but it will change the color of the cake, making it much darker. That not a problem though!
Hilary says
Hi! Making for my mom’s birthday this week. Would vanilla soy milk make this too sweet?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Hilary, vanilla soy milk will work great! 🙂
Anya says
Hi I haven’t tried this recipe yet but I rated it 5 cuz I love ur blog anyways.
I am an 11 year old vegan baker and I wanted to make something for my moms birthday. BUT. Our only cake pan is 10 inches round and this is the only recipe I can do, with my ingredients. So can you please tell me how to adapt it to 10 inch!!!
Alison Andrews says
So glad you like the blog! Thank you! Do you have a single 10-inch pan or two 10-inch pans? If you only have one pan then I would make it as is, in one layer, no changes to the recipe. It will be a little thinner but that’s not a big issue and that will keep things simple. If you have two 10-inch pans then I would double the recipe (we have measurements in the notes for how to double it). It will still be a little thin on the layers but that will also be the easiest way to go about it.
Mary Tampakes says
This is my second time making it and my second review!
The first time was for some vegan guests at a birthday party. My older sister liked it so much she requested it for her birthday!
My sister is turning 40 today so I made her this cake and left it on her porch 🙂
She was so excited.
I didn’t use vegan frosting, I had some Swiss meringue leftover from another birthday cake so I used that. But the cake worked perfectly again and my sister is excited for her “virtual” birthday party.
This time I used three 6 inch pans so they were short layers and it worked well. Last time I used two 6 inch pans. Worked well too!
Alison Andrews says
Thanks so much for sharing and the great review Mary! So glad it worked great in three 6-inch pans too!