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.
Chandler says
This recipe is fantastic! This was my first time making a vegan cake. Both my boyfriend and I are newly vegan and so I had decided to bake him this cake for his birthday. It came out delicious, moist, and had the perfect amount of sweetness. I also added cherry pie filling on top. His entire family (non vegans) also really enjoyed it. It was all gobbled up. Thanks soo much!
Alison Andrews says
You’re welcome! So glad it came out so well!
Jen says
I made this cake for a birthday party and everyone loved it. I used canola oil instead of olive because that is all I had. I doubled the recipe for a 9 inch pan and it came out perfect.
Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
Yay! So glad! Thanks for posting Jen!
Sarah-Lou says
This looks delicious and I’m excited about making it as a surprise for a vegan friend! Could you confirm whether the oven temperature is for a fan-assisted oven? Thanks!
Alison Andrews says
No, it’s for a conventional/standard oven.
Maria seiple says
Can I replace vinegar with seasoned rice vinegar and soy milk with coconut creamer?
Saranjit says
Hello Alison this cake looks amazing, I want to try to make a rainbow cake for my mums birthday, could I use this receipe as the basis for the layers? I would really appreciate any ideas you have ?
Alison Andrews says
Definitely! I’m assuming you would want to just color the layers? You could use this exact recipe, and just add food coloring directly to your layers. If you’re making four layers, just double this recipe. Usually you only need a small amount of food coloring to get the right color, so it wouldn’t affect the overall recipe if it’s a tsp or less of liquid food coloring added. If you need to use more liquid food coloring, then just add an equivalent amount of flour to keep the wet/dry ingredients balanced.
Saranjit says
Thank you so much ??
Tracey says
I just made this so that I’d have something I could eat at a co-workers birthday party and everyone seems to want to eat this cake over the regular yellow cake. It turned out fantastic!. Thank You!
Alison Andrews says
That is just TOOO cool! So happy to hear Tracey! 🙂
Ann says
Hi Alison. My family and I are avoiding all purpose flour. Do you have any substitute that you would recommend? I am going to try this recipe today. Looking forward to your reply ?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Ann, you can make it with a gluten-free all purpose flour blend. Have a look at my gluten-free vanilla cupcakes (just use the search bar to find the recipe) to see the adjustments I made.
Ann says
Thanks for your reply Alison. I was thinking can I replace certain amount of sugar with honey? Color of the cake isn’t critical so I was wondering if its possible.
Alison Andrews says
Since it’s a liquid ingredient, it would mean the whole recipe would need adjusting. You could experiment with it, but keep in mind that the wet and dry ingredients are perfectly balanced in this recipe and this would throw it out so you would need to adjust accordingly. So with this in mind – I would be more inclined to look for a recipe that already uses a liquid sweetener – unless you are happy to experiment.
Shabs says
Can i substitute the vinegar with lemon juice
Cecilia says
This is actually the best vegan cake recipe ever! I’ve had so many failures with recipe from other bloggers but this time the texture of the cake was so on point! I decided to sub half of the flour with whole wheat/wholemeal and it turned out great! It’s a brilliant and flexible recipe so thank you!!
Alison Andrews says
You’re so welcome! So glad you loved it! 🙂
Erin says
Hi, thanks for the recipe. I appreciate you listing the flour in weight. Can you describe the texture of the finished cake? Is it moist and gummy or does it have a moist fluffy cake-y texture. That is what I’m going for. There is a fine line between too dry and too moist. I’m thinking of adding lemon juice in place of vinegar and adding some fresh zest to make a lemon vanilla version. Thanks!
Priyanka says
Made this today for my dads birthday and I have to say that it turned out fantastic. I was a little apprehensive because I’ve never tried a vegan cake recipe before and wanted it turn out well because after all it was going to be my dads birthday cake. I doubled the recipe as my cake tins are bigger, but not the frosting and it was plenty! It was such a nice change from typically having chocolate all the time and I could actually eat it with everyone because it was vegan! My family were also impressed and wouldn’t have guessed otherwise. The sponge was dense but light? Such a nice texture and flavour. I’ve got such a sweet tooth and I actually licked the frosting bowl clean. I’m so happy because I will DEFINITELY be baking this all the time!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Priyanka! Very glad to hear you and your family enjoyed the cake. Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
Quaid b. says
Do you think it would be okay to substitute applesauce for olive oil?
Alison Andrews says
It might be. In theory it would be okay but I haven’t tried it. When baking gluten-free I add applesauce in addition to oil, I have never tried leaving the oil out altogether when baking cakes.
Karen B. says
Is there a replacement for vinegar?
Natasha says
Lemon juice. You need to double the quantity. X
Belinda Marker says
Must admit I was a little sceptical of this recipe as it seemed so simple. Given all the positive feedback I thought I would try it. Yum!!! Made it for mums birthday tomorrow, but the kids and I really thought we should try it first… now have to make another for tomorrow. Will be our go to vegan vanilla cake. Thanks so much for sharing.
Alison Andrews says
Yay! Glad it came out well Belinda!
Natasha says
Hi, I was just wondering if you could use lemon juice instead of vinegar? Thanks
Alison Andrews says
Possibly. If you try it let us know how it works out.
Natasha says
Just letting you know I tried the recipe using lemon juice. I baked both recipes side by side and they both turned out beautifully. For the lemon juice cake I just replaced the vinegar with double the amount of lemon juice and dropped the vanilla. The lemon took 5 more minutes to cook but that could have just been heat spots in my oven. I also found the lemon was less likely to leave massive air pockets in the sponge. Lovely moist airy sponge, will definitely make this again, and I’m not even vegan 🙂 thanks
Alison Andrews says
Thank you – that is SUPER helpful. Really appreciate you letting us know! 🙂