This vegan white cake is light and fluffy, spongey and perfect!
Topped with a simple white buttercream frosting (and sprinkles) it’s a super pretty cake that’s perfect for a special occasion.
So let’s bake!
You might be wondering, what’s the difference between a white cake and a vanilla cake? Well…. not a whole lot really! In fact this recipe is based on our super popular vegan vanilla cake recipe.
But while our vanilla cake uses 7 inch cake pans, this recipe uses 8 inch cake pans.
And the main difference between a vegan white cake and a vegan vanilla cake is just trying to make the color as light as possible (and you can use a little less vanilla flavoring too!).
To make this white cake as white as possible, I used a clear vanilla extract, almond milk, which is very white in color, and coconut oil.
I used virgin coconut oil, but if you don’t like the taste of coconut, you could use a refined coconut oil so you get the clear coconut oil without the flavor, but I do think coconut oil is a good fit here.
However, if you’re allergic to coconut oil, another vegetable oil will do (such as canola or extra virgin olive oil), but the color won’t be quite as good.
The frosting is a mix of powdered sugar, vegan butter, almond milk and clear vanilla extract. The frosting goes off-white as a result of the vegan butter, but once it’s on the cake you don’t notice that much anymore.
And then decorate the cake with sprinkles! It has a bright and cheery, pretty, birthday party cake feel to it.
If you wondered how I got my slices soooo neat like you see here, well…I refrigerated the cake (covered of course) overnight before we did the final photos. That allows for the perfect neat slicing, I don’t always do that for cake shoots, but I did it this time. It’s really not something that is necessary when you’re serving it to your friends and family, this is just for photo purposes.
In fact, the cake is best the day it’s made, it’s soft and spongey and absolutely perfect. If the weather is hot, it can be good to refrigerate for an hour or two just to let the frosting set nicely, but covered at room temperature and super fresh is going to be the most impressive in terms of the perfect fluffy texture for this cake, though it does last a few days covered at room temperature (or up to a week covered in the fridge).
Remember to let your cakes cool completely before frosting and serving. If you try and frost a warm cake (or slice it) it can go quite wrong! So you have to have patience and let everything go completely cold.
I hope you’ll love this vegan white cake! It is:
- Light and fluffy
- Soft and spongey
- 2-Layers
- Easy
- 8-Ingredients
- Simple
It’s also perfect for a special occasion and very kid-friendly too.
So what do you think of this vegan white cake? Tell us in the comments and please rate the recipe, thank you!
For more delicious vegan cakes, check out these amazing options:
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Coconut Cake
- Vegan Vanilla Sheet Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
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Vegan White Cake
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Light and fluffy vegan white cake with a gorgeous white buttercream frosting. This soft and spongey 2-layer vegan cake is super easy to make with only 8 simple ingredients.
Ingredients
For the Vegan White Cake:
- 2 and 1/2 cups (312g) + 2 Tbsp All Purpose Flour*
- 1 and 1/2 cups (300g) White Sugar
- 1 and 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) Almond Milk*
- 1/2 cup (120ml) Coconut Oil (Melted)*
- 1 Tbsp White Vinegar
- 2 tsp Clear Vanilla Extract
For the Buttercream Frosting:
- 4 and 1/2 cups (540g) Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter
- 3 and 1/2 Tbsp Almond Milk
- 2 tsp Clear Vanilla Extract
For Decoration:
- Vegan Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and spray two 8-inch cake pins with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper. Set aside.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the white sugar, baking soda and salt and mix together.
- Add the almond milk, melted coconut oil, white vinegar and clear vanilla extract and whisk in with a hand whisk until just combined, don’t overmix, tiny lumps are okay.
- Divide the cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans and place into the oven to bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Transfer the cakes to a wire cooling rack and let them cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding the powdered sugar, vegan butter, almond milk and clear vanilla extract to the bowl of your electric mixer and start off at slow speed, gradually increasing speed until your frosting is thick and smooth. If your frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add more almond milk a drop at a time until you reach the right consistency.
- Frost the cake and decorate with sprinkles.
Notes
*Weigh your flour for the most accurate results.
*I prefer almond milk for this because it is so white in color, but coconut milk could be an option as well though I haven’t tested it.
* Coconut oil works great here because of the color, but you can use either virgin coconut oil or refined coconut oil if you don’t want the taste of coconut. If you can’t use coconut oil for some reason you can switch it for a different vegetable oil with varying color results.
*The frosting makes a LOT, I really wanted nice thick layers of frosting, but you can reduce the quantity if you don’t want it as thick as you see in these photos.
- Category: Dessert, Cakes, Baking
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice (of 12)
- Calories: 520
- Sugar: 70.5g
- Sodium: 359mg
- Fat: 15.3g
- Saturated Fat: 9.8g
- Carbohydrates: 92.7g
- Fiber: 0.9g
- Protein: 3g
Keywords: vegan white cake
Hey! I just made your frosting but it came out separated and grainy. Any tips??
Hi Susan, put it into the fridge for a bit and then mix again. 🙂
Hi! Can I add cocoa butter to make a white chocolate frosting? Or do you have a recipe you could share?
Hi Di, I haven’t tried adding that in so I’m not sure how it would work. I did find a recipe for white chocolate frosting from Wallflower Kitchen though that looks good!
I just wanted to ask if I can use Apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar?? Would it work the same?
Also I cannot wait to try this recipe!
Yes sure, it works the same way. Hope you enjoy it!
Hi Alison, thank you for an amazing recipe! I had some fig preserves I needed to use and thought that the leap year and dreary weather would be a perfect excuse for a “Bleak Midwinter Cake.” I searched for plain cake recipe to use and returned to your blog (your vegan carrot cake is a favorite of mine and my sister’s!) So I followed the recipe (I didn’t have oil but used melted vegan butter and it seemed to work fine) and added 1/2 tsp each of Ceylon and Saigon cinnamon, a 1/4 tsp each of ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom, and 1/3 cup of the fig preserves. For the icing, I used an imitation cream cheese icing from Nora Cooks with chopped walnuts and pistachios. In hindsight, I probably should have added just a cup of sugar instead of a 1 1/2 as the fig preserves were very sweet, but the cake turned out wonderfully and even my dad, who doesn’t like spices or figs, liked it. Thank you again! 🙂
★★★★★
Awesome Mary, that sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing and the great review. 🙂
Thanks for sharing! I use this exact recipe to make cupcakes! I can’t believe how tall they are despite lack of eggs! This is my new favourite go to recipe for vegan birthday cake/cupcakes!
★★★★
I used Country Crock’s new dairy free butter – it’s lighter in color than Earth Balance (what I usually use) and made a really beautiful bright white frosting! The cake was delicious- thank you for another great recipe 😊
★★★★★
Sounds awesome! Thanks Heather! 🙂
Made this for my daughter’s birthday and it was great!
I have a question – I want to make this again but do it in one pan so it’s one taller cake instead of two thinner layers and was thinking of pushing some frozen berries in to the top before baking. Do you think this would work?
★★★★★
Hi Lux, the issue can be that the cake takes too long to cook in the middle but overbrowns on the top in the meantime. You can definitely try it, but I would think the baking time would be at least 45 minutes and maybe up to 55 minutes. To prevent it overbrowning, I would bring it out at the 30 minute mark and place foil in a tent shape over the top (so it doesn’t press down on the cake from the top) and then put it back into the oven until it’s baked. All the best! 🙂
Hi, I want to make this for my son’s first birthday. Instead of almond milk, would I be able to substitute for either cashew milk or ripple pea milk?
Thank you
Hi Jen, I think either should work. 🙂
Followed recipe exactly aside from using olive oil instead of coconut oil and cake turned out AMAZING!!! This will forever be my go to white cake. I brought this to a family dinner where 90% of people are not vegan. EVERYONE LOVED IT!!!
★★★★★
Yay! So happy to hear that Jenna! Thanks for the awesome review. 🙂
Hi Alison,
What vegan butter do you use? I am struggling to find one that doesn’t give buttercream a strange taste. Thank you! I can’t wait to try this recipe.
Hi Emma, are you in Australia? I’m a big fan of Nuttelex which is an Australian brand. They have an olive oil spread and a coconut oil spread and then their ‘regular’ one and all have worked well for me in frostings. It might be a case of finding which one tastes best to you.
Would this cake work in a bundt pan?
Hi Judy, I think so, but I haven’t tried it. It would need a longer baking time, maybe around 50 minutes but you’d have to play it by ear. 🙂
Mine turned out quite flat — about the same height as before baking. Tastes ok but definitely heavy. Any ideas? I did not weigh the flour, as I read afterwards. Will try again when I figure out what to try.
Hi Valerie, it is supposed to rise. I am thinking it might have more to do with your baking soda – sometimes if it has sat for a long time on the shelf before being sold, it might have gone past its best by date, or even if not, it might just not be fresh enough. I would start with that, it seems to be the most likely cause of it not rising.
Great cake family loved it made for my vegan son. I had to make it twice I use your version w: olive oil first but forgot the sugar still tasted ok w / vegan buttercream frosting but not sweet .thanks for recipe definitely cheaper than buying from whole foods
★★★★
Hi Alison. I want to make this cake for my daughters 2nd birthday but she can’t have gluten can I just swap the flour for all purpose gluten free flour? Or should I use gluten free self raising and add a little Xanthum gum?
Hi Kate! I would try a gluten free all purpose blend. You shouldn’t need to add any xantham gum. Some blends have it and others don’t but I personally haven’t found a big difference between blends that do have it and blends that don’t. All the best! 🙂
Can I use this exact recipe for ONE, 8-inch round cake pan? (Will the pan be too small? Will the batter spill over while baking?)
Or should I halve the recipe to fit into ONE, 8-inch round cake pan?
Hi Yvette, you would halve this recipe for 1 8-inch cake layer. All the best! 🙂
Hi, thank you. I used the original recipe for one, 8-inch round cake pan. I was scared it would overflow when it rose, but it didn’t overflow. I mixed the milk and vinegar and left it to ‘churn’ before I did anything else in the recipe. I substituted olive oil for coconut oil and baked the cake for around 90 minutes at 150 degrees Celsius. I also used normal/dark vanilla extract (my cake isn’t light; maybe the olive oil also had a part to play in the colour?). I found the cake was too sweet, though. I’ll bake another one soon and this time, I’ll use 1 cup of sugar instead of 1 and 1/2 cups.
Disclaimer: I only made the cake and not the frosting. I’ve been searching endlessly for a solid vegan vanilla cake that I could use on its own and also as a base for other flavors. I’ve tried so many recipes and none of the cakes were what I was hoping for until now. This is so perfect!!!! The texture is amazing. It’s super light and fluffy but holds together really well. Honestly, it’s a better cake than most cakes that use eggs and dairy. This will for sure be my go-to vanilla cake from now on. Thank you so much!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Colleen! So happy you liked it! 🙂