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 aĀ 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 350Ā°F (180Ā°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
Light, fluffy and perfect cake for all occasions
★★★★★
Genius! This cake looks so beautiful- another amazing recipe I’m sure. Where did you purchase your vegan sprinkles from if you don’t mind me asking ?
I used a local brand but I also often order from Amazon, I can link to it if you like, will just have to have a look. š
If the frosting ended up to sweet…how can i lessen the sweetness?
If you add a little bit of salt it should lessen the sweetness of the frosting.
★★★★★
would this work ok with gluten-free flour blend?
Hello! I wanted to make this for a baby’s 1st birthday. Can I use cane sugar, instead of granulated?
Sure! š
We made a double recipe of 4 layers for a rainbow cake – it was amazing and added coconut extract to the icing … loved the texture – such an easy recipe, a real winner
★★★★★
Fantastic! So happy to hear that, thanks for the great review. š
Sorry for my english, I’m French…
I’ve made this cake for new year’s eve and it was amazing ! I love to cook and I think I’m not too bad (that’s what my friends say) but I never succeeded in desserts… until this time ! The recipe is so clear and so easy that my cake was awesome! I mixed few red fruits with sugar to make a grout and it was delicious.
Just a little detail : the butter cream was a bit sandy-textured while I mixed it for at least five minutes. Is it normal or did I made something wrong ?
Anyway, thanks a lot for your recipes and see you soon !
★★★★★
Hi Olivier, thanks so much for the wonderful review, I’m so pleased it was a success! Regarding the sandy texture to the frosting, did you by any chance use a more coarse type of sugar? The reason I ask is on a different cake recipe a reader made a frosting using homemade powdered sugar, so she refined it herself in a blender and it was too gritty. It has to be powdered sugar, which is also called icing sugar or confectioners sugar and I’m not sure what else it might be called in other countries, but it is the most refined of refined sugars. If you use anything that is slightly more coarse in texture (such as super fine sugar/caster sugar) then it will be too gritty no matter how long you mix it for. Hope that helps! š
Hi Alison,
Thanks a lot for your answer ! When I read the recipe for the first time, I thought “powdered sugar” was what we call in french “sucre en poudre”, that means the white sugar we put in coffe or tea for example. But I remembered that a long time ago I made a cake with butter cream in which I used some “sucre glace”, that we can translate as “icy sugar”, and, a short research on a translator site confirmed me it was that sugar I got to use. So I used the right sugar. I used the vegetal butter just coming out of the fridge, do you think I should warm it a little bit before adding the sugar to integrating them better, and then cool the preparation before using it on the cake ?
In my precedent post, maybe the word “sandy” was not right, I should said “very, very lightly granular”, and anyway, the most important is that the cake was absolutly delicious and I just wanted to know if I missed something.
★★★★★
Oh I see, it sounds like you did everything perfectly, I’m not at all sure why it would’ve been a bit granular. I make it with vegan butter straight from the fridge all the time and it’s never like that so I don’t think the butter temperature would have an impact. Maybe it would be good to try a different brand of powdered sugar next time and maybe that will help. Thanks for the update and yes, most important thing is that it was delicious! š
Can you make this cake with pastry flour instead of all purpose flour?
★★★★★
Hi Alexis, I haven’t tried pastry flour, it might work but I’m not sure. Let us know if you try it. š
Can you do this recipe with a gluten free flour blend? I personally use Bob’s Red Mill 1-1
You could, and that is a perfect flour to use for this purpose, but I would also increase the oil a bit (maybe by 1/4 cup) and maybe add in a couple of tablespoons of applesauce since gluten free flour absorbs more moisture than regular flour. If it’s still a bit dry then you would know to increase the oil/applesauce a little more or vice versa. All the best! š
I tried to substitute sugar in cake with stevia extract (plus applesauce for bulking, it was gross, such a bad idea), so I am trying it again, and doing it EXACTLY š
Hi Anita, haha yes, you’ll have a much better result next time. But experimenting is always good too, helps to know what does not work! All the best! š
This is delicious thank you for sharing! Do you have measurements for a 6ā and 10ā cake? Thank you!!
★★★★★
Hi Jas, our vegan vanilla cake is made in 7″ cake tins and could also be done in 6″, it would just result in a taller cake. I think this recipe could make a single 10″ cake, the recipe would have to increase for a 2-layer cake. š
Ok perfect!! Thank you very much!!
Awesome. I wanted to make a mini layered cake and this recipe made the perfect amount of cake and frosting. I added a 1/2 tsp cinnamon and used Apple Cider Vinegar to as I wanted to give it a little more flavour and it worked perfectly. I used Kremelta for the frosting and again, I perfect result.
★★★★★
Wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing and the awesome review! š
Hi Alison,
Thank you for this super easy recipe. Have a question. Can I use cake flour instead of APF?
Best regards
Hi Vinita, I’m not sure! I think it might be fine, but I have not tested it as I don’t get cake flour in my part of the world. As far as I know, it has a lower proportion of gluten in it, so IF the cake turns out a little more crumbly then I would imagine that would be the cause. But it’s worth a try and let us know how it goes if you try it! š
The taste was wonderful but it seemed to be not cooked through and I cooked it for 10 minutes extra. Used all purpose GF flour….any ideas
Gluten-free all purpose flour is a good choice for making this gluten-free but it often isn’t the only change you need to make and often oven times will vary when you’re adapting a recipe for gluten-free. I would leave it for even longer next time and make sure it passes the toothpick test (no wet crumbs on the toothpick when inserted into the center of the cake).
I am truly impressed. Not only is this cake flavorful but it is perfectly moist. When I first cut into it (the day after baking it) I was a little sad because it *looked* dry but my family assured me that it was perfect!!! Then I had a piece and well… I wanted to finish the cake off all by myself :)Thank you for adding this to our lives!!!!
★★★★★
Hi Michele, so happy to hear it was a hit! And so glad it wasn’t dry! I also look at my pictures now and think, hmmm, does it look dry? But I know it wasn’t dry! Hahaha, anyway thanks a million for the awesome review and so glad it was enjoyed.
Hi Alison, this looks great! I love all of your cake recipes. Best vegan cakes ever! Do you know how many cups of batter this makes?
I’ll be making 2 12in round cakes. Btw, You have a beautiful name… spelled the RIGHT way. Lol. āŗāŗ
Hi Alison! Haha yes, it’s a great name, but the spelling does get tricky for some! š I actually don’t know how many cups of batter it makes sorry! I am thinking you would likely need to double the recipe at least to get that size, but it might be even more than that. I have never used 12 inch baking pans so my experience level here is non-existent. Let us know what ends up working out for you! š
Would I be able to make this in a sheet cake pan?
Yes, you can adapt to a sheet pan cake, if it’s a half sheet pan the baking time will be shorter, about 20 minutes. If it’s a quarter sheet pan then the baking time would likely be closer to 30 minutes, just keep a check on it. You can also check out our recipe for Vanilla Sheet Cake. š
Hello!
First of all, thank you for your amazing website.
I made this cake with water in substitution of almond milk and sunflower oil in substitution of coconut oil and it turn out very good and fluffy!
I have a question.I put some chocolate chips in the batter but they sank to the bottom of the pan. Do you have any suggestion for the chocolate chips stay in the middle of the batter?
Thank you!
★★★★
Hi Raquel! So glad you like the blog! Thank you! So the thing is with adding chocolate chips to batter, is that they will sink if the batter is quite thin. So you have to take steps to make the batter as thick as possible so that the chocolate chips will stay evenly distributed throughout the batter. So for this recipe to thicken the batter, I would probably want to use vegan buttermilk instead of almond milk (and definitely not water). And I would make vegan buttermilk with soy milk and lemon juice as that will be the thickest. So add 1 and 1/2 Tbsp of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then add soy milk up to the 1 and 1/2 cup (360ml) line and let it curdle and thicken. This might work, but it still might be too thin a batter for chocolate chips to work as well as you would want. This is why muffins are perfect for chocolate chips – good muffin batter is very thick! All the best! š
Thank you so much for your answer! š I will try it!