This vegan vanilla cake is pure perfection. It’s light, fluffy, and moist – with just the right amount of vanilla flavor. Top it off with my vegan buttercream frosting for a cake that’s straight from heaven.
Creating the perfect vegan cake recipe was not easy. It took many failures to come up with what I consider to be the best vegan vanilla cake, ever!
This cake is:
- Moist!
- Fluffy!
- So good it’ll knock yo socks off!
How To Make Vegan Vanilla Cake
Making this cake isn’t too hard as long as you follow the instructions. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll need to do.
- Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl
- Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl
- Whip the aquafaba until fluffy (don’t need to form peaks)
If you’re wondering what aquafaba is – it’s not a brand name, it’s the name given to the liquid from a can of chickpeas. I have a recipe for how to make aquafaba at home, which is what I often do when I want to make a large quantity of it to keep in the fridge.
FYI, I have had success with aquafaba from chickpeas, soybeans, and blackbeans. So use what you’ve got!
Want To Make A Vegan Cake… but Chocolate?
Thinking you’d like to make a vegan cake, but chocolate flavored? I have a recipe for that too!
Use my recipe for vegan chocolate cake.
Vegan Buttercream Frosting
I use coconut oil to make the frosting for this vanilla cake. It’s important to always use refined coconut oil if you don’t want to have any coconut taste in the end result. I like using coconut oil instead of vegan lard or vegan baking sticks because it’s less expensive, only has one ingredient (so easier to write a recipe that stays consistent for everyone), and especially in this cake, it adds no flavor or color, which is what we want!
There are two ways you can make the vegan buttercream frosting. The first way, as shown in these photos of the vanilla cake, is a more traditional frosting that’s fluffy but spreads more smoothly.
You can also make a whipped buttercream frosting, which is what I used in the chocolate cake recipe. Just add a teaspoon or two of water or plant based milk to the frosting once you have completed the normal recipe, and whip it in. It gives it that whipped texture that’s even lighter and fluffier.
How To Get Even More Vanilla Flavor In Your Cake
I used clear vanilla extract (also known as imitation vanilla extract) in this cake and in the frosting. It’s a clear liquid that won’t add color to your cake, for a very white cake, but since it’s imitation, it has less vanilla flavor.
My recommendation to add a more intense vanilla flavor is to add vanilla sugar. There are different kinds of vanilla sugar out there, but the one you want is basically like a superfine sugar (looks like powdered sugar) with vanilla bean seeds in it. You will be able to see the tiny dark vanilla seeds in the vanilla sugar as well as in the final cake (they won’t darken the overall color of the cake though). And they’ll add MUCH more vanilla flavor.
If you want to add vanilla sugar, I would simply add in about 1-2 teaspoons of it without making further adjustments to the other ingredients.
Here’s the vegan buttercream frosting recipe I used on this cake.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can use all-purpose flour for this recipe. It will work but it will be slightly less fluffy than the cake you get if you use cake flour.
I haven’t tried using self-raising flour (here in the US it is a bit uncommon). I think it will work though. Just use the same amount as listed for the all-purpose flour and omit the baking powder listed in the ingredients since there is already baking powder in the self-raising flour. If you try making it with self-raising flour, let me know how it goes!
Yes, please sift the flour. A sieve or a wire mesh strainer or an actual sifter will work best. If you don’t own any of these things, whisk the flour for about 30 seconds before adding other ingredients to aerate it.
Other Vegan Dessert Recipes You’ll Love
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp aquafaba
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Wet Mix
- 1 cup oat milk
- 1 tsp distilled vinegar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (use clear imitation vanilla extract for a whiter cake)
Dry Mix
- 1 2/3 cups cake flour
- 2 Tbsp potato starch
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
Instructions
Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 7" springform cake pan with parchment paper.
- Sift the dry ingredients 2x. In another bowl, combine wet ingredients.
- Whip aquafaba and cream of tartar until foamy.
- Stir aquafaba into the wet mix and then gently stir in the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for 50 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting. (Vegan Buttercream Frosting)
Video
Notes
Cooking size & time adjustments:
- Cupcakes – double the recipe and bake 25 minutes for 24 cupcakes.
- 9″x13″ sheet cake – double the recipe and bake for 35-40 minutes.
- 2 9″ round cakes – double the recipe and bake for 30-35 minutes.
- Bundt cake – double the recipe and bake for 50-60 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Nutrition
This is my go-to recipe for white vegan cake. I used to only make boxed cake mixes but this one is just as easy and the results are always spot on. One thing I do a little differently is add some layers of jam between the cake layers before putting frosting on. Deeelish.
100% would make this again! I added a mix of raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries to the top and added some in the middle layer of frosting, it was to die for!
That sounds delicious, Serena. I need to try doing that next time, too!
Can you make cupcakes with this recipe? If so should I double the recipe?
Yes, you can make cupcakes with this recipe. To make 12 cupcakes I would double the recipe.
The cake looks perfect and fabulous to bake for a special day. Yes, its definitely the best vanilla cake. Lovely!!
This cake turned out absolutely amazing! I put your chocolate buttercream frosting on it to make a choc & vanilla vegan cake for my son’s birthday. Everyone loved it!!
Made this for a vegan friend and it was a hit — thanks!
I only made one vegan chocolate cake and was amazed at how great it was. I can’t wait to try this recipe! It looks amazing and I bet is delicious!
Wow! This looks absolutely amazingly light, rich and fluffy! I love that you use aquafaba to fluff it up! yum!
The cake is totally moist and tender and indistinguishable from a regular non-vegan cake. This will be the cake to bake for my vegan friends. 🙂
Wow!! This is beautiful!
Oh my! this sure looks amazing! I love that it is vegan! Love your photos too!