i wish you could have seen me make this cake. i was covered in flour, listening to loud music and dancing around, jittered out on all the icing i had consumed. even toaster had flour on his head! anyways, i've been looking for just the right vegan birthday cake recipe, and i've finally found it. it turned out moist, fluffy and oh, so sweet!
pssst! digging that little bunting banner? find the diy here!
cake recipe
- adapted from my vegan cookbook:
ingredients
2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup organic sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup water
2 tbs earth balance butter
2 tbs coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
1 tsp lemon juice
*this makes just enough for one layer. for the above cake, i made this recipe 3 times, once for each round cake layer (don't try to double it!).
directions
preheat the oven to 350 degrees. combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl (flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and powder) and mix together.
in a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients (water, earth balance, coconut oil, vanilla, lemon juice) and mix together.
slowly pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix slowly until it is well combined. a few little lumps will remain.
pour the batter into a lightly greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a knife can be inserted into the middle and come out clean.
remove and let cool for at least 30 minutes before icing.
icing recipe
- adapted from oh she glows:
ingredients
1/2 cup earth balance butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
2 tbsp coconut creamer
directions
place the 1/2 cup earth balance butter in a mixing bowl, and beat on high as you gradually add in the coconut creamer, vanilla extract and salt. continue to mix for 3-4 minutes. as it continues to beat, slowly start adding your 3 cups of sifted confectioners sugar. beat on high for another 5-10 minutes to achieve a really fluffy, smooth texture.
*note, i made this recipe 3 times to cover the above cake.
mmmmm that looks yummy!
this looks delicious! thank you for the recipe, i’m so excited to try this!
I see that little finger print in the side of the cake…was that one last little taste?
Thank you for this vegan cake recipe!! My husband and I had a vegan wedding cake and we’ve been craving it ever since…(unfortunately the vegan/vegetarian restaurant that made the wedding cake for us just went out of business) We’ll have to try this recipe :) yummy!
I am new to vegan baking and am baking this cake for a friend who is vegan. I have a question about the coconut oil. the coconut oil that I bought is the refined coconut oil and is in more of a solid form? Should i melt it before adding to the other wet ingredients or will it blend up ok if I just scoop out the amount needed?
Thanks!
hey cindee! yes, melt it beforehand. coconut oil has a melting point of 76 degrees, so it will be solid at anything below that. melting it works just the same though as butter or regular oil. enjoy!
Great! Thanks for the quick reply! I just read setting the jar in a hot water pan works great!
I’m experimenting with trying to get a good fluffy vegan cake for a friend’s baby shower. I’ve made this cake a few times, and it’s as good as it gets, I think. I have found, however, that adding more fluid makes the batter more like traditional cake and makes it come out a bit fluffier. I don’t know why all the vegan cake recipes I’ve found have such thick batters.
Today instead of water I used TWO cups coconut milk. The batter is STILL thicker than what it looks like in your picture! I can’t figure that out!
hey adel! i’m not sure what could be going on? this batter made a very fluffy cake and poured about the consistency of pancake batter.
That’s so odd! I have the third batch in the oven now and I’ve made this recipe at least 4 times before. It’s always been pretty thick. I use softasilk cake flour. This last recipe I cut back on the flour by 1/2 cup in addition to adding the extra cup of liquid. I also doubled the fat. We’ll see how it turns out! So much for my diet… :D
Hey Bonnie! My family made this cake for my uncle’s birthday
Hi – I would like to try to make this for my daughter. She is one and a half. She has a lot of allergies and vegan cooking gets around a lot of them. We have not tested for a coconut allergy yet. I was wondering if you could suggest any options for the coconut ingredients in the cake and icing? Thank you so much for this recipie!
hey renim! hmm. i haven’t tried it but you can sub any oil/fat for the coconut oil and any vegan milk/creamer for the coconut creamer. hope this helps! xo
Would this work for cupcakes?? Have you tried it? Any tips would be so appreciated, thanks in advance!
hey brianne! i haven’t made cupcakes with this recipe, but i’m sure it will work! let us know. :)
I made this cake tonight and had the same problem with the batter being very thick. There was no pouring to speak of. I followed the recipe to a T and realized the dry to wet ingredient ratio is pretty high. Should there be more liquid?
hey andrea! i’m not sure, this recipe works like a charm for me every time! you can view the original recipe here and maybe try it? http://www.myvegancookbook.com/recipes/recipe.php?id=73
I did look at the original before I made the cake and it appears to be exactly the same. There is just no way for this batter to pour like pancake batter because there is so much less liquid than dry ingredients. I hope others have better luck!
andrea, i’ve made it several times and never seem to have a problem. i’m sorry it’s not working for you! did you try baking it? if you think it needs more liquid, you can always add more and test as you go.
I did bake it. It turned out like a dense slightly sweet bread.
did you shave off the cakes b4 frosting?
hi lg! no i didn’t, i just went with them as they were!
Ok great! I just made this recipe and it came out exactly looking like yours, you have no idea how happy I am, I’ve been a vegan for 13 yrs and this is 1st great vegan cake! This will def be my go-to cake recipe from this day forth. I made another recipe yesterday from another food blogger and followed it to a T and it came out a hot mess,heavy like pudding LOL, I should’ve went with your recipe yesterday. Thanks so much!!
Hi! I was wondering what type of flour I can use to make this gluten free as well, would a gluten free cake mix work?
hi! i haven’t tried making it GF so i can’t really say, but i would start with a GF mix! :)
@Andrea, the one idea that popped into my head when I read your comment is flour. What type are you using and how are you measuring? Very often flour gets compacted and when you scoop-and-sweep (as most people do) it can compact even more — adding as much as tablespoons, plural, to your recipe. Also, the type of flour and local humidity also affect how much moisture the flour will absorb. (All-purpose will probably absorb more than cake flour, and high protein bread flour or whole wheat will also need more liquid.) I would try in your case making it again but this time stirring the flour to aerate it first and then spooning the flour into your measuring cup. You could go as far as sifting it twice and then spooning it gently to measure — the most accurate way to go — but that may take off too much, since this recipe was not written for the sift-and-spoon method. That’s my two cents.
Gisele bundchens vegan birthday cake http://bit.ly/2kt86Ab