How to make the best easy vegan cake from scratch, with absolutely NO eggs, no milk, and no butter!
This is my go-to vegan vanilla cake recipe.
It’s a perfect choice for holidays, birthday parties, or any occasion at all.
Just one taste of the ultra soft and fluffy homemade cake, and you will never go back to boxed cake mix ever again.
The recipe can hold its own against any classic nonvegan vanilla cake, because it’s made with only traditional ingredients – no chia or flax eggs, no tofu, no beans or chickpeas, and no fancy expensive flours.
Also try these Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Not only is it easy to make a cake without any eggs or milk, vegan birthday cake can taste so light, fluffy, and delicious that you might even find yourself choosing this vegan recipe as your new go-to cake recipe…
Even if you’re not a vegan!
Vegan Cake Recipes
You can also add 1/2 cup of sprinkles to the basic cake recipe below for a kid friendly rainbow vegan funfetti cake.
Or stir 1 tsp of coconut extract and a handful of shredded coconut into the batter, then frost with coconut icing for a vegan coconut cake.
How to make vegan cake
Start by gathering all of the ingredients.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease two 8-inch pans or one 9×13 pan, then set the pans aside while you make the batter.
Combine the nondairy milk, vinegar, oil, and pure vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl, and let this sit for at least ten minutes.
Stir together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a new bowl. (For a one bowl cake, you can add the dry ingredients to the first bowl if you prefer. Just be sure to do this after letting the liquid mixture sit.)
Pour dry into wet, and stir just until evenly mixed. Overmixing cakes can activate the gluten too much and thus result in tough or chewy baked goods.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan or pans, and bake on the oven’s center rack for 30 minutes or until the cakes have risen and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.
You may also like this Vegan Pizza – just 4 ingredients
Eggless Cake
Even if you’re not a vegan, knowing how to make a cake without eggs is a good idea for so many reasons:
- If you need to make dessert but don’t have any eggs on hand.
- When you’re baking for a friend or family member with an egg allergy or someone who’s watching their cholesterol.
- For those times when you want to bake a cake and eat spoonfuls of the cake batter as you work.
After all, who doesn’t love cake batter?!
Frosting Ideas
There are so many ways you can frost a vegan white cake, including Healthy Chocolate Frosting, raspberry jam, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, or chocolate ganache.
Or top it with fresh fruit and Coconut Whipped Cream.
Surprisingly, many store-bought icings are accidentally vegan, including some flavors from both Duncan Hines and Pillsbury.
To make an easy homemade vegan cream cheese frosting, simply whip together 8 oz store-bought or homemade Vegan Cream Cheese with 4 oz vegan butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, and 1 tsp pure vanilla extract.
For the cake in the photos, I used my Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Above, watch the vegan layer cake recipe video
The recipe was adapted from these Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes.
Vegan Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup milk of choice
- 1 1/2 tbsp white or cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup oil
- 2 cups white, spelt, or oat flour (for low carb, make this Keto Cake)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup sugar, unrefined if desired
Instructions
- The recipe makes two 8-inch cakes, or one 9×13 sheet cake, or three 6-inch cakes. To make the vegan cake, start by preheating the oven to 350 F. Whisk liquid ingredients in a large bowl. Let sit at least 10 minutes, then add remaining ingredients to form a batter. Smooth into greased baking pans. Bake 30 minutes, or until cake is risen and cooked through. (If you are a visual learner, feel free to watch the recipe video above.) View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Vegan Recipes
Hi, what’s the best type of oil to use for this? Coconut? Olive? Thank you! Looks amazing! Can’t wait to make!
Sunflower, vegetable, or melted coconut oil all work! If using coconut oil, just make sure other ingredients aren’t cold first (so the oil doesn’t solidify).
Hi, can I make just one cake and cut it into layers?
Sure!
How do you measure out your flour for this recipe to ensure lightness and fluffiness? Is the cake moist too? Do you use all purpose flour or cake flour? Thanks for sharing!
We’ve tried it with all purpose flour, not yet with cake flour. Measure the flour loosely packed instead of firmly packed. If you have a food scale, around 120g = a cup.
Does it have to be oil or can I sub apple sauce? Love you almond flour chocolate cake. I don’t eat eggs and I try to eat low carb mostly, your recipes are a life saver. 🙂
Applesauce will make a dense and not as rich cake, but if you are used to the gummy texture of fat free baked goods then it would probably turn out like that. Be sure to report back if you experiment 🙂
This recipe is so simple yet so delicious. I’ve made this recipe as plain vanilla cake and also added blueberries and lemon zest experimenting and the result was delicate and mouthwatering! Thank you for sharing Katie ❤️
Thank you so much for making it!
Hi, I plan to make this using oat flour. But, will the oat flour make it dense? I hope to hear back! Thanks!
Id like to know the answer to this also please. My son and I are celiac with nut allergy and I’ve been trying to find an oat flour vanilla cake recipe for weeks for his birthday Saturday ( he’s sick of chocolate). How exactly do we use the oat flour to make the cake gluten free and fluffy. Thanks so much
Hi there,
Can I bake this in a bunt cake tin? Also, can I add mini marshmallows into the batter?
Turned out amazing! Probably the best vegan cake I’ve made….the rise was perfect (some vegan cakes don’t rise enough or fall flat after baking). And so delicious…great texture!! The only thing is, it didn’t make enough batter for my two round cake pans, so ended up putting all the batter into one pan. Next time – if I want a two layer cake – I will double the recipe. But otherwise….SO GOOD!! Made with Healthy Chocolate Frosting recipe.
This made us so happy to read 🙂
Used all purpose flour, (liquid) coconut oil (I’m in a warm climate, so no issues with it solidifying), baking powder, vanilla essence (didn’t have the extract), sugar, white vinegar, salt. Let the mixed liquids sit for the required 10 minutes. Oven (convection off) was preheated to 350oF. Used 2 x 8” tins. I wonder though… many other vegan recipes I’ve come across use baking soda when using vinegar. Should I have used baking soda instead of baking powder?
Hi Rav, how did it taste? This cake doesn’t rise a ton, which is helpful for stacking if you’re doing layers 🙂
I’m confused. The batter is really thin and it only fills a 9×13 pan about 1/2 inch. There’s NO WAY that this will rise up enough to make a decent sized cake. Are you sure 2 cups is enough flour?
Made this cake yesterday and had enough batter to fill 2 6 inch round tins. Perfect for my mini cake but will probably double the recipe when making a full sized round in the future. Cake smells amazing and has great texture! Getting ready to make the chocolate frosting, can’t wait to try this when it’s finished!