The Best Vegan Vanilla Cake

The ultimate vegan vanilla cake that’s incredibly tender, moist, and decadently sweet- yet, you’d never know it’s vegan, dairy free, gluten free, and healthier! Absolutely everyone loves this vanilla cake recipe, vegan or not. Just 9 ingredients for the perfect vegan cake for any birthday, graduation, wedding, or holiday!

Get ready for the best vegan vanilla cake recipe that you won’t even know is vegan.  This vegan vanilla cake is the ultimate vanilla cake. Period. Full stop. You don’t need another recipe. It’s great as a birthday cake, graduation cake, wedding cake, or just any anytime treat! And it’s the best vegan cake recipe I’ve ever made in general. 

It’s so incredibly fluffy and moist, you’ll be hard-pressed to determine that this cake is indeed vegan, eggless, and dairy free (and gluten free too if you need that!). Plus, this cake is incredibly soft, fluffy, “buttery,” and packed with vanilla flavor that leaves you with a far from boring healthier vegan dessert.

This is honestly the best vanilla cake I’ve ever had, vegan or not, and I just know you’ll feel the same way. That’s why this cake recipe is absolutely going into my next cookbook.

You can use classic vegan vanilla buttercream or my easy vegan chocolate buttercream (which is next level delicious on this vegan chocolate cake). The even better part is that this vegan cake is just as easy as making a cake mix from the box. But when you can have the best vanilla cake ever , why even buy the mix?!

Vegan vanilla cake ingredients

You’ll be shocked at how simple the ingredients to this vanilla cake are. And guess what? It’s just 9 ingredients!

For the cake:

• All Purpose Flour or gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour: either works here! For gluten-free flour, make sure that it is 1-to-1 and not all-purpose. I recommend Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur. Before adding the flour to the bowl, just make sure to sift it!
• Sugar: you can use coconut sugar or granulated sugar. Just keep in mind that your cakes will be slightly tanner in color when using coconut sugar. Still just as delicious!
• Vegan Butter or Coconut Oil: I use salted vegan butter- if you’re using unsalted vegan butter or coconut oil, make sure to add in a 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt. 
• Unsweetened Applesauce: this basically acts as the “egg” that you’d typically find in other vanilla cakes. I also sometimes use dairy free yogurt (Forager Project is my favorite for this!). You can also swap in ground flax seed if desired, but the best results will be with dairy free yogurt or applesauce.
• Vegan Buttermilk (made from scratch): just simply combine your favorite coconut milk, soy milk, oat milk, or nut milk (or dairy free milk!) with a little apple cider vinegar.
• Vanilla Extract: you’re going to need a lot of vanilla in here, but trust me, it’ll be worth it. This is the best vanilla cake recipe from scratch because of the vanilla. Literally makes it taste like you’re eating a Georgetown Cupcake vanilla cupcake (which is where I used to work in college!)! It’s amazing!
• Leavening agents: this is just your average baking soda and baking powder! Please make sure that the baking powder hasn’t gone bad or was stored improperly. This is crucial for making sure our cakes rise properly. To make sure your baking powder is still good, check out how to test it!

For the vegan buttercream:

I go over how to make the ultimate vegan buttercream in the sections below. Trust me, I have people that have never tried dairy free frosting in their lives, and they’re saying it’s the best frosting they’ve ever eaten.

The trick to incredibly moist vegan cakes: vegan buttermilk

I feel like this is such an underrated trick, and I talk about it a bit in my Vegan Baking 101 guide. I also now have an entire guide on how to make vegan buttermilk that will help you choose which dairy free milk to use!

If you’ve ever had a normal vanilla cake, then you’ll know that incredibly sweet yet ever so subtle tang that comes along with a fluffy and moist cake. That’s from the buttermilk. It also helps to give rise to the cake without drying it out.

So since buttermilk isn’t vegan, we’ll have to make our own- but don’t worry it’s so simple!

All you’ll need to do is combine your chosen dairy free milk with a little apple cider vinegar. Let the mixture sit for 5-7 minutes so that it can slightly curdle. Then use it in your recipe as you would regular buttermilk!

Overview: how to make a vegan vanilla cake

For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe. 

A part of what makes this vegan cake the best vanilla cake in the history of vanilla cakes is that it’s incredibly easy to make.

I’ve now tested this cake with two different methods so please read on, and for specifics, follow the recipe card below. This is a general overview of the directions, and the full written instructions and measurements are found down below in the recipe card.

• The first method is without a stand mixer. For years I did all of my baking without a stand mixer. I even created, tested, and retested over 110 vegan dessert recipes for my cookbook without a stand mixer so please know that anything you can do with a stand mixer, you can do without! I’m proof! You’ll simply need a large mixing bowl and a hand mixer or a whisk.
• The second method is with a stand mixer. After I got my stand mixer, I actually much prefer this method. It’s just so easy to be hands off and allow consistent results each time!

Before we begin, make sure that you’ve prepared your vegan “buttermilk.” Simply whisk or mix together the nut milk and the apple cider vinegar and set aside. It’s also a good idea to fully weigh out all of your ingredients before beginning. This makes the whole process so much smoother and helps ensures you don’t miss anything.

Then preheat the oven to 350F and grease three cake pans (you can use either 6″ or 8″ cake pans) with olive or coconut oil, along with parchment paper. Now let’s make the cake batter:

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients: This is your flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Then set aside.
2. Cream together the vegan butter and sugar: Your vegan butter should be lighter in color than when you started. This is a good sign that the sugar has emulsified into the butter and created air pockets that help the cake to rise. Then we’ll add in the remaining wet ingredients and making everything together.
3. Once the wet ingredients are combined, add in the flour in increments: You’ll alternate between the vegan buttermilk and flour mixture, mixing gently or on low-medium speed until just combined.
4. Pour the cake batter into your prepared cake pans and bake! You can use 8″ round cake pans, 6″ cake pans, or even do a 7″ if you have it 🙂 Bake until a toothpick comes out clean or by using the bounce back test.

How to make a vegan vanilla buttercream frosting

Making a vegan buttercream frosting is actually quite easy. I have a full recipe post with all of my best tips for making vegan buttercream. However, let’s go over the basics here!

You’ll need only a few ingredients: vegan butter, vanilla, a nut or coconut milk, and organic powdered sugar.

Make sure that your vegan butter is softened, basically at room temperature like you would make a normal buttercream frosting.

1. Add the butter to a large bowl and cream it using a hand mixer.
2. Then add in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and continue to beat until it becomes a thick buttercream.
3. Add in the vanilla extract here, as well as any needed coconut or almond milk to make it to the desired thickness you’d like.

Then frost your beautiful healthy vegan cake!

You can leave the sides completely naked, fully frost them, or go for the slightly exposed look that I did, and you won’t even need a frosting knife! Just simply add a little bit of frosting to the knife and essentially, you’re gently “scraping” the frosting alongside the edges of your vegan vanilla cake.

How to decorate a cake:

I’ve been getting really into different pipings and designs on cakes lately, as well as learning to get that really smooth look to frosting using a cake turntable and bench scraper.

For frosting between the layers: I recommend using about 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup if you’re doing a 6″ cake, like I did. If you’re making an 8″ vegan vanilla cake, use about 3/4 cup!

However, I also love the nice swoops that a spoon creates, along with my ever favorite decoration: flowers!

For a quick tutorial on how to decorate a cake with flowers, check out Olive & Artisan’s article. You can also pipe buttercream flowers onto your cake as well!

For cake decorating, I highly recommend purchasing a cake turntable for ease of frosting. This helps both in-between and on the outsides of the cake layers.

A bench scraper is also helpful as well for getting a really smooth exterior. I use a 9″ bench scraper from Wilton Cakes, as my cakes tend to be quite tall. Another great tool is an offset spatula. This is really helpful for the tops of the cakes, and getting that crisp clean edge. Aubree’s Cakery Bakery has a wonderful tutorial on how to get those really crisp edges on TikTok! And I show how I decorate this vegan vanilla cake on my Instagram here!

Any leftover frosting you can color or leave as is, and pipe onto the sides and top of your cake for fun decoration- sort of like how I did my homemade vegan wedding cake!

Vegan Cake Tips & Troubleshooting

I want to make sure that you’re getting the best vegan cake every single time, so let’s go over some common technical issues! First, I want to give a few baking tips that will help ensure you get stellar cake results every time. Then we’ll go over some specific troubleshooting FAQ’s for further help.

Why is my vegan cake dense?

This happens for a few reasons. Sometimes, if your ingredients aren’t room temperature (i.e. something is very cold and something is very hot), it will throw off the texture in the cake and cause it to be gummy rather than fluffy and moist.

The easiest fix is: patience! Make sure that you’re allowing all of your ingredients to come to room temperature.

Another reason this can happen is if you don’t sift your flour. Make sure that you do this! Otherwise, you’ll end up with a gummy mess!

Why did my cake collapse?

It’s natural for cakes to slightly sink after baking, but if it completely collapsed in the middle, this could be due to a few reasons. Sometimes, our ovens aren’t actually the temperature that they say they are, and that can yield an unevenly baked cake.

Another reason could be because the dry ingredients weren’t properly whisked together or that the batter was under-mixed in general.

Be sure to read through all of the directions before beginning!

Can I use this vanilla cake for cupcakes?

We actually have an entire vegan vanilla cupcake recipe that’s based off of this cake recipe!

Can I bake this cake recipe as a sheet cake?

We now have an entirely vegan vanilla sheet cake recipe based off of this one 🙂 It will give you all of the proper measurements and baking times!

Can I make this vegan cake ahead of time?

Yes! I recommend making the vanilla cake part up to a day ahead and storing it wrapped in an airtight container or with plastic wrap at room temperature.

Chelsweets also has a great article on how to freeze cake layers and use them at a later date. Definitely check that article out!.

Then when you’re ready to make finish the cake, prepare the frosting and serve.

I just know you’re going to love this homemade vanilla cake recipe as much as I do. I mean, it really is the best vanilla cake recipe in the world!

Say goodbye to cake mixes, because you’ll never go back to store-bought with a recipe this good and this easy 😉

I hope you absolutely love this vegan vanilla cake! It’s truly one of my family’s favorites and is always requested for a birthday or celebration (but you can just make a cake for the heck of it!).

Let me know how your vegan vanilla cake went by leaving a comment down below, as well as a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others may find this recipe!

I look forward to seeing how you decorate them on Instagram and Pinterest!

Happy Baking, my loves!

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Watch how to make a vegan vanilla cake:

If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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