The Best Vegan Vanilla Cake – Keeps Moist for 5 Days!
This is THE vegan vanilla cake that will put all vanilla cake recipes to shame. It’s incredibly soft, moist with a beautifully tight crumb and decadently sweet- yet, you’d never know it’s made entirely without eggs and dairy free. Slathered in a vanilla bean dairy free cream cheese frosting, absolutely everyone loves this vanilla cake recipe, vegan or not. It’s guaranteed to turn even the chocolate cake lovers into vanilla ones.
Reader’s Review:
The key to the best vanilla cake, vegan or not:
As someone who worked for several years in a bakery before going vegan, I’ve spent over 8 years perfecting this vegan vanilla cake to truly stand up as the best vanilla cake. And I can confidently tell you that you can now say goodbye to cake mixes, eggs, and dairy butter, because you’ll never go back to store-bought OR conventional vanilla cake again with a recipe this good and this easy.
Trust me, this cake is so good, you’ll be left thinking about it for a full day afterwards.
The breakthrough for finally figuring out the key to such a ridiculously good cake came while testing another entirely different cake in my new cookbook coming out in 2027.
I had been working on testing out the reverse creaming method with a pound cake, and I just fell to the floor with the texture it created. Soft, tender, beautifully tight crumb that was springy and bouncy and yet melted in your mouth of a punch of buttery vanilla flavor. So I thought, let’s try it on a layer cake.
Turns out, the reverse creaming method, along with very specific, key ingredients and the right ratios will yield a phenomenally gorgeous vanilla cake. And you will not believe it’s made without eggs and dairy. Like, it’s so moist and beautifully flavorful that even the chocolate cake obsessed will be begging for the recipe.
It’s so good, I’ve even used it for my friend’s wedding cake I made her!
What is the reverse creaming method?
Traditionally, we whisk wet ingredients together separately from the dry, most commonly starting with butter and sugar being creamed together. With the reverse creaming method, we’re really doing the opposite. You’ll whisk the dry together, including the sugar. Then add in the room temperature butter into the flour and sugar mixture.
What you need to make this vegan vanilla cake:
As I’ve mentioned earlier, this recipe took years to develop, so I’ve tried just about every combination of ingredients. Here’s where I landed to produce the best result for your vegan vanilla cake every single time.
For the cake:
- Cake flour: For a light, bouncy texture, this is key. I used to waffle back and forth about it because some say that cornstarch produces a dry cake. However, with the right ratio of wet ingredients (like with this cake recipe), you won’t have that problem. You can use all-purpose flour with this recipe, but you’ll need to add in cornstarch as well. The measurements are 450 grams all-purpose flour and 50 grams cornstarch.
- Sugar: A high amount of sugar is used here to really lock in moisture. So please don’t cut down the sugar quantity! It will drastically affect the level of moisture in your cake.
- Vegan Butter & Avocado Oil: With cupcakes, like my vegan vanilla cupcakes, I prefer to use just oil. The smaller volume dramatically affects the level of moisture remaining in the cupcake. But when it comes to cakes, the best combination is both butter and oil. Oil locks in more moisture than butter, and I speculate that it’s due to its liquid state of matter at room temperature. Then butter provides extra flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Unsweetened dairy free yogurt: this basically acts as the “egg” that you’d typically find in other vanilla cakes. It’s the best out of all vegan egg replacements. I’ve tested this recipe with applesauce and flaxseed as well. They yielded okay results, but dairy-free yogurt really won by a landslide. I personally use a Greek-style, as there will be more protein, which helps give the cake a stronger structure.
- LOTS of Vanilla Extract: you’re going to need a lot of vanilla in here, including vanilla bean paste, but trust me, it’ll be worth it. This is the best vanilla cake recipe from scratch because of the vanilla. It’s amazing!
Overview: step-by-step how make a perfect 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.
The method I most prefer to make this cake with is the reverse creaming method in a stand mixer (or a hand mixer), which is what I describe below and as the main instructions for the recipe card.
That being said, I really want this recipe to be accessible to all levels of bakers. So I’ve also provided a method by hand (and that does NOT use the reverse creaming method). I have used this method as well, and the results are damn good, so don’t think you’re not getting a good cake here.
The difference really is between a wow cake and a “OMG you need to sell this in a bakery” cake.
My two tricks for the silkiest frosting:
If you want that gorgeously glossy finish while also having a structurally in-tact cake that doesn’t have cake layers slipping and sliding around, then you need these tricks.
First tip: For years, I used the whisk attachment to make frosting, when I actually should have been using the cake beater attachment (the paddle). The frosting is so much smoother and glossier even just for the crumb coat.
Now for the second tip, and my favorite: You’ll start with my vegan vanilla bean cream cheese frosting as the base and assemble the cake through the crumb coating. Then place the cake in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes. The crumb coating layer will lock in moisture so no need to fret about cake layers drying out.
You’ll also still have a decent amount of frosting leftover for the final layer which is where things get different. I add in 1/4 cup (60 mL) vegan heavy cream to the remaining frosting, and mix on high-speed. This will get the heavy cream to whip up and thicken while creating a glossy finish to your frosting.
Then simply spread onto your crumb coated cake, slice and serve!
Final reminders when baking this cake:
- Make sure to line your cake pans and preheat the oven before beginning: Once the buttermilk combines with the baking soda and baking powder, the chemical reaction occurs that gives the vanilla cake its lift. There’s a short window of time that you have to capitalize that by getting your cakes in the oven. That’s why it’s so important that you make sure your cakes are lined and the oven is preheated before even beginning to measure out ingredients. To line the cake pans, I lightly grease them and cut a round piece of parchment paper to be placed at the base of the pan.
- Weighing the ingredients will give you a more accurate bake than using cups: With cup measurements, some people scoop the flour rather than spoon and level. This will lead to weigh more flour than you actually need. Even spooning and leveling the flour isn’t as precise! The best bet to ensure that this vegan vanilla cake turns out just like my results each time is to use the weighted measurements given in the recipe card below!
- Make sure your baking powder and baking soda aren’t expired: Baking powder only lasts about 6 months. Simply add a 1/2 tsp of either to a small jar or glass and drop of vinegar. If it foams, it’s still good but if it doesn’t, then it’s time to change!
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
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!
Print
BEST Ever Moist Vegan Vanilla Cake Recipe
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 18 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This is THE vegan vanilla cake that will put all vanilla cake recipes to shame. It’s incredibly soft, moist with a beautifully tight crumb and decadently sweet- yet, you’d never know it’s made entirely without eggs and dairy free. Slathered in a vanilla bean dairy free cream cheese frosting, absolutely everyone loves this vanilla cake recipe, vegan or not. It’s guaranteed to turn even the chocolate cake lovers into vanilla ones.
Ingredients
Vegan Vanilla Cake:
- 1 1/4 cup (300 mL) vegan buttermilk
- 4 cups (500 g) cake flour (see notes for all-purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour)
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 1/4 cups (450 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (220 g) salted vegan butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) neutral oil, such as avocado oil, olive oil, or sunflower oil
- 1 cup (240 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature*
- 2 tbsp vanilla extract (yes, 2 tablespoons!!)
- Optional (but recommended): 1/4 tsp vanilla powder or vanilla bean paste
Frosting:
- 1 batch of either vegan vanilla cream cheese frosting (recommended) or vanilla buttercream frosting
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) cold vegan heavy cream
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease three 8″ cake pans with cooking oil, and line them with parchment paper. Set aside. For beginner bakers who want to simply whisking the ingredients together, see below for instructions.
- Prepare the vegan buttermilk: Combine the dairy free milk with the apple cider vinegar, and set aside to sit for 3-4 minutes. You can weigh and measure the remaining ingredients during this time.
- Whisk: In a large liquid measuring cup, whisk together the vegan buttermilk, dairy-free yogurt, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean paste. Set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients: In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.
- Mix in the butter: In a stand mixer with paddle attachment or a large bowl with hand mixer, add in the room temperature vegan butter and oil. Begin mixing on low speed, and as the butter incorporates into the flour, turn it up to medium speed. It will create a sandy texture in the flour mixture. There should be no clumps of butter left, just a wet sandy texture.
- Finish the batter: Then pour in the buttermilk/yogurt mixture. Carefully turn the stand mixer onto low speed again to slowly start to integrate the wet ingredients into the batter. Then mix on medium speed until you get a consistent and smooth batter, scraping down the sides and at the bottom of the bowl as needed. Be careful here NOT to over mix- just when you achieve the smooth or near smooth batter, stop. You want to make sure the flour is FULLY incorporated into the wet or the cake won’t bake right- the ingredients will look slightly split, which means you need to keep gently mixing until you get a consistent batter.
- Bake: Divide the batter between the three cake pans evenly, and bake for 28-30 minutes in 8″ cake pans, or until the toothpick comes out nearly clean with a few crumbs on.
- Cool: Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Once cooled completely (there is absolutely no warmth to the touch!), then you can prepare your buttercream.
- Make the frosting. When ready to frost the cakes, follow the instructions for making the frosting of your choice.
- Crumb coat: Apply about 1/2 cup of frosting between each layer, and a thin layer of frosting on the outside of the entire cake, sealing in the crumbs. Place the cake into the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes.
- Make the finishing frosting: While the cake is chilling, mix the vegan heavy cream on high-speed into the remaining frosting, whipping it until it’s thick, fluffy, and glossy.
- Finish the frosting: Remove the cake from the fridge, and apply the glossy frosting on top, piping as desired. Then chill before serving or slice and serve immediately!
Notes
PLEASE NOTE: This recipe does NOT work with self-raising flour (either gluten-free or plain). Please do NOT swap in self-raising flour in this recipe!
Flour alternatives: You can use all-purpose flour or gluten-free baking flour. For gluten-free, I recommend King Arthur Measure-for-Measure gluten free flour. Whatever GF mix you use, it must contain xanthan gum. For the measurements, you will use 450g (3 2/3 cup) flour with 50 g (5 tbsp) cornstarch or arrowroot starch.
Simply whisked method: Instead of creaming together the butter, we’ll melt the butter until liquid, and whisk together with the sugar, dairy free yogurt, and vanilla extract and paste. Then add in the dry ingredients, and pour in the vegan buttermilk as you gently whisk JUST until the dry ingredients are incorporated (it doesn’t have to be a super smooth batter- DONT over mix). Then proceed onto the baking step!
Make sure that you add in a tablespoon of arrowroot powder or cornstarch if using gluten free flour. This will give the flour more like a cake flour texture when baked- very tender and moist!
If you use coconut sugar, your cake will be slightly tanner in color- but still delicious!!
Applesauce substitute: If you’re having a hard time finding applesauce in stores, you can also swap in your favorite dairy free unsweetened yogurt instead. You’ll use an equal amount. Please make sure that the yogurt has come to room temperature.
Storage: Any leftovers you have can be sliced and then stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Additionally, you can freeze the cake, and let it thaw in the fridge for 4 hours when you’re ready to enjoy again! You can also leave this cake at room temperature for up to a day if covered and stored in an airtight container.
Be sure to read the full post for all of my tips and suggestions!
For a vegan vanilla cake made with just oat flour, check out my vegan gluten free vanilla cake recipe.
I decided to use 1/4 tofu, 1/4 aquafaba, 1/3 homemade soy yogurt – just as an experiment. omg this recipe is perfect. I used cake flour too. I’ve always used ap flour, 1/2 apple sauce and 1/2 yogurt and that was good, but now it’s the best! Thank you so much for this recipe! *The photo is from a little extra batter so not the true height of a layer
The texture is fabulous!! Wow and so interesting to use tofu!! I’m so intrigued by that!! Amazing!! Thank you for the review!
Hi there! I’m excited to try this recipe and will be attempting as my wedding cake. To confirm, the recipe as given for ‘x1’ is a three tiered cake in x3 8 inch pans? Can you confirm how tall the cake would be?
Thank you!
Hi Zita!! Oh wonderful!! Yes confirmed 🙂 The cake layers will be about 1.5-2″ tall!
Hey made this today for 50th birthday and brought back childhood memories of an Indian cake have grown up with 10 stars
Yes this cake is really good. Though with the original recipe it would be way too sweet for my taste. I reduced the amount of sugar to 100g for the 1x recipe, and that was perfect for me. The icing adds sweetness and I like the contrast. Also, I substituted lemon juice in place of the ACV in the ‘vegan buttermilk’. The lemon juice goes perfectly with the vanilla.
I adore this recipe – it’s the first recipe i’ve found that actually does work as it says it will! so delish! I was wondering – if i wanted a deeper cake, could i do two 8 inch pans?
AMAZING! Oh I’m so happy you love it!! You could totally do two 8 inch pans! Will need more like 35-40 minutes to bake 🙂
Hi! I plan on making this vanilla cake but should I adjust the recipe if I am using 6’ cake pans instead of 8’?
Hi Enge! Absolutely! I would do half the recipe 🙂 You’ll get three nicely sized 6″ layers!
I made this cake for my daughter’s birthday and everyone loved it! Three people asked me for the recipe, it was so good. And it does, in fact, keep moist for days. I made it the day before the party and it was perfect the next day. No stress making the cake the morning of the party! I definitely recommend, and I’ve come back to leave this comment as I’m about to make it again as cupcake for my son’s birthday. I’ll report how it works out. Thank you!
This is amazing 🙂 Thank you so so much for the kind words!! We do also have a vanilla cupcake recipe you could check out! But definitely eager to hear how the cupcakes work for your son’s birthday! Enjoy 🙂
I made this best vanilla cake for the 4th of July family gathering and it was a hit! Definitely a tasty reason to practice improving my cake-frosting skills 😉
Perhaps I missed it, but how would I scale this recipe to make a single layer 8” circle cake? I don’t need all 3 layers and I only have 1 8” circle pan or a 9×9 square
Hi Ashley! So sorry I’m just responding! If you wanted to make a single layer 8″ cake, you can either divide this recipe into thirds OR you can use my small batch vanilla cake recipe, and scale up x2 🙂 Enjoy!
Best vanilla cake vegan or not.
THIS! Oh my gosh I’m so grateful to hear it 🙂 Thank you so much for the kind words!!
I made this for my own birthday and it was such a hit!! I adore vanilla so I added half a split vanilla bean to the frosting, I also only used three cups of sugar in the frosting instead of four. The cake was sooo good on it’s own! I evened out the top after they baked (to prepare for frosting) and have been nibbling on those bits non stop! Even my non vegan husband loved it! He actually loved it so much he requested a chocolate version for his birthday, please tell me you have a chocolate version?! Great recipe, will be made again!
Amazing 🙂 WOW!! Thank you so much for the review!! And YES we do have a chocolate version here!! You’re both going to love it 🙂 Happy belated birthday to you, cannot wait to hear what you think of the chocolate cake!
In the video, you don’t mention anything about the 2 tbsp of oil. You just talk about adding the butter. What are the 2 tbsp of oil for in the recipe?
Hi Dorita! A new video is in the process of being filmed and edited 🙂 For now, the recipe card is the most up-to-date form!
I’m so sorry to hear this!! I see that you’re UK based- do you mind sharing which flour blend you used? They can be very different from the US (and those are the only ones I have access to). The blend most definitely needs to contain xanthan gum, and I know after my own testing that the Namaste blend is no good in any of my recipes. Let’s try to solve this!
I used Doves Farm GF self raising flour, this does contain xantham gum. It also contains raising agents so my only guess is that there was too much baking powder in total!
I will say, I’ve managed to salvage half the cakes by chopping off the top and it is delicious and hopefully still usable for my cake tomorrow 😊
Maybe I just need to tweak it slightly and try a plain (all purpose) flour.
It’s always fun trying to convert everything to UK items.
Oh that’s definitely the issue! too much baking powder would definitely not work here if you’re continuing to add in the other leavening agents. Thank you so much for making this note, it’s going to help other bakers who might run into the same issue with using self raising flour!
Hi Britt planning making this cake.I’m from UK and will be using the Doves Freee from Plain flour how much xanthan gum would be needed as it doesn’t contain it? Will I need to add cornstarch and the xanthan?
I want to use 3 6inch cake pans should I adjust the recipe or will it be ok and how long to bake in 6inch pan sorry I can’t see any info on that
Thanks
Aine
Hi Aine! So I’ve never baked with Doves Free From Plain Flour- I will say, though, that a few people have accidentally used the self-raising version of this and the cake did NOT turn out. So please make sure the flour blend you’re using is not self-raising! Typically the recommendation is 1/4-1/2 tsp of xanthan gum per 1 cup of gluten free flour. However, I can’t speak to this flour specifically as it’s not available to me (I’m in the States!).
For 3 6-inch cake pans, you can either have very tall cake layers (totally fine! They’ll just need to bake longer!), or you can reduce the recipe to about 2/3 of what it is! I hope that helps!
Enjoy!
Wanting to make this for a gluten free dairy free friend for her birthday.
Just looked up vanilla powder and it’s a bit pricey for using just 2 Tablespoons. Not sure I’d ever use it again. Could use real vanilla beans?
Oh absolutely!! So for gluten free, please make sure your cake has xanthan gum in it! And yes you can use real vanilla beans! The most important quantity is the extract- the powder is more optional. It WILL enhance flavor, but not as much as the extract!
Thank you for this recipe! My granddaughter is 1 today, and I used the recipe for her first birthday cake. She has milk and milk protein allergies which means we have to be careful with her diet. Her mom requested a “smash cake” and this option allows for fun and great flavor! Thanks again!
Omgsh- this is amazing!! Thank you so much for the kind review!! ENJOY!!
hello, i want to try making this tomorrow! instead of the vanilla powder you recommended, i have a vanilla bean pod with me…would you recommend i add the beans directly to the batter or steep it in some other liquid first to infuse it more evenly? thank you!
Hi Renee! So sorry I’m just responding!! Oh yes, you can add the vanilla beans directly to the batter 🙂 Enjoy!!
The cake was perfect! I followed the recipe exactly as written and used Swans Down Cake Flour, Miyoko’s Butter, Florida Crystals Sugar and Silk Vanilla Almond milk yogurt. Also used the Vegan Buttercream recipe and it was delicious. Everyone enjoyed the cake.
STUNNING!! Oh my gosh, this is beautiful!! Also LOVE that you shared brands, this is so helpful!! All around stunning bake 🙂 Thank you again for the review, and enjoy!!
Hi! I made this cake for my son’s birthday. It was delicious but I’m wondering if you can troubleshoot a few things for next time: it didn’t rise and was quite dense, not light and fluffy. I lined the pans first like you said, and the oven was pre heated. I was pretty quick about getting in the oven, noting your instruction about the buttermilk reaction with the baking powder and flour. Maybe I overmixed the batter? I didn’t have a scale to weigh the ingredients, just used cup measurements. Maybe there was too much flour? The other thing was the icing was way too sweet. I used flora plant based salted butter. Some comments were that it was too buttery. Any tips for that too? Thank you so much, the cake looked beautiful despite its flaws!
Oh it looks beautiful, but I do see the denseness so that definitely could have been accidentally measuring too much flour from using cups instead of weighing! The buttery flavor may have been from the butter- if you’re nut free, I like Violife for frosting, but if you can do nuts, Miyoko’s has the best natural tasting vegan butter! Also is your baking powder fresh? That can also contribute to denseness!
Hi Britt! Great recipe. Everyone LOVED this at my daughter’s party, and no one else is vegan. The flavor is excellent, but it was a bit drier than I expected. I used Silk soy yogurt, Swans cake flower, Country Crock olive oil plant butter, an olive oil/sunflower mix, and Silk unsweetened soy milk (the teal one), and we skipped the vanilla powder. The only other thing I can think to mention is that I mixed thoroughly, but was careful not to over-mix it (as I have found that can make cake too dense), so it had texture and wasn’t super smooth when I poured it. It was thick enough that I had to push it to the edges of the pan. Any ideas to amp up the moisture? A little more oil? Do you think it could have been overcooked? It definitely had what I’d call a crust on the top when I cut it down for stacking. My husband did the actual baking in the oven, so I’m unsure of the timing there. You can see the browning around the edges, since I only cut the top. Thanks for the recipe and for taking a look at this.
Oh it’s beautiful!! Thank you so much for sharing this!! So for moisture, I’m wondering if it was a touch over baked? And How did you store the cake layers before frosting? If they were stored in the fridge unfrosted then it’s possible they dried out there!!
Sounds about right. How do you recommend cooling it? keeping it out on the counter?
I’ll have to give it a another shot and keep a close eye on timing. The recipe says the toothpick should be clean, so my husband said he waited for that. I was taught to take a cake out when there’s a couple dry pieces that come out with the toothpick rather than fully clean. And definitely before it crusts. Could you speak to the details there on timing and toothpicks? 🙂
Thansk again.
PS – failed at getting a really good picture of the cake, but wanted to share the fun vibes we created with it.
Omgsh yes I’m so sorry for the confusion!! That is my bad, I should’ve written that I meant for it to be nearly clean- some people may have been going for the toothpick to be entirely clean and ignoring the actual baking time, I’m so sorry for this! Just corrected it, but again so sorry! And that is such an adorable cake 🥹LOVE the colors!! I’m so grateful you shared this recipe with your loved ones! Thank you so much for the review and pics 🙂 Love seeing these!!
Hi, I absolutely love all of your recipes! When my family wants something sweet, your website is the first place I search. I had a question tho, I know you have a “One Bowl Vanilla cupcake recipe” but if we love this recipe, can we use it for cupcakes too? I guess that question applies to all for your Cake recipes.
Thanks!
Hi Alexis, thank you so much!! I have a vanilla cupcake recipe you can find here! I have SO MANY cupcake recipes, so if you are looking for something specific, search for it on my website!
Super delicious made it for my four years old birthday. And used her coconut cream frosting recipe. Everyone loved it.
WOW look at that cake! Love the decoration!
I made this cake for my Mom’s birthday and the whole family loved it. I put your chocolate frosting on top instead of the vanilla. My Aunt said it was better than a well known bakery in our town! Yay! Thank you!
Absolutely STUNNING, my goodness! Thank you so much for this review 🙂 Means the absolute world!! Wow!! I’m so honored! Thanks for being here 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing vegan cake! It’s absolutely delicious. I found it a little sweet for my personal taste, but my vegan friends loved it. I made one small change: once the cake had cooled, I soaked it in a mixture of soy milk, coconut cream, and desiccated coconut for about 10 minutes before assembling. It reminded me of the birthday cakes from my childhood. 😊
Oh I’m so happy you love it!! Totally understand, it is definitely a sweet cake but wow I love the additions 🙂 That sounds so yummy!! I have to try that! Thank you so much for the review!