Vegan Pastel Layer Cake
Easy and Fun vegan pastel layer cake that’s perfect for a healthier Easter cake or spring dessert! Completely dairy free, gluten free, and naturally colored!
A few weeks ago, I was doing some research on fun spring desserts to make this season, and I was so inspired by all of the fun pastel colors that I decided:
Why not make a vegan pastel layer cake that’s naturally colored and safe and fun for kids?!
This cake is one of my all-time favorites. It was so incredibly fun to make, deliciously sweet, and the perfect light and festive vegan spring dessert!
Plus, this cake is completely dairy free, nut free, and can be easily made gluten free.
The ultimate vegan spring cake recipe
While this vegan spring cake is vanilla, it’s anything but boring. I’m actually not sure why people think that vanilla cake is boring: it has such a beautiful and robust flavor that’s oddly sweet and satisfying!
You’ll absolutely love this pastel layer cake: the beautiful pastel colors are not only fun for kids to eat, but for adults as well.
Layers of blue, green, yellow/white, and a beautiful pink dairy free vegan cake make this creation scream spring celebration.
Plus, it’s the perfect color for Easter!
Even better, this vegan cake is made with incredibly simple ingredients (and all natural coloring!):
- Cake flour or gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour (a note about the gluten free flour: just make sure you sift it once so that you can get the same texture of cake flour!)
- Coconut or cane sugar
- Vegan buttermilk (a simply mixture of dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar)
- Applesauce
- Olive or coconut oil
- Maple syrup
- Vanilla
Now you might also be wondering how the heck you get those beautiful pastel colors without any freaky ingredients.
I like to use either natural vegan food coloring, which you can find at Whole Foods or online, or vegan powders. Some options include:
- Pink: either natural vegan food coloring in red or beet powder
- Blue: either natural vegan food coloring in blue or blue butterfly pea powder
- Green: either natural vegan food coloring in green or spirulina or matcha (however, if you want caffeine free, use spirulina!)
It’s actually quite simple to make a deliciously fun Easter cake that’s also less processed and uses real, plant based ingredients.
How to make a pastel layer cake
Now, making the different layers of this vegan Easter cake is actually quite simple!
First you’ll make the batter as you normally would:
- Whisk together the dry ingredients.
- Add in the wet and stir the batter until it’s thick and free of any clumps of flour.
Next, you’ll divide the batter into 3 other bowls, keeping some batter in the main batter bowl. The amount should be even in each bowl to yield even layers. You can weight the batter if that helps.
Keep one bowl as the vanilla white layer and pour that batter into a cake pan.
Then add in the food coloring for each of the different bowls, making one pink, one green, and one blue.
Pour the colored batters into their respective cake pans.
Now we bake!
Once all the cakes are baked, then you’ll just need to make the vegan buttercream frosting and build and decorate your cake 🙂
Vegan Cake Baking Tips & Tricks
- Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature. If the wet ingredients are cold, this will yield a gummy cake- not a moist one!
- You can use olive oil or coconut oil. But whichever you do, if you don’t like the strong tastes of olive oil or coconut oil, you can use triple refined coconut oil or a less robust olive oil.
- Use either vegan natural food coloring or vegan food powders. I give a few options in the recipe card, but you can find a natural vegan food coloring at Whole Foods, or you can use powders, like beet powder, spirulina, and blue butterfly pea powder.
- For the vegan buttercream, I highly recommend using Miyoko’s vegan butter or Forager Project vegan butter. These both yield the best taste and texture.
- Make a 4-layer 6″ cake or a 3-layer 8″cake!
- Have fun with the decorations: I love using flowers, but you can also top with fresh berries, coconut flakes, or even fruit slices (think lemon, orange, etc.). The choice is yours! Get creative!
I hope you love this vegan pastel layer cake as much as I do! Let me know what you think of it in the comments section below.
As always, I love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!
Happy layer-caking!
More fun vegan Easter desserts:
Paleo Vegan Coconut Cream Eggs
Vegan Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
Paleo Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
Vegan Pastel Layer Cake
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 35
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 14 slices 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Easy and Fun vegan pastel layer cake that’s perfect for a healthier Easter cake or spring dessert! Completely dairy free, gluten free, and naturally colored!
Ingredients
Pastel Cake:
- 3 1/2 cups cake flour or gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour (sifted)
- 1 cup coconut or cane sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
- 1 1/4 cup dairy-free milk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
- 1/3 cup olive oil or coconut oil, melted
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon natural vegan red food coloring or beet powder
- 1 tablespoon natural vegan green food coloring or spirulina
- 1 tablespoon natural vegan blue food coloring or blue butterfly pea powder
Vegan Buttercream:
- 1 cup vegan butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and grease four 6″ cake pans with olive or coconut oil.
- Combine the dairy-free milk with the apple cider vinegar and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes until it begins to curdle. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.
- Add in the dairy-free milk and apple cider vinegar mixture, applesauce, oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Mix the batter until there are no more clumps of flour left.
- You’ll need 3 more medium-sized bowls. Divide the batter amongst the 3 bowls and the current bowl evenly. You’ll have 4 total bowls of batter, all evenly distributed. Leave one bowl untouched- that will be the yellow/white layer.
- In the remaining 3 bowls, add the red food coloring to one, the green to another, and the blue to the last bowl. Mix the food coloring into the batter until it’s evenly distributed.
- Pour the batters into the cake pans, and place the cake pans into the oven to bake for 35 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack for 30 minutes, or until the cakes are completely cool. You need them to be entirely cool or else the vegan buttercream will melt when you frost the cakes!
- When ready to frost, prepare the vegan buttercream by beating the vegan butter on high speed for 3 minutes or until it is fluffy.
- Sift in the powdered sugar in increments of 1 cup while continuing to beat the mixture. Beat the vegan buttercream until the powdered sugar is completely incorporated.
- Add in the vanilla extract and beat the vegan buttercream until the vanilla extract is completely incorporated.
- Frost the cake in layers and serve.
- To prepare the cake ahead of time, simply make the cakes the day before and store covered at room temperature. The next day, prepare the buttercream frosting and frost the cakes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/14 of cake
- Calories: 436
- Sugar: 52.2 g
- Sodium: 377.3 mg
- Fat: 12.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 78 g
- Protein: 3.6 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
What a fun cake! Is it just me or do the pretty colors make it taste better? 🙂
Aw thank you!! You’re so sweet!