This easy vegan vanilla cake is the perfect dessert for a birthday party, graduation, wedding or just by chance. Nothing says happiness like soft and sweet vanilla cakes and cream garnishes!
This white cake has everything - soft, has the softest and most moist crumbs, and deep vanilla flavor. Dress up with a fancy buttercream job or simplify with chocolate ganache drizzle, this cake will definitely be fun!
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN CAKE:
Traditional cakes use butter to put air into the dough and eggs for structure, stability, and yeast. We switch butter to neutral flavor oils (like canola or safflower), and rely on yeast from baking powder and baking soda.
For starters, we drink vegetable milk with apple cider vinegar to make buttermilk quickly. While most non-dairy choices will work, soy milk, almond/cashew milk, and oat milk will have the best results (and please don't use too runny rice milk).
Adding a little vinegar to the recipe can do a number of things: it reacts with baking soda to yeast, it softens the formation of gluten for softer cakes and slows browning by lowering the cake's pH.
Next, we mix the dry ingredients. I am a big supporter of weighing your ingredients because there is little room for error if you weigh. Kitchen scales are not expensive but are one of the best investments you can make if you love baking!
If you measure by volume, I ask you to measure your flour in this particular way: First, shake the flour in the container to expand and undo the flour deposits. Then spoon with your measuring cup so that it overflows.
Remove the excess by scraping the top with the back of the knife. This is my way of measuring, so for the best results you have to do the same thing! Also, keep in mind I use a standard US measuring cup, which is a little different from England and Australia.
With flour, we add granulated sugar (using certified organic or vegan sugar if you are worried about bone char in the mixture), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Shake everything so smooth and combine well.
Then into the buttermilk mixture, mix in oil and vanilla extract until smooth. Use good quality pure vanilla extract, this recipe requires a lot of vanilla and the taste really shines in the end.
We add the wet ingredients to dry and mix with the whisk. While with egg-based cakes, you have to be very careful not to stir, this is not a problem with vegan cakes.
In fact, a little development of gluten through the shaker helps build the structure and stability of the cake. Don't overdo it, just mix the cake mixture until it's nice and smooth.
INGREDIENTS
- ONE 8-INCH CAKE OR TWO 6-INCH CAKE
- 2 tsp (10g) apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (270g) of vegetable milk
- 1 1/2 cups + 1 tbsp (210g) all-purpose flour *
- 3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon (170 g) granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp (6g) baking powder
- 1/2 tsp (2g) baking soda
- 3/4 tsp (5g) of salt
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (82g) of oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp (16g) vanilla extract
- TWO CAKES 8 INCHES
- 1 1/2 tablespoons (20g) apple cider vinegar
- 2 1/4 cups (540g) vegetable milk
- 3 cups + 2 tablespoons (420) white flour *
- 1 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (340g) granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp (12g) baking powder
- 1 tsp (5g) baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp (10g) of salt
- 3/4 cup (164g) of oil
- 3 tbsp (32g) vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Prepare a baking sheet by spraying oil, then place a circle of paper to cover the bottom of the pan.
- In a mixing bowl add vegetable milk and vinegar and set aside for the clabber for 5-10 minutes.
- In the second bowl, stir in flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until fluffy.
- Add oil and vanilla extract to the milk that has been mixed and stir to mix. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until the mixture is smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan (or divide it into two if baking 2 cakes). Bake the cake 8 "for 36-38 minutes, bake the cake 6" for 31-33 minutes. The cake is made when the tip is golden and has pulled out from the side of the pan and the test comes out clean or with one or two crumbs.
- Remove the cake from the oven then let it cool for 10 minutes. Then work gently, turning the pan over with a wire cooling rack to catch the cake. Lift the pan, then remove the parchment paper. Turn the cake back right and allow it to cool completely on the cooling rack.
- Place the cool cake on the cake board and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Place it in the fridge or in a freezer-safe ziplock bag in the freezer until it's ready to be decorated.