Vegan Vanilla Cake

4.75 from 12 votes

Our vegan vanilla cake is easy to make, with simple ingredients, and perfect for birthdays, holidays, and even for Valentine's Day. It's soft, moist, light, sweet, and full of vanilla flavour. It's eggs-free, milk-free, and without butter, yet no-one will be able to tell. This cake will make you fall in love!

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time55 mins

Total Time1 hr 25 mins

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: Plant-Based, Vegan

Servings: people

Calories: 437kcal

Author: Nico

Equipment

7 inch (18 cm) round cake tin
electric whisk

Ingredients

For the vegan sponge cake

430 g all-purpose flour
250 g sugar
350 g plant milk soy or almond
75 g sunflower seed oil
25 g baking powder
1½ tsp vanilla extract
½ lemon grated zest

For the vegan pastry cream

500 g plant milk soy or almond
90 g sugar
55 g cornstarch or potato starch
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ lemon peel
⅓ tsp turmeric

For the syrup

130 g water
65 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping

200 g vegan whipped cream
300 g strawberries

USA - Metric

Instructions

For the vegan sponge cake

Preheat the oven to 360˚F (180˚C). Brush a 7 inch (18 cm) round cake tin with a few drops of oil, then dust the tin with flour.
In a large bowl add sunflower seed oil, sugar, plant-milk, grated lemon zest, vanilla extract and whisk well together.
Sift flour and baking powder into the bowl with the liquids. Then with a whisk or spatula whisk all the ingredients together. Try to break some of the lumps.
Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and bake for around 55 min at 360˚F (180˚C). Before taking it out of the oven, check with a toothpick if the cake is fully baked.
Do not open the oven door for the first 30 minutes of baking. Let cool down completely before cutting it open. Cut it in 3 layers with a serrated knife.

For the vegan pastry cream

In a pot off the heat, add all the ingredients for the vegan pastry cream and whisk them together till all the lumps are gone.
Bring on to medium heat and whisk the liquid until it turns into a thick pastry cream. Take off the heat, set aside to cool down for 10 minutes, but keep whisking occasionally to prevent the pastry cream from drying out.

For the syrup

In a pot, add water, sugar and vanilla flavouring. Bring to a gentle boil and whisk until the sugar has melted. Let cook for another 2 minutes, then set aside to cool down.

For the whipped cream

For best results, we recommend purchasing a plant-based whipping cream.
If you can't find it, then whip together 2 cans of very cold full fat coconut cream with ¼ cup of icing sugar. Use only the solid part of the coconut milk.

Build the cake

On a cake stand, put the base layer of the sponge cake. Brush with ⅓ of the syrup. Then cover with ½ of the pastry cream. Spread the pastry cream across the sponge cake, then add some pieces of strawberries.
Top with the middle layer of sponge cake. Brush it with ½ of the remaining syrup. Then cover with the remaining ½ of the pastry cream. Spread the pastry cream across the sponge cake, then add some pieces of strawberries.
Add the top layer of the sponge cake - but upside down. Brush with the leftover syrup.
With the help of a spatula, cover the whole cake in whipped cream and decorate with some strawberries on top. We like to keep the strawberries whole.
To cut a perfect slice, let the cake cool in the freezer for 30 minutes or in the refrigerator for 1 hour and use a wet sharp knife.

Video

Notes

If you can, use a digital scale for our recipes. This way you'll get the best results.

We use calculateme.com to convert grams to US volume measurements. We believe they have the most accurate conversion algorithm. If must use cups and spoons, then use the "spoon and level" method. That is, spoon the ingredients into the measuring cup, or measuring spoon. Then level the excess with a knife.

Nutrition