Vegan Vanilla Cake with Frosting Recipe (2024)

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This Best Vegan Vanilla Cake recipe is easy to make and so delicious! It’s a soft and moist vanilla layer cake with homemade buttercream frosting. Perfect for birthday parties, weddings, and for any occasion!

Best Vegan Vanilla Cake

You can never go wrong with a classic vanilla cake, can you? Or is it possible that there are people who don’t like vanilla flavor?! Well, I think not! Since my friend asked me if I could make a wedding cake for their wedding, one that doesn’t just look pretty, but is also delicious for everyone, I thought vanilla would be just perfect! So I wanted to practice my layer cake skills and I came up with the idea of taking pictures of it to share my favorite basic vegan vanilla cake recipe with you!

Versatile Vanilla Cake Recipe

I have always loved vanilla cake and honestly, it’s like an obsession. You can make so many things out of the basic recipe, for example creating a classic layer cake, or one with fruity filling, or even just making a simple loaf, pound cake or sponge cake. Another great idea is to make a bundt cake or easy cupcakes or muffins which are ready super quick! Because of all these possibilities, I wanted to have a classic vegan vanilla cake recipe here on my blog which you can make anytime!

One of the first Vegan Vanilla Cake recipes I posted here on my blog was my Cranberry Vanilla Cake. It’s a super soft cake, has a nice fluffy texture and is layered with fruits and whipped cream frosting. But since then, I have changed a couple of things, figured out that it gets even fluffier when adding Aquafaba!

What is Aquafaba?

Actually, Aquafaba is just the leftover liquid from cooked chickpeas. It can be whipped up into stiff peaks similar to real egg whites which you can use to make vegan chocolate mousse for example. But it can be also added to recipes un-whippedas an egg binder, such as in this vegan chocolate cake roll. And when you whip it up just until foamy, it’s a great egg white substitute that makes your cakes fluffier in texture such as today’s Vegan Vanilla Cake. And don’t worry, you won’t taste it. Even if the chickpea brine is a little salty, that is totally ok. Anyway, you can also just add more non-dairy milk if you don’t want to use Aquafaba.

Easy Vegan Vanilla Cake Recipe

What I also love about this vanilla cake is not only the delicious flavor and texture but also the simplicity. The batter is made with only a few basic ingredients and comes together super quick in one bowl. You don’t need special kitchen utensils – Just a bowl, hand mixer, spatula and a cake pan (or three pans for a layer cake). Simply mix everything together, fill it into your pan and bake! Sounds very easy, right?

Vegan Buttercream Frosting

When you decide to make a layer cake with frosting as I did, there are some options for making the buttercream. I prefer to lighten the buttercream with vegan cream cheese. So I use two parts of vegan butter and one part of vegan cream cheese. Anyway, you can also make the frosting by using only vegan butter. Alternatively, you could also frost your layer cake with whipped cream. But take note that the cake will then probably not keep its shape very well since whipped non-dairy cream is super light and often melts quickly.

Vegan Vanilla Naked Cake – How to assemble a Layer Cake

Please don’t stress trying to create a layer cake that looks perfect. Just have fun assembling and decorating it and don’t worry too much about how it looks. It may take a little time if this is the first time you’re building a layer cake, however, it is really not complicated since we have just two layers – the vanilla cake layers and the buttercream frosting. All you have to do is to spread the buttercream over your cake layers and stack them. Finally, spread the remaining frosting all over the cake, including the top and sides, creating a naked cake. I am very sure, in the end, your layer cake will be beautiful and very delicious too! So please don’t be afraid, and give it a try!

Cake Decoration Suggestions

To decorate your naked cake, you can just pick up some fresh flowers from the garden as they’re so beautiful and organic too. Or use fresh fruits, such as berries, if you have any. Since cherries are currently in season here in Germany, I wanted to use these for today’s recipe. And if you want to bring this cake to a party, you could also create a fancy birthday cake style decor using colorful sprinkles, or making pipes or crazy marble effects by adding food colors or powders into the frosting. Just be creative!

Why you will love this Recipe!

As I mentioned before, this Vegan Vanilla Cake is actually fairly easy to make, very versatile and you can create it pretty too. There are no special ingredients required, nothing extraordinary. You just need simple ingredients you may already have in your pantry, and – don’t forget – vanilla bean or vanilla extract for the flavor!

Looking for more Vegan Cake Recipes? Then you may also like my

Strawberry Lemon Cake
Chocolate Raspberry Cake
Peanut Butter Chocolate Snickers Cake
Blueberry Lemon Cake
Vegan Black Forest Cake
Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
Strawberry Cream Cake
Cranberry Vanilla Cake
Poppy Seed Lemon Cake
Vegan Zebra Marble Cake

If you try this Best Vegan Vanilla Cake Recipe or maybe another of my Recipes, please leave me a comment below sharing how it turned out for you! And if you take a picture of your recreation and share it on Instagram, please do not forget to tag me @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka to make sure I will not miss your post! Happy baking! 😊

The Best Vegan Vanilla Cake with Homemade Buttercream Frosting

Author: Bianca Zapatka

Ingredients

Vegan Vanilla cake

2 cups (480 ml) non-dairy milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
4 ½ cups (560 g) all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup (120 g) aquafaba liquid from 1 x 14 oz can chickpeas, or sub more non-dairy milk
¾ cup (170 g) vegan butter softened
¾ cup (165 g) oil
1 ¾ cups (350 g) sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp lemon zest optional

Vegan Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (225 g) vegan butter softened
4 oz (115 g) vegan cream cheese softened, or sub more vegan butter
2 cups (240 g) powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions

Vegan Vanilla Cake

Combine the non-dairy milk and the vinegar and set aside until to curdle into vegan buttermilk.
Preheat oven to 356°F (180°C). Grease three 8-inch (20cm) cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Pour the liquid from a can of chickpeas into a mixing bowl and beat with a hand mixer for a minute just until foamy. (It is similar to real eggwhites and makes the cake fluffier but you can skip it and just add more non-dairy milk instead).
In another bowl, beat the softened vegan butter, oil and sugar until creamy and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Reduce the speed to low, add the whipped aquafaba and the vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
Now alternate adding the flour mixture and vegan buttermilk in 4 batches, mixing until just combined after each batch. (Please do not overmix or your cakes will get dense).
Divide the batter evenly between your prepared cake pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean. (Please do not skip the test as the baking time may vary, depending on your oven.)
Let cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then carefully invert them onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting. (If making the cakes ahead, you can wrap each cake in foil and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days).

Buttercream Frosting

Beat the soft vegan butter with a hand mixer until creamy and fluffy. Then add the softened cream cheese and mix until combined. Gradually, add the powdered sugar, and a squeeze of lemon juice and mix until creamy and well combined. (If the frosting is too firm and not spreadable, add a little more lemon juice. Or if it is too soft, add more powdered sugar).*

Assembling the Cake:

Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread ¼ of the buttercream over. Top with the next layer, and repeat this process for the second and third layers. Finally, spread the remaining buttercream frosting all over your cake and sides creating a naked cake style.
Chill 3-4 hours in the fridge before decorating and serving.
Enjoy! 😊

Notes

To make this cake gluten-free, I recommend using a gluten-free flour blend 1:1.
Make sure that the vegan butter is softened, but please do not melt in the pot or microwave! Simply remove from the fridge approx. 1/2 hour before you start, cut into small cubes and set aside until soft.
You can store the buttercream frosting in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks. It will firm up when it cools, and it softens at room temperature.
If you want to make a fruit layer, you can check out my recipes for strawberry lemon cake, blueberry lemon cake, raspberry chocolate cake or strawberry cream cake.
Please read the text for further information about this recipe.
The nutritional information is calculated for 1 piece of 16.

Nutritions

Nutrition is calculated automatically and should be used as estimate.

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