Vegan Classic Vanilla Cake

The wait is finally over! I’m sharing my most BIGGEST ask since I went vegan: my go-to vegan classic vanilla cake recipe! When our family went plant based, my baking business was the last facet to follow suit. For a while, I thought I could continue business as usual, but the more I thought about it, it just didn’t feel right.

I temporarily shut down the cake business so I could take some time to test some recipes and arrive at ones that would be my go-to’s- but this task was not easy. I wanted something that would produce the same results each time, didn’t require super fancy ingredients and would make my customers shocked at the fact that my cakes were vegan.

At the time there weren’t very many good options and when I thought I had cracked the code, I’d then discover that a certain ingredient I was using wasn’t actually animal free. ARGH! So it was back to the drawing board. I spent a lot of money trying different plant based butters and margarines and feeling frustrated at the fact that the recipes that raved they tasted just like a traditional cake only to discover they did not!

My confidence in cakes totally diminished and I shifted into baking other things I knew tasted good like vegan meringues and sugar cookies and kept trying cakes in the background. 🙁

Last year I purchased a cookbook called Modern Vegan Baking and it’s recipes changed my mindset on cake baking all together! I highly recommend the book as its full of really great and simple recipes. After trying a few of the cake recipes I arrived at one that I absolutely love which is the one I have adapted and use to this day.

In terms of buttercream, I’m so thankful to be living in a world where ingredients are constantly evolving and I can finally re-create the American style buttercream that I used to use to make detailed buttercream cakes.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do and if you do create it, tag me in your creations this weekend on Instagram! Don’t forget to watch the highlights in my stories (under Vegan Cake) for all of the steps!

Happy Baking!

Vegan Classic Vanilla Cake

Yield: 10
Prep Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

Cake

  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup milled flax seed
  • 1 cup soy milk (or any full fat plant milk)
  • 2 tbsp vinegar (can be ACV)
  • 1 cup vegan becel (margarine or brick butter style)
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 cups cake flour *do not substitute*
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Buttercream

  • 1 cup vegan becel (butter brick), available at Save On Foods, Superstore, Walmart & Nesters
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract, Mexican vanilla is best
  • 4 cups icing sugar, Red Path brand is vegan or use organic
  • 1-2 tbsp plant milk, if needed to soften

Instructions

Cake

  1. Preheat oven to 350*F
  2. Line a 9x13 pan with parchment on the base and spray sides with cooking spray.
  3. In a measuring cup mix soy milk and vinegar and let stand until curdled, about 5 mins.
  4. In a small bowl, combine warm water and milled flax and let stand to thicken, about 5 mins.
  5. In a mixer with paddle or whisk attachment, cream butter, sugar and vanilla together until fluffy.
  6. Add flax egg and mix until combined.
  7. In another bowl, combine cake flour and baking powder.
  8. Alternate the addition of dry ingredients and milk into butter mixture and mix on med/low until well combined, stopping to scrape sides to ensure batter is well mixed.
  9. Pour batter immediately into pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to sit in pan until cool to the touch, then cover with saran to retain moisture. (Cake can be frozen after cooled completely, simply wrap in 2 layers of saran wrap and freeze)
  10. If decorating a sheet cake, feel free to leave the cake in the pan and pipe directly onto the top of the cake.

Buttercream

  1. Cream butter with a whisk attachment until completely smooth.
  2. Add in icing sugar and vanilla extract, stirring in until mixed, then whip until fluffy.
  3. Add plant milk if icing is too thick.
  4. To decorate a 9x13 sheet cake with 2 colors, portion out about 2 cups of icing and color to desired color.
  5. Place icings into piping bags fitted with two different piping tips (I used a 1M and 6B) and begin piping with one color- rosettes and stars all around the cake.
  6. Fill in the spaces with the other color and continue to alternate colors until the whole cake top is covered in icing.
  7. Refrigerate any remaining buttercream in an air tight container for up to 3 weeks.
  8. Cake can be refrigerated for up to 1 week decorated and up to 3 days covered at room temperature.
  9. Enjoy!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g
© Izabela
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