This is a simple vegan yellow cake recipe. Use as a base to make other cakes or use frosting of choice to make a layered Birthday Cake or a Swiss roll! This yellow cake is soft and moist. The almond extract gives is a fabulous flavor profile.
More Cakes from the blog
- Vegan Sponge Cake
- Spiced Apple Cake
- Vanilla Spelt sponge Cake
- Chocolate Torte
- Vanilla Pound Cake – soy-free
- Fruit and Nut Christmas Cake
- Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Vegan Yellow Cake Recipe
Easy Vegan Yellow Cake Recipe. Make any umber of layers, use frosting of choice to make layered birthday cake or holiday cake. Vegan Soy-free Cake Recipe. Makes 1 8 inch pan cake.
Servings: 6
Calories: 248kcal
Ingredients
Wet:
- 3/4 cup (183 ml) non dairy milk
- 2 (2 tbsp) heaping Tbsp non dairy yogurt
- 1 Tbsp flax seed meal or chia seed meal
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup (56 ml) oil
- 3/4 to 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) almond extract
- 1/2 cup (60 g) vegan powdered sugar or other sugar (1/3 cup for less sweet)
- a generous pinch of turmeric for color optional
Dry:
- 1 1/2 cup (1.25 cup) unbleached white flour (1.25 cups if using a mix of whole wheat and all purpose)
- 2 tbsp cornstarch or other starch
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) salt
- 1 tsp (0.75 tsp) baking powder
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 deg F / 180ºc
- In a bowl, add all the wet ingredients and whisk well until combined.
- In another bowl mix in the dry ingredients, or sift directly into the bowl with wet ingredients.
- Whisk until the mixture is smooth and silky. 1 to 2 minutes.
- Pour the batter intp parchment lined or greased and well floured 8 inch cake pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until tooth pick from the center comes out clean. Cool completely covered with towel, Frost with favorite frosting, slice and serve.
Notes
Nutritional values based on one cake
Nutrition
Nutrition Facts
Vegan Yellow Cake Recipe
Amount Per Serving
Calories 248
Calories from Fat 90
% Daily Value*
Fat 10g15%
Sodium 192mg8%
Potassium 104mg3%
Carbohydrates 33g11%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 10g11%
Protein 3g6%
Vitamin C 0.7mg1%
Calcium 79mg8%
Iron 1.4mg8%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Varsha Rao
Thank you for this recipe! I have a child with nut and coconut allergies (so coconut cream or cashew cream wont work). Any suggestions for what I can use instead of non-dairy yogurt? Can I use another tbsp of flax meal with some water? Or a mashed overripe banana ?
Richa
Use more non dairy milk
Amy
This cake became a wacky science event for me. The cupcakes looked like puff balls and were super gluey and sort of looked like baked Play-Dough. I think it was the cornstarch, and the flavor was also strange. Turns out (I did further research) that yellow cake is one of the most difficult things to make vegan. I tried a vegan olive oil cake and that gave it some color and the flavor was better (no cornstarch) but it still wasn’t close to my all time fave, Silver Palate yellow cake. That has eggs and white wine. Sometimes as a vegan you just have to admit defeat. Not very often. I am a big fan of some of your cakes Richa! Just not this one. Maybe it was my error.
Richa
I don’t know what happened lol. There’s barely any cornstarch, just 2 tbsp is not going to do anything much other that add a slight lightness to the cake. Did you accidentally add baking powder for the starch? Did you change any other ingredient?
Amy Schwartz
I added some lemon juice. I don’t think that could be it. It was strange. Corn starch is the only thing that I almost never use so that’s why I assumed that was it.
Janet Breen Wakefield
Delicious and So easy!
Vegan Richa Support
Hooray!! thank you so much
Nancy R
Love this recipe! Made it today and served it with strawberry rhubarb sauce!
Vegan Richa Support
So glad you enjoyed it!
Nikki
Hi. Could powdered sugar be replaced with maple syrup?
Thanks
Vegan Richa Support
Yes, it may be a bit sweeter but that’s up to you. 🙂
Clay
What kind of oil do you use for this recipe?
Richa
neutral safflower , sunflower or canola
Clay
Great. Thank you! I love your recipes. Can’t wait to make this.
Cross
Mine turned out too dense as well. Did not rise. Consistency of sponge.
Richa
The baking powder might be old? What flour did you use? did you change anything in the recipe?
srk
I made this cake today. The texture was great, but there were pink blotches in the cake. Any idea what that could have been from? Could it be the turmeric? Should the turmeric be dissolved in the wet ingredients?
Richa
yes turmeric sometimes reacts with baking powder and turns pink on baking. its a harmless reaction, ie. everything is edible. See my turmeric loaf post where i mention it. The loaf would always be pink when i baked, it resolved when i added lemon to the cake. This cake hasnt turned pink for me, but maybe turmeric didnt mix in well or the brand of turmeric is more reactive etc. Just add 2 tsp lemon juice to the wet and dissolve turmeric in the wet.
Srk
Can I skip vinegar?
Richa
yes use lime or lemon juicce instead
Srk
Thanks.
I understand that baking soda needs the acid (vinegar/lemon juice) to rise.
Can I skip the baking soda/vinegar combo and use extra baking powder instead?
Patricia
Is this recipe easy to double or should I make two batches separately. I am going to make a 3 layer cake.
Richa
You can double the reccipe. You might need a few tbsp extra flour for the right consistency.
Aline
Olá! Meu nome é Aline e vim pedir a relação dos ingredientes em Português. Seria possível? Agradeço muito❤️!
Richa
Use https://translate.google.com/. Copy recipe into it and select language to translate.
Lisa
Can I substitue yogurt for something else? Can’t get my hands on it where I currently live…
Richa
cashew cream or coconut cream
Sumeeta
Hi I tried this cake n for some reason it didn’t rise atall. I is very dense and inside part looks uncooked. But taste is very good. I want to make it correctly again. Could u pls figure out what went wrong.
Richa
Hi Summeeta, If the cake did not rise at all, then its the baking soda. Baking soda can get stale or be too old and it looses its leavening strength.
If it did rise a bit and did not cook in the middle, then the cake needs to be baked longer as the baking time depends on your oven and pan.
Victoria
I wonder if I can make it gluten free using gluten free flour?
Richa
I haven’t tried it. You can try use a gf blend that has some gum. I have some gf muffins and quick bread loafs on the blog. Large cakes have generally turned out not too well with the gf blends i have tried so far.
Bill
This was the best yellow layer cake I’ve made yet — excellent crumb! And the pinch of turmeric is an inspired touch for color. Why didn’t I think of that, as I do the same in tofu scrambles? Thank you, I will keep making it!
Richa
Awesome!