Classic Vegan White Cake

Hi there! I searched for a vegan spongecake recipe and really liked the look of this one. I specifically wanted a spongecake that could be used in a jellyroll-type recipe. (I also remember reading comments, so maybe the person who asked about jellyroll cake can be notified?) I took to heart the comments about the recipe being crumbly and cornbread-like. I made one, following the recipe, but keeping in mind I may have to tweak.

While the cake itself is a nice recipe, it didn't work for my purposes for two reasons: 1. the texture was in fact way too crumbly to work for a rolled cake. 2. the lemon flavor (possible it was the lemon plus the apple cider vinegar) was far too strong and didn't blend with the other flavors I combine in the rolled cake (tiramisu, for what it's worth).

I would like to suggest a few changes to anyone who wants a fluffier and less-crumbly cake.

(First, the ingredients list calls for coconut, but the instructions say canola. I used coconut.)

I know Mattie says that curdling of milks is a favorite technique, but I don't favor it myself. Here's what I changed in the recipe, and got something just about perfect for my tiramisu.

1. No apple cider vinegar. Just the 3/4 cup of soymilk (it worked better than almond milk for me).
2. Change lemon extract to almond extract. I also tend to go heavy on vanilla. I used a whole Tablespoon.
3. Use 2 1/2 Tbsp ground flax and about 8 Tbsp water, cooked for a very few minutes on medium heat, stovetop, and add to "whisk wet ingredients together" section. This fabulous egg substitute held the batter together very well (and added Omega 3s!).

The cake came out fluffy, spongy, yummy, and very neutral in flavor as compared to the slight but unmistakable tartness of the original.

I've loved this recipe long time. Have it bookmarked. But it used to be slightly different, with flax seeds? Is there any way to get that recipe back? It was *perfect*
Thank you so much.

This cake is just perfect. I baked for about 25 minutes, and the texture is just the right balance of springy and slightly dense. It is not a fluffy cake, but it makes for easy handling and frosting. I used a rounded teaspoon of the ground flaxseed. I made it for a friend's birthday tonight and am so glad it turned out well. I will update once I've tasted the finished product. :) Thank you!

My granddaughter recently went Vegan, and requested a vegan cake for her 17th birthday. This recipe looked simple enough, but I had little hope that it would even be edible.. I tasted the batter before I baked it, and I could not have told it was vegan, but I still had my doubts. I made two separate recipes for the layers, and they came from the oven looking better than my regular cakes. Made a vegan chocolate frosting as she requested. I warned everyone that it was my first attempt at vegan baking, and not to expect too much

Oh my gosh. This cake is incredible.....moist and flavorful. Everyone agreed that it is a winner! Most important, the birthday girl loved it. I will definitely make this my "go to" cake for her.

She loves pancakes, and I used this recipe as the basis for a pancake batter, and they were delicious. Light and fluffy....so good we non vegans had them for breakfast this morning

Thanks for making my vegan adventure so rewarding.

This cake tastes like cornbread. It has the consistency of cornbread (fluffy, moist and dense), looks like it (is yellow from the flax and canola oil, not white) and it somehow tastes like it too (maybe from the flax). It had mostly good reviews so that's why I tried it and I usually don't write reviews on recipes unless I feel I should warn other unsuspecting bakers who stay up all night like myself at the last minute to make a cake. I mean it would be edible, but not good. I'm going to have to remake the cake. And I tripled the recipe....blaahhhhh. I should have listened to the other reviewers that said it tasted like cornbread, because it totally does. Sorry for the not so good review. Good job for posting a vegan cake recipe though.

I made this and no one would be able to tell it is vegan. It is light and fluffy, very quick to make. Easy to cut, easy to frost. Would be easy to do a layer cake if two were made. Again, another recipe I will recommend to all my friends and have posted a link to it from my web site.
http://www.veganaugusta.com/desserts/
Most importantly, your wonderful information on the science of baking led to a discovery. I had been using the long standing box mix/can of soda recipe in some vegan outreach and while I love the concentrated sweetness, I know some prefer fluffy. And they are sticky so they were hard to frost and you could not do a layer cake using a box and 10 or 12 oz of soda. So following your sage advice, I dropped it to 8 oz and made the batter more like biscuit dough and BINGO!!! Fluffy cake!! So I posted a two method approach to the box and soda cake and will be offering both versions to people to try and reduce animal product consumption. Thanks so much for your great information!!! (both methods at the same dessert link above)

What a brilliant recipe! I am making the wedding cake for a close friend and I've been baking al sorts of white cakes to find the best. And this is my winner! It's fluffy, yet not crumbly, flavourful (I used lemon instead of almond extract), easy to cut in half - perfect really. Thanks for that recipe!

This cake is very tasty and airy! It came out a little dry for me, but possibly I baked it a bit too long. I made half a two-layer cake by cutting one layer in half and stacking it with a creamed coconut frosting (http://www.adventures-in-cooking.com/2012/03/thai-tea-cake-with-creamed-coconut.html with vegan margarine instead of butter). One question I have is: how do I prevent the cake from rising mainly in the middle and leaving me with very thin edges? This makes it not so nice to stack... I know people usually trim their cake a bit before stacking (and I guess this probably helps the icing adhere as well) but I don't like cutting away parts of my nice cake... Thank you in advance, and keep up the good work!

This turned out beautifully, you've now given me my go-to white sponge cake recipe. I also made this a "lemon cake" but really don't recommend trying to make lemony cakes by adding to the batter*.... instead make a sugar/lemon juice/lemon zest glaze, puncture holes into the cake whilst it's still a bit warm then drizzle the glaze over, it will absorb the liquid and dry to a glossy, transparent finish on top. I then make a lemon icing/frosting (thicker, often with a tablespoon or two of vegan "butter" or coconut butter lot's of lemon zest, vanilla extract and powdered sugar) and paste it on top, leave in a cool place to harden. A GORGEOUS cake! Thankyou.

The cake came out nice and fluffy. I followed the recipe exact. I did use an 8x8 square pan instead because I don't have a cake pan (yet). Thank you for this amazing recipe!

Hi Mattie! Haven't tried this recipe yet, but I trust your recipes. I was just wondering if I could tweak it into a jelly roll with any success. How fragile is it? Some people said it has a good moist, crumb so I think I am going to try it....I will hook you up with my results :)

Do you think this would translate well to cupcakes?

This came out very well, nice and tender. I quadrupled it to make the triple layered checker-board cake (dyed red and green) for a friend's birthday and it looked lovely. thank you for sharing this.

I made this today and it was absolutely delicious! It was exactly what I was looking for. It was light and had a great texture. I had made another vanilla cake from another source and it was too heavy and dense and not as sweet even though the other recipe used more sugar. This is definitely a hit in our house. I used 2 tbls water instead of the oil and it didn't affect it at all. Thanks for the recipe!

I can only give it a 3 based on my changes, so maybe not a fair score for the white cake. I made it Lemon Cake by using lemon juice in place of vinegar, which was fine. I used a teaspoon+ of lemon extract for the extracts. They say on the bottle to be careful because it's so concentrated. But it was only vaguely lemony. The cake itself was rather heavy or dense. But at least it didn't crumble like some vegan cakes. It was an extremely thick batter. For my second layer (see below), I added a bit of water to the batter. So maybe altering this recipe was not the best way to make a lemon cake. I'll try it again as a white cake sometime!

I want to emphasize that this makes one layer, which I wouldn't actually call a "cake." I didn't notice that (my bad), so once I realized it, I just went ahead and finished the one layer and started over to make another one so I'd have an entire layer cake. Not a huge problem since all the ingredients and cups were still out.

Help, I need to make a tangy lemon cake tomorrow morning for my daughter's b'day cake. She wants lemon with chocolate frosting all of a sudden. Can I use lemon juice instead of the vinegar? And use lemon extract or oil for the extracts?

Thanks Mattie!!

can you skip the oil? not a big fan.