To all of the people out there who have been disappointed with vegan white cake recipes, this cake is for you. It’s light, it’s fluffy, and it’s tender. No bready texture, no brownish color, and ordinary ingredients too. What’s my secret? Two: 1) I tested this 14 times and 2) A new way of thinking about vegan cake, which I’m introducing you to today.
There are a few things about this vegan white cake I will discuss in more depth:
- The mixing method
- The flavor
- The ingredients
- The measuring method
- Variations and troubleshooting
This post is a long one. If you’re not interested in any of that stuff and willing to simply follow my recipe then go ahead and scroll down, or click/tap the “Jump to Recipe” button up at the top above the post. The best vegan vanilla cake around is in your future and you don’t have to read my rambling to get to it!
A new way of mixing vegan cakes: reverse creaming
For many of us, when we learn to make baked goods like cakes, we come to expect a certain sequence of events. Cream together the fats and sugars (and eggs, back in the day), then add the liquid. Mix together the dry ingredients, and then combine the whole thing and bake it.
In my many vegan cake trials I learned that without egg for moisture and tenderness, vegan cakes made the “traditional” way reliably had a dense, bready or gummy texture. In a white cake in particular, there’s no strong flavor like chocolate for a bad texture to hide behind.
I started doing my research and most of the internet told me I was over-mixing, but because of the inferior emulsion formed without butter or eggs, it was difficult to mix any less, otherwise the cake baked unevenly. (See my parade of cake fail Instagram stories for evidence of this).
Finally, I came across something that I’m now surprised isn’t more widespread. It’s called the reverse creaming method (and seems to also be known as the paste method). Known for resulting in uber-tender cakes, this method is favored by many of the would-be scientists doing official baking experiments and sharing their results.
How does this method work? It’s surprisingly simple and easy. You start by sifting together your dry ingredients and sugar. Then, you add your fat directly to the dry ingredients, and mix well. Only at that point do you add any type of liquid. This way, the fat molecules coat the flour and prevent the flour from coming in direct contact with liquid, which in turn, prevents gluten from forming. That pesky gluten is exactly what made your other vegan cakes so dense and bready!
My research didn’t end there. There was very little evidence of reverse creaming being used with predominantly oil-based cakes (of which my vegan white cake is one), and even less of this method being used without a mixer. I actually do own a mixer, but I don’t want to tell you to shell out for a new kitchen appliance to make my cake recipe, so I was pretty determined to make this recipe work with a spatula and a fork.
I had a little bit of trouble with the oil mixing in too quickly/unevenly with my dry ingredients, but as it turns out, cutting the oil with just a little bit of shortening gave me enough fat “real estate” to mix everything perfectly. The shortening also improves the mouthfeel of the baked cake, and makes it easier to slice, so it’s a win-win.
After that step, you can pretty much mix the crap out of your vegan cake batter so the batter will bake up nice and evenly. Batter made with this method will seem to be very liquidy and drippy compared to what you would expect. You’ll be pouring it into your cake pans. That’s the correct consistency, so don’t be alarmed!
The flavor: vegan white cake vs. vegan vanilla cake
I’m a vanilla lover. That’s why I’ve got all kinds of vanilla-forward recipes on the site here like my vanilla almond milk pudding, raspberry vanilla bean vegan scones, and vegan sugar cookies.
Bakery-style cakes have a very particular flavor, though. While this recipe can easily be a vanilla cake with some quick tweaks, as written it’s a vegan white cake and that means the vanilla isn’t too strong. I also wanted to preserve the cake’s color and keep the appearance as snow-white as possible, so instead of vanilla extract I used clear imitation vanilla flavor.
To further round out the flavor and make this lovely vegan cake taste like the dairy-based cakes of childhoods past, I also use imitation butter flavor in the batter. Now, I know at this point some folks may be thinking that this cake doesn’t sound very natural. To those people, I would point out that my goal wasn’t to make a healthy vegan cake, my goal was to make a delicious one that doesn’t taste funny.
Cake flour is made from a different type of wheat berry than regular all-purpose flour, and this also contributes to the familiar bakery, birthday cake esque flavor. And finally, in keeping with the theme, I frost my cake with some very basic, accidentally-vegan white frosting from the store. I don’t care for homemade icing made from vegan butter, as I find that most vegan butter products have a strong aftertaste that overpowers the cake.
Ingredients needed for vegan white cake
To make this cake you’ll need a little bit of everything. Where relevant, inside the recipe below I have linked to the specific products I used.
- Cake flour: It’s important to use this instead of all-purpose flour for the most tender vegan cake. Cake flour has a protein (gluten) percentage of 7 to 8.5%, and it is bleached. The lower protein content is necessary for a tender cake that isn’t tough. The bleaching helps make your cake whiter. Regular all-purpose flour has a protein content of 10 to 12%. If you use it, your cake will not rise as much, and it will feel greasier and heavier.
- Vegetable oil and vegetable shortening:Â Lighter colored oils like soybean oil or canola oil will give you the whitest cake, but you could also use avocado or grapeseed oil if desired. Please use shortening, not coconut oil. Coconut oil is not as creamy and will make your cake more greasy and heavy.
- Plain sugar: I endorse the use of regular, plain white sugar. I often bake with “crunchy” organic unbleached cane sugar but not only will it result in a darker color, the granules are larger and they will cause issues with the cake baking up correctly. Many common brands of white sugar are vegan nowadays. It’s a good time to be alive!
- Potato starch: Another weapon in my arsenal for a fluffy cake. Without eggs, the vegan cake doesn’t get quite fluffy enough with flour alone. You can try substituting arrowroot starch or tapioca starch if needed, although potato is best. I don’t recommend cornstarch; it doesn’t have as fluffy of a result.
- Soy milk:Â Soy milk has the highest protein content and will provide the best moisture and lift to your vegan white cake, so it’s my only tested and recommended milk for this. However, I’m eager to hear your results if you try something else like almond milk, cashew milk or oat milk.
- Aquafaba:Â To complete the trifecta of fluff-inducing ingredients, a little bit of whipped up aquafaba (the cooking liquid from beans; you can drain it from a can of white beans for the lightest color) is folded into the batter just before baking.
- Flavoring:Â See above for why I use imitation vanilla and imitation butter. Make sure your imitation butter flavor is vegan. I use Wilton brand, which can be ordered online. We buy it in person at Michaels.
Measure this way for the best vegan cake
Normally, with my baking recipes I include both weight and volumetric measurements. However, with this vegan white cake I have not even included volume measurements at all. It is crucially important to measure the ingredients by weight for a consistent, successful result. I use a basic, cheap baking scale. It has been well worth the $10.
Why is it so important to bake by weight, especially when doing vegan baking? So much of the success of this cake batter comes down to the precise quantities of leavening, flour and starch. Measuring dry ingredients by volume is not exact. The actual amount measured can depend heavily on the amount the flour has settled; the scooping method used; or even the ambient humidity. This vegan white cake is incredibly delicate and will easily be thrown off by a bad flour measurement.
Vegan cake variations and troubleshooting
Want to make this cake lemon flavored? You can do that too, simply swap the imitation butter flavor with lemon extract, and add lemon juice instead of vinegar. This white vegan sponge cake doesn’t convert easily to chocolate, but I’m working on that recipe too so stay tuned.
I’ve been fiddling around with making a gluten-free version of this recipe and I came pretty close by substituting the cake flour with a blend of rice flour and cornstarch. Then, I added sorghum flour to the mix to reduce the “ricey” flavor and it was an utter disaster. So, experimentation is ongoing, but I can tell you that AP gluten-free flour is not a good idea, neither is sorghum.
This recipe makes two 9-inch layers. It is easily halved (I’ve tested and verified this) to make a single layer, so it ought to work well at 1.5x to make a three-layer cake if you’d like.
I haven’t gotten a clue how to make this cake at high altitude. I’m close to sea level here in Baltimore. If anyone modifies the recipe to work at altitude, do let us know in the comments!
Finally, it’s natural to wonder about making cupcakes from this cake recipe. I haven’t tried it, but one of the advantages of this vegan cake is that it rises somewhat flatly, so I suspect it might not result in nicely domed cupcakes, but I’d definitely be interested to hear about it if anyone gives that a try.
Vegan white cake troubleshooting
Despite my detailed instructions, things can (and will go wrong). Here are a few possible reasons for this particular cake. Some of them would not apply if you are making a cake with traditional (not reverse) creaming, as over-mixing can be an issue in that case.
Why is my vegan cake crumbly? This is likely because it was cold when sliced or because the batter was not mixed fully after adding the liquids.
Why did my cake sink after baking? It’s normal for the cake to sink a little bit, but if it collapses in the middle, possible contributors are a very humid kitchen, under-baking the cake, hot spots or temperature inconsistencies in your oven (check it using a thermometer), or under-mixing the batter.
Why is there a gummy layer at the bottom of my vegan cake? This can be caused by using cold ingredients (instead of room temperature) to mix the cake, under-mixing the batter, the aquafaba being liquidy rather than foamy, or not whisking in the aquafaba fully.
Why does my cake look lopsided? Believe it or not, many people’s ovens are not level and they don’t realize it. If you’re making things like cookies you might not notice the difference, but if you’re making a cake you surely will. We added some screws below one side of our oven to straighten it out. You can test this by filling a measuring beaker with a cup of water, then setting it on your (cold) oven rack and seeing if the water remains level on all sides.
So, there you have it… my vegan cake manifesto. If you give this recipe a try, please do let me know how it goes, either here in the comments, or by tagging me on Instagram (@yupitsvegan). Your feedback and support help me keep this site going!
NEW in March 2019 – I’ve now included a video to show you the mixing method for this vegan cake in even more detail! Check it out below and enjoy.
Bakery-Style Vegan White Cake
Ingredients
Aquafaba mixture:
- 78 grams aquafaba room temperature (6 tbsp) (see note)
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Wet ingredients:
- 2 cups plain, unsweetened non-dairy milk room temperature (soy recommended)
- 2 tsp white vinegar
- 2 tsp clear imitation vanilla extract
- 2 tsp clear imitation butter flavor
Dry ingredients:
- 324 grams cake flour (This can NOT be substituted with regular flour. Seriously, don't waste your time)
- 36 grams potato starch
- 324 grams white sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Fats:
- 138 grams vegetable oil (not coconut oil)
- 48 grams vegetable shortening
Instructions
- Before starting, make sure all of your ingredients for this vegan white cake are at room temperature, otherwise your cake will bake up weird. Warm the soy milk and aquafaba in the microwave for a few seconds if you need to.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (make sure you are not using convection mode, this will cause the cake to bake unevenly). Line two 9-inch cake pans with circles of parchment paper on the bottom. Do not flour or grease the pans.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the aquafaba and cream of tartar vigorously until the aquafaba is fluffy and foamy, and set aside. No need to whip it to stiff peaks, just get it foamy.
- In another small bowl, stir together the soy milk, 2 tsp vinegar, vanilla and butter flavors, and set aside. The soy milk will curdle a little bit; this is normal.
- Sift all of the dry ingredients (including the sugar) into a mixing bowl and stir well, sifting a second time if the mixture still appears lumpy. Don't skip this step - sifting is important!
- Add the vegetable oil and shortening into the bowl. Use a strong fork to break up the shortening and then mix everything together well. The mixture will first turn crumbly like a shortbread dough and then as you continue to mix, will start to resemble wet sand (see photos in blog post). This will take some elbow grease. Make sure to scrape around the bottom of your mixing bowl to get any flour pockets hiding out there. Don't continue until the mixture is fully smooth.
- Add 1/3 of the wet ingredients to the bowl and mix until combined. Add another 2/3 and repeat. Finally, add the remaining 1/3 and mix until the batter is very smooth and runny, which will take a minute or two (see photos in blog post).
- Give the aquafaba mixture another whisk to get it foamy again, as it may have deflated a bit while you were mixing the rest of the cake. If it's still partially liquidy, take only the foamy part and not the part that is liquid. Then, whisk it into the cake batter until mixed in evenly (if you only fold it in, you might get streaks or a gummy layer - mix well if needed). Divide the cake batter between your two cake pans.
- Bake the vegan white cake layers for approximately 24-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and dry. Be sure not to open the oven until it has been at least 15 minutes (preferably longer), otherwise you will risk your cakes deflating when you open the oven door.
- Let the cakes cool in their pans on top of a cooling rack for about 10 minutes. You can then run a sharp knife around the edges of the pans before very gently inverting the cakes to cool completely. I recommend lightly flouring or spraying your cooling rack before flipping the cakes onto it; they are very moist and have a tendency to stick. After flipping them over, gently peel off the parchment paper.
- These cakes can be layered and frosted once completely cooled (and the layers can be gently evened out if needed, although they tend to bake pretty flat). Take care in handling them; they are rather delicate. Leftover cake can be stored covered in the fridge for a couple of days. If your layer cake is fully frosted it can also be stored covered at room temperature. If stored in the fridge, it's recommended to bring it to room temperature before slicing, to reduce crumbliness.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
NOTES 2/21/2019: So many of you have already made this cake and shared your results with me! So glad everyone is loving it. It seems that differences in aquafaba consistency and some aquafaba not staying foamy is causing wet streaks in some people’s cakes. Please use ONLY the foamy part of the aquafaba and be sure to mix it in thoroughly with your whisk. Secondly, several people have tested out using all-purpose flour instead of cake flour and it does NOT seem to work well.
My sources consulted are too many to name, but particular thanks go out to Isa Chandra’s cupcakes, from which I adapted my initial base ingredient quantities (although the recipe has since changed dramatically, as you can see); and to Sugar Geek Show’s recipe which taught me many helpful things about reverse mixing.
More vegan cakes from the blog:
- Vegan German chocolate cake
- Vegan tres leches cake
- Vegan sweet potato cake
- Vegan flourless chocolate cake
- Vegan carrot cake
THANK YOU to everyone who makes and shares this vegan white cake recipe. A significant amount of time, effort, and money went into this cake’s creation. If you want to post about the recipe on social media or your own site, please link back to me and do not copy/paste the recipe directly. This way, we can both benefit from it. Thank you! -Shannon
Janet Zimny says
Can I use egg replacer instead? If so how much.
CatM says
Made this cake twice, once vanilla, and another time by adding a scant 1/4 c dark cocoa powder. Honestly, with a few tweaks, the chocolate worked! It’s naturally a lot denser and stickier, but I’m sure an expert could make some tweaks. I really love this cake recipe and I’m so glad I’ve found it! Thank you for making this amazing recipe.
Emla says
A few questions please:
1) Can you use real vanilla flavoring instead?
2 )Can eggs be used in place of the aquafaba for a vegan/vegetarian who is ok with eggs?
Thanks
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Emla, you can use real vanilla flavoring but it will affect the color of the cake. I have no idea what would happen if you used eggs. Vegans don’t eat eggs so I have not tested that
Laverne says
I was wondering if I could use plant butter in the place of the oil in this recipe… what’s your thoughts?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Unfortunately not, the chemistry is completely different
Chloe and Reese says
About to make a 10′ 8′ 6′ tiered wedding cake and wonder if this is a good recipe. Will it be too sweet? Will it hold up layering? How to multiply amounts to get these sizes? Please help, thank you so much!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Chloe, I haven’t tried using the cake this way, but if anyone else has given it a go, I hope they’ll leave a reply here and let you know how it went.
Chloe and Reese says
We tried to use a different white cake recipe on a different site and subbed cake flour but it turned out subpar so we ended up having to convert to cups from grams with online conversion calculator, forgor to get a scale and it was Sabbath so couldn’t buy one. It’s finishing off now, it will be the top layer of a three layer three tier cake. The second is gingerbread cake, bottom will be chocolate cake. So far so good but I have to say we made excess batter and overfilled the pans a bit so we will have to cut more off the top. Didn’t have quite enough cake flour so one cup was homemade cake flour using potato starch. Looks and smells good will decorate and have at wedding and let you know how it is.
Rachelle Starkel says
I did successfully make a 6″, 6 layer rainbow cake with this recipe. For quantity I think I doubled it plus another half, so times 2.5, and I had a little left over. It turned out beautiful. There are guides online on how many cups of batter per size cake pan.
Beth says
Thank you the recipe, is there a frosting recipe to go with it? 💛💚
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Beth, Sorry, I use store bought frosting usually 🙂
Rachel says
This was absolutely amazing. FINALLY, an actual vegan white cake. I even did it at high altitude (about 5,500 feet) and used typical HA adjustments (slightly more flower, slightly less sugar, oil, and leavener; slightly more liquid) and it was perfect (doesn’t always happen for me). It was SO light, spongey, and delicious. THANK YOU!!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Wow, thank you Rachel, I’m so glad you loved it and it’s great to know that high altitude adjustments were a success!
Sonja says
I just made this today. It’s the best vegan cake I’ve ever tried! My daughter is not vegan, and is very picky about the vegan recipes I try, and she thought this was fantastic and much better than anything else I’ve tried. I finally found a cake recipe we can both love. Thank you!
Heather says
I just want to start off by stating that the flavor of these cupcakes was really delicious! But everything else about them was just… not good.
The ONLY adjustments that I made were adding an extra 2 tsp of soy milk in place of the imitation butter flavor, subbing lemon juice in place of white vinegar (I was out of the vinegar), and cane sugar instead of white sugar. Everything else I followed exactly, and though you stated the batter would be thin, my batter was thin to the point of being almost watery.
These cupcakes turned out short, dense, and veeeeery chewy. They look nothing like the pictures here, and honestly are nothing at all like an actual cupcake. Any idea what might have gone wrong?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Heather, thanks for the comment. I think your main problem is likely that this is not a cupcake recipe and is not meant to be made as cupcakes. Since you did not follow the recipe I’m not really well equipped to help troubleshoot. Sorry!
Rebekah M says
Can this be baked in a 9 x 13 in glass baking pan?
Lilly says
One of the best vegan cake recipes I’ve come across so far. I’ve made plenty of vegan cakes before but they all turned out far too dense. This cake is light and fluffy. Though the recipe calls for a couple obscure ingredients that I did not have in my pantry, it was worth the trip to the store and the few extra bucks spent. The only issue I have with this recipe is that it is may be a tad too sweet for an adult crowd. It would be perfect for a younger crowd but even though I reduced the sugar by a few grams it still turned out a bit too sweet for our liking. Overall a fantastic recipe and I will definitely make again.
Courtnie says
I’m wondering if I could double this recipe to make an 11×15″ sheet cake?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
This recipe is honestly quite finicky about changes, if you try it in sheet cake form, it could be a gamble!
Shohida says
I was able to actually even quadruple the portion (or was it x6, either way I definitely more than doubled it) and bake it into two 19×12 sheet cakes that were 2-2.5″ thick. It worked really well for me, I hope it works out for you!
Meli says
Hello! Your vegan cake recipe is absolutely haf the most details than the other websites:)
Is there any possibility to change the aquafaba with flax seeds? I just bought pack of flax seed since I though I will make a cake with it.
Can’t waste them though
Thank you
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Meli, I don’t think flax seeds would work well in this case at all, unfortunately. They would weigh it down and make it gritty. FLax seeds keep forever if you put them in your freezer!
Cathleen M says
This worked SO well! I followed it exactly (as best I could). The only substitute I made was using aquafaba powder to make the aquafaba foam. I mixed about 1/2 c lukewarm water with 3/4 tbsp aquafaba powder. As promised, this is the fluffiest cake I’ve ever eaten. I’ve never used this paste method, but I am never going back now! This is the best!
LuReese Harbin says
Made this cake for my grandsons girlfriend for her birthday. Since never making a vegan cake,I was concerned how it would turn out. The measuring out in grams was the most time consuming and found my oven was 30degrees off.The layers came out beautifully white,even,and a nice size. Most rewarding was when the vegan and non vegan,said it was delicious..I had a piece and thought it was very good.I used a vegan buttercream icing,which was also very good.Thank you for your work on this recipe.
Angelique says
The taste is great but after 2 tries, with some obvious to me modifications, it still is spotty, dense and undercooked. Its not crumbly or anything, just flat and almost like a pudding cake. its so strange. I have never had this happen on a cake for me before. Is there a way I can post or send a pic of what it looks like?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Angelique, this sounds like what happens when folks use all-purpose flour instead of cake flour. Any chance this is the case? Feel free to send me a photo at yupitsvegan@gmail.com
Cassandra says
Hey, I made your cake for a friend’s daughter who is allergic tp eggs and milk. Thank you so much for posting this.
Barbara says
Hi Shannon,
I’ve been struggling with this recipe, come to find out my oven temperature was off by 50′. I was wondering if you’ve tried using a dough hook on a stand up mixer for the first step followed by the paddle for the liquid and a whisk for incorporating the aqua-fab?
Linda says
Hi,
Just wondering whether I could make this cake a day in advanced and keep it refrigerated?
Thank you!!!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Yes you can make it in advance and it does well sealed tightly and stored at room temperature
Andrea says
This cake is sooo delicious! I made cupcakes with a coconut variation on this recipe and they are incredibly soft and tender. Followed the quantities exactly using coconut milk and coconut extract instead of soymilk and butter extract, and used butter flavored shortening for the “traditional cake” flavor. Baked a dozen 2-oz cupcakes at 350 for 25 minutes for beautiful pan spring and domed tops.
Shelley says
I’m trying to make a tie-dye cake for my son’s birthday using this recipe. Do you think it would be possible given how runny the batter is or do you think all the colors would just blend together?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Shelley, I think they would probably run together, unfortunately.
Shelley says
Update! I made the cake exactly as directed and made it a tie-dye cake using gel food coloring. It did end up running together some but it still looked really cool! The texture of this cake was amazing and my son and his friends loved it! It tasted just like a traditional cake you’d find at a bakery. I’m making the coconut version for my youngest’s birthday next week.
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Wow, that’s great! I’d love to see a photo of the tie-dye version if you took any – thanks for reporting back!
Louise M Smith says
Since gluten isn’t the thing you want forming how do you think this recipe would work with gluten-free flours? Thanks!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to successfully make this gluten-free yet after a few attempts so far.
Rachel says
Amazing, thoughtful recipe. No other vegan white cake recipe like this exists!
Unity says
Is there anyway to make this a white chocolate cake? Could I add cocoa butter o vegan white chocolate?
BeenA says
Hello. Any substitutes for potato starch. I can’t find it anywhere. I’d love to make this for my kids .
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Arrowroot starch would probably be the best substitute, but potato starch is the only tested and verified version I’ve used here. Another commenter also found a way to substitute it with ener-g egg replacer, you could try that as well.
Courtney says
Made this almost exactly as written (used regular vanilla extract because my store didn’t have clear imitation). I thought the flavor was very good, but the texture wasn’t quite as I expected – a little denser than I imagined. I also had to bake it several minutes longer than suggested and it still seemed a bit “wet” to me. Fun method to try out though! Would definitely try again.
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
I am learning that the baking times do seem to vary widely for people! I think it may have something to do with ambient humidity… not totally sure. I’m glad that you liked it overall! If it’s coming out dense, another thing you could try is to whip the aquafaba all the way to stiff peaks. Thanks for giving it a try and for your comment!
Oli says
Do you think this recipe would work well for cupcakes? Or do you know of any good vegan cupcake recipes, I have to make a few hundred for a vegan wedding.
Also how far in advance can this recipe be made and stored?
Thanks,
Oli
Vivienne says
Just wondering if you used this recipe for cupcakes. How did they turn out?
Shannen says
Absolutely love this recipe! Hands down best vegan cake recipe ever! Thank you so much! Have you ever had any luck making a gluten free version?
Sara says
Hi, my son is allergic to beans and all legumes. Any alternatives to aqua faba?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Sara,
you could try leaving out the aquafaba completely and adding 1/4 tsp extra baking powder. I think it would be a little more dense but it could still be quite nice, especially with the right frosting. Hope this helps 🙂
Rachelle says
Yes I’ve been on the hunt for a good vegan white cake recipe and I’ve finally found it. I cut the recipe in half and made two 6 inch cakes(with a couple tablespoons of batter left). The texture and flavor were great and it looked just like the picture. I wanted to test one of the layers with funfetti but I was concentrating so hard on following the recipe exactly that I forgot:( I will try again next time and report back if it works. Thanks so much for your time spent perfecting this recipe.
Andrea E says
Hi, I am wondering if the texture of this cake is suitable for a cake mold. I am making a birthday cake in a detailed train-shaped pan, each car is fairly small. (it’s NordicWare) I also don’t think I can get cake flour where I live (not in the US), but I need a cake to hold together, it doesn’t need to have a delicate texture. They are 6 year olds! Thanks.
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Andrea, honestly I’m not sure as I haven’t tried it in a mold… this recipe is very specific :D. If you want to try it without cake flour, I’d recommend reducing the oils and milk a little bit, as other folks who have used regular flour seemed to experience that it came out a little heavy. It would be an experiment for sure, let me know if you end up giving it a try!
Andrea E says
Thanks very much for the response. Still debating; it’s nervewracking! I’ll post if I make it.
Sam says
Or maybe try the following substitute for came flour:
1 cup AP flour – 2 Tablespoons AP flour + 2 Tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot = 1 cup cake flour
Beth Questad says
It tried it last night and it seemed perfect until I layered it with some lemon curd and the entire cake fell apart before I could ice it. I followed your recipe as exactly as I could. Any ideas? I’ve never had a cake just crumble to bits as soon as I touched it. (It tasted great….)
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hey Beth, gosh, sorry that happened! My first thoughts would be either it’s overcooked, or was either cold straight from the fridge, or still warm, when frosting it…. I’ve absolutely never had that happen to me with this cake so I am really not certain what the cause would be. As you know, this cake is rather delicate, so small changes to the recipe could possibly affect it! Wish I had a more helpful answer for you but thanks for trying it and for your comment.
Tatiana says
Before you put the lemon curd you have to do a layer of buttercream.
Peggi says
I was wondering if this would work for the sponge cake in Japanese strawberry shortcake 🎂? The original recipe suggests covering the cake with a very slightly damp cloth while cooling and then brushing simple syrup on before frosting to keep moist. Would that work or is it necessary with this cake?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Peggi, I’m sorry I can’t weigh in very much, I’m wholly unfamiliar with the specific cake you’re mentioning (it does sound delicious though). This cake is more moist than what I think is normally used for the kind of strawberry shortcake I’m familiar with. In case that helps.
Shokhida says
Hi Peggi, not sure if it’s helpful anymore, but I really don’t think the towel is necessary (I feel like it might just make it develop a gummy layer on top). Otherwise, this cake might work prettty well for a Japanese strawberry shortcake. And I’d definitely recommend brushing the simple syrup on, since I’ve found using simple syrups on cake layers just elevates the flavor of the overall cake.