Finally! A Truly White ~ Vegan White Cake Recipe!
Over the years I have tested out so many recipes across the internet for a Vegan White Cake Recipe
All of them claiming to be truly white and truly the best and I have not yet found any of those claims to be true.
Most recipes I’ve found claim to be the “best white cake recipes”
But the ones I’ve seen had terrible structures and textures so I just had to set out to formulate one of my own
Read the notes for success below to see how to get this Truly White ~ Vegan White Cake Recipe!
What is the difference between white cake & yellow cake anyway?
The short answer is the obvious one, the color of the cake.
While the flavors of both cakes will be very similar, after all it’s still flour, sugar, oil or butter and vanilla extract; then what makes a cake yellow and what makes a cake white?
Quite simply it is (was) the eggs; since quite frankly the egg yolks make a cake yellow and the egg whites keep the cake white.
Wait a minute! There are no eggs in vegan baking!
Precisely! And why it has been so difficult to replicate the white cake in vegan form! UNTIL NOW!
Whenever I am veganizing a non vegan recipe I always set out to see how closely I can replicate the original non vegan ingredients with vegan ones to make sure they can perform the same tasks and yield the same results
The eggs are usually the hardest part to figure out in a recipe.
Today I decided to give our good friend aquafaba a try since that is the closest we have come to replicating egg whites in vegan baking.
However I find that aquafaba alone in cake recipes result in a very heavy gummy texture which I just can’t stand!
So let’s give it an addition of cornstarch for a slight drying element along with binding properties that add some structure too!
There is no video tutorial for how I made this cake recipe but it is so easy you really don’t need one!
But for a visual you can watch the Lemon Cake video which is the exact same recipe only with lemon added
CLICK HERE TO WATCH HOW THIS CAKE IS MADE! (*In Lemon!)
Notes for Success:
The recipe listed below is for 1-8″X8″ cake pan that will be a single layer cake to serve about 10-12 people sheet cake style
For a 2- layer 8″ cake you will double all the ingredients below and divide the batter evenly between 2 – 8″ cake pans
Bake at same temperature as listed below for approximately 25-30 minutes total or until a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs not raw batter
Originally I used yogurt in the recipe below, but I have been more recently using plant milk in same quantity since I rarely have vegan yogurt on hand.
Vegan Butter can often impart a yellow-ish tinge so by using coconut oil that is not completely melted *if possible* to cream the sugar in the beginning will keep this cake super white!
Cake flour can sometimes pose a problem as I have gotten some messages saying their cakes are not baking through and seem heavy and almost raw inside.
In recipes that are heavy liquid recipes this will cause a problem since cake flour cannot absorb liquids in the recipe the way all purpose flour can.
So by using cake flour here with a small addition of all purpose flour the cake will stay super fluffy and soft.
If you do not have cake flour you can use ALL All Purpose flour instead decreasing the total flour amount to 1½ cups (*190g)
For my UK friends: Self Rising Flour is not the same as cake flour!
Read more about that conundrum (and why I don’t ever use self rising flour) at the link below!
CLICK HERE FOR MORE ABOUT CAKE FLOUR
All Purpose Flour = Plain Flour
Clear vanilla flavoring is also an added insurance to keep your cake super white and by using a vanilla flavored plant milk your cake will be the best ever!
The almond extract is completely optional but I think it adds a nice flavor
Vegan White Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- Vegan Butter 4 tablespoons (50g)
- Coconut Oil 4 Tablespoons (50g)
- Granulated Sugar ¾ cup (150g)
- Vegan Yogurt *Or plant milk ¼ cup (50g)
- Vanilla Plant Milk ¼ cup (60ml)
- Clear Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- Almond Extract *optional ¼ teaspoon
- All Purpose Flour 3 Tablespoons (24g)
- Cake Flour 1½ cup (180g)
- Baking Powder 2 teaspoons
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
- Cornstarch 1 Tablespoon (8g)
- Aquafaba ½ cup (118ml)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease & parchment line your cake pan(s)
- Combine the softened vegan butter with the coconut oil and granulated sugar and mix on high speed with the paddle attachment for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy, be sure to scrape the bottom & sides of the bowl from time to time.
- Combine the yogurt with the plant milk (or if just using plant milk) and extracts and set it aside.
- Combine the aquafaba with the cornstarch and whisk together so there are no lumps, it will get slightly frothy too, this is good.
- Once the butter mixture is creamed, add the aquafaba/cornstarch to it and change the attachment to the whisk attachment, whip on high speed to emulsify & the mixture will get very silky and smooth
- Meanwhile sift the flour with the salt and baking powder and add 1/3 of that to the creamed mixture, blend just until combined then add half of the yogurt mixture
- Blend just until combined then add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients and then the remaining liquid and last the remaining dry ingredients.
- Be sure to scrape the sides & bottom of the bowl and whip it on high for 10 seconds to blend well.
- Divide the batter evenly between your pans if you are making layers versus the 1 single 8" x 8" pan and bake immediately in the preheated oven that has been set to 350°F
- After the first 10 minutes lower the temperature to 300° and bake for a total of 30-35 minutes or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pans and the turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely before icing with your choice of icings & fillings
Notes
White cake will stay fresh for up to 1 week wrapped airtight in the refrigerator or up to 1 month frozen
Do you think I can do a DIY cake flour with normal flour and cornflour/cornstarch? Would it work the same? Thanks
Can I substitute gluten free flour for cake flour?
While I am not a GF baker, I have been told my many that my recipes work GREAT with a 1″1 GF mix.
I am not sure anyone has tried it here yet, but I think if you are able to get the rest of the recipe on point **the aquafaba whipped in and emulsified* the GF blend will work fine!
Which icing did you use on your cake?
This was my No Shortening Buttercream recipe made with country crock butter
Can this be used as a layer cake or do you think it’s too soft!? I love white cake and have to make my grandma a birthday cake next week so I’d love to give it a try, but it will have to be stacked. Thank you!!
Thanks, Gretchen for the recipe. I tried it, soon as I mixed the butter mixture and aquafaba mixture, it curdled and no amount of whipping brought it back to a smooth mixture as described in the recipe. Any tips on avoiding this?
oh no!! Did you switch to the whip attachment?? Mine also curdled, but came back to a silky smooth luscious mixture after whipping it for a minute!
Yup, used a whip attachment on the KitchenAid stand mixer. I continued with the recipe and although the final dough (after the flour and yogurt mix) still looked a bit curdled, I went ahead and made cupcakes. They turned out really fluffy and soft and were delicious. I got about 14 regular size cupcakes, baked at 10 mins on 350F and 8 mins on 300F.
These. Are. Amazing.
From an allergy mom who has tried for over 12 YEARS to find a good white cake recipe, THANK YOU!!! You’re my hero. I can’t wait for my kids to try these at their party tomorrow.
I didn’t have yogurt, so used soy milk. I also let the aquafaba mixture settle a little after whipping it up and only used the frothy part, no liquid from the very bottom (that has caused problems for me in the past). Best recipe ever!!!!
YAY! Excellent !! Thanks for the feedback!
I don’t know why but mine came to oily. I used biolife butter. Can I use only coconut oil?
I used all purpose flour, 180gr . in my opinion there was a lack of structure, like a bit more of flour was necessary or maybe less fat 🤔. It breaks just staring at it 😅
I will try again however.
Thank you Gretchen!
Oh no! You are probably right, let me see if I can make my thoughts clear on this (I just woke up! LOL) But, the switch to all – All Purpose flour in a weight amount (180g) is slightly less than 1½ cups in volume measure. It’s only about 1 Tbs less and doesn’t seem like that would be a deal breaker, but that could have been the difference. I have not used Violife butter unfortunately. Mostly I use Earth Balance or a brand I get from a friend in the restaurant biz called Gold ‘n’ Sweet
I’m not sure I like the idea of all coconut oil because this is a creaming method recipe & coconut oil turns to liquid in an instant
All that said, I would feel OK to say take out 1 Tbs of fat from the recipe while making sure the flour amount is sufficient
I should have been more clear in my substitutions section ~ which I will update now~ to say “If you are using all – All Purpose flour, use a total amount of 1½ cups OR 190g
Sorry about that.
Not Sorry! I’m here to learn 😉
Thank you! :-*
Thank you ma for sharing your idea please can you send me more any platform under my mail or anywhere to get it thank you
Hi Gretchen
I would love to give this recipe a go, but not sure if a hand held mixer will work just as well… If so, please could you give me some tips on hand blender “speeds” in certain regions parts of the instructions.
Thank you in advance.
Hi yes the hand held mixer will work- to my knowledge there are just 3 speeds on hand held mixers?
In which case you will be fine to cream the first portion on high with a circular rotational motion as you mix, and when you add the aquafaba the mixture will curdle and separate this is where you will have to whip on high speed vigorously until it comes back together to a smooth emulsion.
Otherwise the recipe is pretty easy! 🙂
Yup, used a whip attachment on the KitchenAid stand mixer. I continued with the recipe and although the final dough (after the flour and yogurt mix) still looked a bit curdles, I went ahead and made cupcakes. They turned out really fluffy and soft and were delicious. I got about 14 regular size cupcakes, baked at 10 mins on 350F and 8 on 300F.
Hi Gretchen, thank you for the recipe. I had an issue with emulsifying the mixture with a whisk attachment so I switched back to paddle attachment and it brought it all together no problem. However, after baking the cake came out gummy. Any idea why that would be? I followed the recipe step by step and used gram measurements and also used plain/all purpose flour as I couldn’t find any cake flour. I have tried a few of your recipes before and never had a problem with the outcome until now.
Oh Nooo! I’m sorry to here that! It’s hard to say what could be the cause if you did everything exactly as listed & used a scale! The flour would not cause that as AP will absorb more liquid than cake flour~ so this would not hurt the outcome as you described. I have used both yogurt & plant milk, so I’m not even going to ask if that was the difference since they have both worked fine for me. Again I’m sorry this happened!
Thanks Gretchen. I used coconut yogurt first time round so will try this recipe again but with milk. Would the type of butter or coconut oil make a difference? I used 89% fat plant butter and deodorised coconut oil. I’m determined to make a fluffy white cake! 🙂
Hello,
I found your recipe in a google search and let me just tell you this cake is perfection! I am beyond amazed.
To be honest as I was getting all the steps together I was thinking of all the dishes I was dirtying in the process, Lol, there were a lot of different things going on. But I will never use any other cake recipe when I need a white cake. Thank you so much!
YAY!! THANK YOU for the comment! I appreciate the feedback so much! I really tells others that they can trust my recipes! 🙂
Thank you for the receipe is there a substitute for the aquafaba. Thanks marg
Hey thank you too, this recipe was formulated specifically to use AF as an integral part of the recipe.
If you would like to use an easier recipe for the a similar result you can use THIS RECIPE here *just omit the coconut
Hi! This is a great recipe. Is there any way to get it to rise more? I made cupcakes and they barely rose at all but taste amazing. Thanks!
Hi, any advise on this?
Gretchen!!!! Out of all the recipes this white cake is literally bakery style amazing!!!! I know that most people want the easiest fastest recipes. But as a novice (dreams of being a real baker) baker and hairstylist lol. I love complex recipes that have above average results. And this cake has all of that and more flavor wise. It did not rise very much for me but the crumb is awesome. I’m thinking the type of yogurt I used and the vegan butter was beyond soft. But thanks for all these amazing recipes 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
YAY! awesome! thankyou for the feedback I shared your comment on my facebook page! 😀
Made this twice so far and the first time it came out a little dense, but the second time it came out so fluffy and beautiful! My guess is that since it’s still quite warm where I am, the first could have been nonideal due to the coconut oil being too soft to aerate properly, or perhaps the aquafaba I used was a bad consistency (it was quite thick!). The second time (since it’s still too warm…) I used all Earth Balance and also used soymilk (w/ vinegar) instead of the yogurt, and it came out amazing! Delicious, super tender crumb, so airy. I also love the almond extract addition! Such a nice flavor. I think mine is not as white as Gretchen’s (as forewarned) due to the Earth Balance, but that’s all right by me. Absolutely love this recipe. Thanks, Gretchen!
Hi Gretchen! Just put the two 8 inch cakes in the oven and the batter looks and tastes so good! Wondering if avocado oil can be used in place of the coconut oil, since it has a milder flavor. Thanks in advance!
HI Great! yes you can use whatever oil you prefer!!
Hi Gretchen! I was so glad I was finally able to make this cake (as cupcakes) correctly the second time – it was so DELICIOUS that I felt confident enough to give them as gifts. The first time it turned out dense and gummy probably because my butter was partially melted and didn’t cream correctly.
I do want to use this recipe again for future cakes…I am wondering, is there a safe amount of sugar I can omit from the recipe to make it less sweet? Thanks in advance!
Okay, this is HANDS DOWN the absolute BEST vanilla cake I have ever tasted in my life, vegan or not. I am seriously blown away by the amazing velvety and soft texture of this cake and beautiful vanilla flavor. it is truly divine. The method to make this cake is advanced and truly makes all the difference in how this cake turns out compared to all other vegan vanilla cakes on the internet. This weekend I baked this cake into a big sheet cake for an event I went to. I multiplied the recipe by 3 for an 11×15 cake pan, twice, so that I had 2 layers. I stacked and filled it with a raspberry cake filling I made and coated the sheet cake in vanilla buttercream. It was a HIT. No one at the event was vegan, but about 50 people came up to me raving about the cake asking me to make it for other events and things coming up, I couldn’t believe it. When people found out it was vegan/dairy free they really couldn’t believe it lol. I also made it again today for cupcakes for a customer and they LOVED them. I tried one of the cupcakes myself and it was absolutely amazing, so this cake is great for cakes and for cupcakes. It doesn’t rise a whole bunch, but comes out flat everytime and perfectly fluffy and amazing. Try this recipe!! You will NOT be disappointed!! Absolutely amazing. Thank you!! 🙂
Hi! Just wanted to share my success story making this gluten free in hopes this will help someone else. I don’t know why but a basic vanilla cake has been the most challenging to make both vegan and GF for me. And then I have family members who have nut allergies and so many recipes use almond flour.
This is the first success I’ve had in all my years of failed experiments testing applesauce, yogurt, oil, vinegar/ baking soda combo, flax, extra baking powder, etc. Plus so many recipes go by volume instead of weight and I find converting volume to weight rarely works when there’s already too many variables to go wrong in GF vegan baking. They end up either really gummy, sticky, too oily, too moist, dense, dried into a brick- or give off a weird apple or sweet cornbread flavor (to me at least). Aquafaba adds a little extra work (and extra chickpeas to eat after) but worth the extra effort and meals! 😛
I didn’t care too much about the color of the cake as I just wanted an edible vanilla cake and used all plant butter for this, but it still turned out to be the most pale, fluffy GF vegan vanilla cake I’ve made so far.
Ingredient list:
100g Vegan Plant Butter (*used Earth Balance Buttery sticks)
150g Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup (60ml) Plant Milk (*used Unsweetened Vanilla Ripple)
2 tsp (10ml) Clear Vanilla Extract
222g Bob Red Mill GF 1:1 Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
8g Cornstarch
1/2 cup (118ml) Aquafaba (*drained from one tetra box of Whole Foods 365 Garbanzo Beans, Unsalted)
Followed instructions, except did everything with a hand mixer with the basic metal beaters. Took roughly 3 minutes to cream the sugar and butter, then roughly 3 more minutes to combine aquafaba mixture to the butter mixture. Then at the very end, after all ingredients are combined, beat on high for an extra minute to combine everything (original directions called for just 10 seconds for gluten-based flour). Only had a 9 inch pan, used a cake strip, and baked for about 40 minutes.
Definitely my go to GF vegan nut free vanilla cake recipe from here on out! Can’t wait to start building on it with flavor options. Thank you so much! =D
WOW! Thank you for this in depth review it will surely be helpful for others! I appreciate you!
WOW!! What a great recipe, thanks so much. I used 180g plain flour+26g cornflour to creat the cake flour, and my mix curdled aswell HOWEVER this didnt matter once the dry ingredients were mixed in. Topped it with your buttercream and some bananas and strawberries and it was JUST DELICIOUS!!!
YAY! Thanks for the feedback!
I made this recipe into cupcakes. Worked super well. Very yum! One note is that after the aquafaba mixture was whipped for 5-6 minutes on high I still didn’t get a “smooth” mixture. It still looked slightly broken but it all came together with the flour and tasted great.
I’m wondering if i could whip the aquafaba separately into what looks like egg whites and fold that into the mixture at the end? That would avoid the curdled look. I might just give it a try and report back.
Gonna try the lemon cake next!