This Gluten-Free Vegan Vanilla Cake is:
- moist and fluffy
- covered in a silky buttercream
- simple yet delicious!
A vanilla cake may sound boring, but the elegant pairing of the delicately vanilla-infused sponge with the velvety, vanilla-infused buttercream frosting is just magical.
The base of this Gluten-Free Vegan Vanilla Cake is my go-to sponge recipe: it comes together easily in one bowl, requires familiar ingredients and is really versatile. You can use any type of oil you like, any type of milk, and any type of liquid sweetener.
It’s honestly undetectably vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar free, tastes sweet and buttery, and has a moist and fluffy texture.
The next step is the buttercream frosting – it’s made using blended cashews and it’s luxuriously rich, melt-in-your-mouth creamy and perfectly sweet.
It’s easy to make, and the texture is great for spreading.
Once you’ve frosted your cake, you can decorate it with whatever you want! I went for freeze-dried raspberries, but other delicious toppings include fresh fruit, chopped nuts, dried fruit, edible flowers, or anything else you like!
As Gluten-Free Vegan Vanilla Cake is about as neutral as you can get, it’s really versatile and suits a wide range of occasions – it’s perfect for:
- birthdays
- Easter
- Mother’s Day
- baby showers
- weddings
- and anything else in between!
For more simple yet delicious cake recipes, check out my:
- Strawberry Cake
- Lemon Blueberry Cake
- Pineapple Upside Down Cake
- Coconut Cake
- Lemon Drizzle Cake
- Victoria Sponge Cake
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Helpful tools to make this Gluten-Free Vegan Vanilla Cake:
For the cake:
glass mixing bowl
measuring jug
18 cm / 7 inch sandwich baking tin
baking paper
cooling rack
For the frosting:
food processor
blender
hand-held stick blender
palette knife for frosting
Gluten-Free Vegan Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 60 g (1/4 cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 200 ml (4/5 cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 150 g (1 1/4 cup) ground almonds* (almond meal)
- 150 g (1 1/4 cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 2 heaped teaspoons baking power (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
For the buttercream:
- 100 g (2/3 cup) cashew nuts - soaked in cold water overnight or in hot water for 15 minutes
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk (or sub water or any other plant-based milk)
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil)
- Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the lemon juice, vanilla, maple syrup and ground almonds
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda
- Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry
- Transfer mixture between two greased baking tins lined with baking paper (I used two 7inch/18cm springform baking tins)
- Bake in oven for around 15 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean
- Once done, turn the cakes out onto wire racks and leave to cool completely before frosting
For the buttercream:
- Drain soaked cashews and add to a food processor or blender with all the other ingredients (a hand-held blender works too)
- Whizz until completely smooth, adding more milk or water if necessary
To frost and decorate the cake:
- Place one half of the cake onto a plate or cake stand, and spread just less than half of the frosting onto it
- Place the other half of the cake on top of that and use rest of the frosting to spread on top and around the sides of the cake
- Tastes best when fresh but keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days
Notes
almond flourDisclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you click through and purchase any of the products, a small percentage will come to me, with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Sarah
Would you suggest to follow the cups measurements or are the weights more accurate? Somehow each cups & weights dont equal for me..
Rhian Williams
Weights are always more accurate as cups can vary depending on how you measure them out. So if possible, I always recommend using the gram measurements if you can as that will give the most accurate measurement!
Heidi
Fantastic Cake!! I have made many gluten free vegan cakes and this one is the best. So moist and the texture is one that you’d think has gluten. Thank You!! Ive made it twice in one week.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so glad you like it!
jul
My sponge didn’t end up spongy at all;-) I did everything written. Must be my oven isn’t baking right.
Rhian Williams
Hi – so sorry to hear that. Did you use enough baking powder?
Carolyn
Can you omit the almond flour and just use GF flour ?
Rhian Williams
No sorry that won’t work in terms of texture – you can substitute the almond flour with ground walnuts or ground sunflower seeds though!