Vegan Birthday Cake

This decadent vegan birthday cake has a light and fluffy vanilla base, and the most delicious and addicting vegan frosting that makes a great base for decorating! It's the perfect 3-layer cake for absolutely any occasion.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword vegan birthday cake recipe, vegan cake, vegan cake recipe

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Total Time 1

Servings

Calories 500kcal

Author World of Vegan

Ingredients

Cake Batter

2 cups soymilk at room temperature—this is important
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1⅓ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup vegan butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Frosting (this makes enough for a 3 layer cake; halve the recipe for a 2 layer cake)

2 cups Earth Balance vegan butter at room temperature—do not melt
5½ cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Advance Prep: Allow butter and milk to come to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and apple cider vinegar and allow it to sit for at least 10 minutes.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar, butter, and vanilla using a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer.
Run the mixer and slowly drizzle the soured milk until combine. Slowly add the flour mix a little bit at a time and again, beat until combined.
Distribute the batter evenly between 3 8" greased and floured cake pans. Bake the cakes on the center rack of the oven for 27-30 minutes, or until the cakes are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
While the cakes are baking, you can prepare your frosting. Use an electric mixer to whip the butter for a couple of minutes until it's nice and smooth. Add the powdered sugar half a cup at a time and mix until it begins to form a frosting. Add the vanilla extract and whip until the frosting is smooth. If you'd like to color the frosting, add the coloring agent now and mix well.
When the cake is completely cooled, you can gently remove each layer of cake from the pans. If your cakes are a bit rounded at the top and you want them to be perfectly flat, feel free to use a cake leveler (or sharp, serrated knife) to gently slice off the top of each cake. Then stack the layers, one on top of the other, smearing a layer of frosting between each using an icing spatula (or a generic spatula). Beware, if the cake is still warm, the frosting will melt!
Frost the cake exterior using your icing spatula (or kitchen spatula) and decorate as desired.

Notes

Want to make a 2 layer cake instead? You can use the same recipe, just divide the batter into two cake pans instead of three (approximately 2.5 cups of batter in each). Increase the baking time to approximately 45 minutes, until baked through (test for doneness by piercing the center of the cake with a wood or metal skewer and seeing if it comes out clean). Then halve the frosting recipe (you can always whip up more if needed, depending on how you choose to decorate).

If you notice the cake frosting is softening or you won't be serving the cake immediately, store it in the refrigerator. The frosting will firm up in the fridge and the cake can last several days there!

Please note that different brands of vegan butter behave differently in frosting. Earth Balance vegan butter baking sticks have provided the most consistent results for me, so that's what I recommend! I also tried Miyoko's butter which didn't work nearly as well in this.

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