It took me forever to trial umpteen vegan cake recipes till I honed in on the most delicious eggless and dairy free sponge cake layers. Lofty, light, moist (you know I hate that word but needs must), and indistinguishable from a non-vegan chocolate cake. That’s not just been verified by my friends and family, who’ve been lucky, and unlucky alike, to trial all my triumphs and failures along my vegan baking journey, but now also by the legions of fans of my Vegan Hero Sponge Recipe.

I’m really chuffed to have received such warm feedback from our customers and followers about our vegan cake recipes but equally baffled by a few cutting comments I’ve heard and seen. From being called “inauthentic”, accusations of “chasing the green pound” and stuff like “just jump right in, make money, and still not care about the animals”. Some of the commentary and opinions from other bakers, and randoms (vegan and non-vegan!) have been quite surprising.

The whole point is to be inclusive (and obviously make money when I can) and cater not just for vegans but for their non-vegan friends and families too who would like to include them in sharing their celebration cakes.

And as for sharing recipes and “trade secrets”, this blog of mine gets a ton of visitors for my recipes and I love seeing them be used and the sense of community it creates. Ultimately spreading the caking love will pick me up a whole lot more than a few cutting comments would bring me down so with that said, here’s my not-so-secret and totally incredible vegan chocolate cake recipe. 

Vegan Chocolate Sponge Cake Recipe

For a 3-layer 6” cake or 2-layer 8” cake

Ingredients

350g plain flour

375g caster sugar

10g baking soda

40g cocoa powder

5g salt

145ml oil (vegetable/sunflower)

10ml vanilla extract (good quality)

445ml dairy-free almond milk

10ml white vinegar

A knob of dairy-free margarine

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Grease three 6 inch cake tins (or two 8” cake tins) with dairy-free margarine.

2. Sift the dry ingredients together into a large mixing bowl - flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. 

3. Mix the wet ingredients together briskly into a bowl - oil, vanilla, almond milk and vinegar.

4. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until it comes together as a batter and all ingredients are mixed in. Do not over-mix at this stage (if there are a few small lumps, that’s fine).

5. Divide the batter equally into the prepared cake tins and place in the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cocktail stick or wooden skewer just comes out clean.

6. Once baked, remove from oven and leave the vegan sponges in their tins for 10 minutes before popping them out onto wire racks to cool completely. 

7. Decorate using vegan buttercream frosting. I’ve used fresh fruit here and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Notes:

 1. Watch your measurements! Especially when it comes to raising agents like baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). If it’s under, then vegan cakes won’t rise as well, if it’s too much, then they’ll leave a metallic after taste in the sponge.

2. Be wary of over-mixing. Really. I mean it. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a balloon whisk JUST until they’ve all come together in an almost-smooth batter. You may be left with a few small lumps in your batter and that’s okay. Whisk anymore and you’ll have sponges as dense as grandma’s mattress.

3. Dairy free milk alternatives - I’ve chosen almond milk but you can also choose coconut milk, oat milk or any other of your choice.

4. To preserve baked vegan sponge freshness wrap cling film around the sponges and pop into the fridge (up to 5 days) or freezer (up to a month). Just remember to defrost thoroughly and bring it to room temperature before serving.

This recipe is super easy and a proper crowd pleaser. If you'd like to download the full extensive Vegan Hero Sponge recipe with flavour variations, you can do that here.

Lots of vegan-cake-lovin',

Reshmi xoxo