Please note: Anges de Sucre no longer produces vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free or egg-free physical cakes. Our kitchen handles gluten, dairy, eggs, soya, peanuts and tree nuts, so we cannot guarantee cakes are free from traces of allergens. This article is retained for archive and home-baking information and supports our digital Vegan Hero Sponge Recipe.
A vegan cake can be made without eggs, butter, milk or cream, but it is still cake. It may contain less saturated fat than some non-vegan cakes, depending on the recipe, but it is not a health food and should still be treated as an indulgence.
Is a vegan cake healthy? Usually not in the everyday sense. While a vegan diet can be healthy, vegan cake is still generally made with sugar, fat and flour. The key is always balance, which means not eating cake too often, however persuasive the sponge may be.
When people ask whether vegan cake is healthy, the answer depends on ingredients, portion size and how often it is eaten. A vegan label does not turn cake into broccoli in disguise. It simply means the cake avoids animal-derived ingredients.
Vegan cakes are one example of indulgent vegan foods, but there are many others that should still be treated sensibly:
French fries: Deep-fried and covered in salt, they are hardly a health food.
Crisps: Like French fries, it should not come as a great shock that they are not exactly medicinal.
Packaged granola bars: Some look saintly until you read the packet and discover enough sugar to frighten a dentist.
In the article Can Vegans Eat Cake? we define different types of vegans, including raw vegans. Raw vegan cakes are often made with fruit, nuts, seeds and natural sweeteners, but they can still contain plenty of sugar and fat. They may be less processed, but that does not automatically make them low-calorie.
It all depends on the ingredients used. Vegan cakes, like non-vegan cakes, use a mix of calorific ingredients that can add up quickly. Some vegan dairy alternatives have similar calories to dairy ingredients, and many low-calorie cake recipes report the calories using very small portions. In reality, most people eat birthday cake in birthday-cake portions, not in spreadsheet portions.
Ultimately, one should not ask whether an entire category of food is healthy. It is better to examine the ingredients, portion size and frequency. If you see “healthy vegan cake” on a recipe, be politely suspicious. With that said, if you are eating a slice of vegan cake as a special treat while maintaining a balanced diet, civilisation will probably continue.