Spongey and fluffy Vegan Yellow Cake without any eggs! Covered in a rich vegan chocolate frosting, this is the ultimate birthday cake that looks, tastes, and feels just like the classic version.
If you are looking for a chocolate birthday cake, make sure to check out The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake!
Get the candles and sprinkles ready because this Vegan Yellow Cake is perfect for birthday parties! Decorated in a decadent Vegan Chocolate Frosting, every bite is incredibly rich and scrumptious. Don’t forget the Vegan Ice Cream to serve with each slice!
Yellow cakes are traditionally made with a lot of egg yolks for that classic golden hue. Instead, I used turmeric in the eggless cake recipe. Same beautiful yellow color without the animal products or any funky flavors.
I think you’re really going to love this Vegan Yellow Cake recipe because it’s:
- Easy to make in one bowl
- Freezer friendly (bake it months in advance!)
- Made with 9 pantry-staple ingredients
- Soft, fluffy, and moist!
For the most festive and colorful dessert table, serve this yellow cake next to Strawberry Cupcakes and Funfetti Cupcakes.
Yellow cake vs. white cake
These are both technically vanilla cakes but have slight differences. A traditional yellow cake recipe is made with egg yolks to give it its signature color and a rich and tender flavor. White cake, on the other hand, uses only egg whites.
Yellow cake is perfect for birthday parties because you can use any type of frosting and the flavors are easy to love! White cake is traditionally served for weddings because it’s so crisp and clean.
How to make vegan yellow cake with chocolate frosting
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl. To the same bowl, slowly stir in all of the wet ingredients using a large spoon until everything is just combined. A standing mixer will make this step a lot easier!
Divide the yellow batter between your cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let them cool while you prepare the chocolate frosting.
Decorate the cakes with frosting when they’re completely cool. Pipe some extra frosting on top and add some colorful sprinkles or chocolate shavings as well. Don’t forget the birthday candles!
Tips and substitutions
- Cake flour – This will always give your cakes a light, fluffy, and airy crumb. All purpose can be used if you don’t have cake flour at home.
- Gluten free – Although I haven’t tested it, I usually have good results when making gluten free cakes with all purpose gluten free flour. The texture will be a little more dense though.
- Oil – Any neutral tasting oil, such as avocado, canola, or vegetable oil, will do. Coconut oil can weigh down a cake, so avoid it if you can.
- Cake pans – I used two round 9 inch cake pans to make a layered cake but the recipe should also work in a half sheet pan.
- Dairy free milk – Any unsweetened plant milk will work.
- Frosting – If chocolate frosting isn’t for you, try vanilla frosting, strawberry buttercream, or swiss meringue buttercream instead.
Storing birthday cake
Frosted vegan birthday cake will stay fresh and moist at room temperature for about 2 or 3 days. To keep it longer, store the cake or individual slices covered in the fridge.
Want to freeze it instead? Wrap the unfrosted baked cakes really well in plastic, then freeze for up to 6 months.
Want more vegan birthday cake recipes?
Vegan Yellow Cake
Ingredients
Yellow Cake
- 2 3/4 cup cake flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup neutral flavored oil (I used avocado oil)
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened soy milk
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
For Decorating and Frosting
- 1 Recipe Vegan Chocolate Frosting
- colorful sprinkles, optional
Instructions
Bake the cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and spray two 8 or 9 inch cake pans with oil. I also like to place a circle of round parchment paper in the bottom to prevent the cakes from sticking to the pans.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, turmeric and sugar together until well combined.
- To the same bowl, pour in the oil, soy milk, apple cider vinegar and vanilla. Mix with the dry ingredients using a large spoon until just combined. Be careful not to over mix, or the cake won't be as soft. (You can also use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment.)
- Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then carefully pop them out and place on a cooling rack. You must allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting.
Frost and decorate
- Once the cakes are cooled, frost with chocolate frosting as desired. Pipe additional frosting on top and add colorful sprinkles, if desired.
- Serve and enjoy! The cake will keep at room temperature for 2-3 days, or up to 1 week in the refrigerator. It can also be frozen. Wrap or cover cut parts of the cake to avoid it drying out.
Notes
-
I haven’t tried this cake gluten free, but an all purpose mix might work. It won’t be as fluffy and light though.
-
Use a neutral tasting oil, such as avocado, canola or vegetable oil. Coconut oil can weight down a cake, so avoid it if you can. You could also use melted vegan butter.
- May substitute a different plant milk for soy milk, if needed.
Oh my! I normally love all your recipes. This was a miss for me. I wish I had read the comments first and not used the turmeric. It is overpowering and completing disrupting the flavor :-(.
This was based on my tasting before anyone else. Turns out my son loved it! I’ll update to 4 stars but next time I will not use the turmeric.
I did 1 1/3 cup of sugar for this cake and I also did 5 cups of powder sugar to double the frosting and it was still very sweet any ideas to keep it similar without messing with the chemistry and body of the cake? I’m trying to please a stern German woman. I got positive feedback from the Americans that tried it, also I had exactly an hour to make this cake and if you’re in a pinch like that and have snow on the ground, putting the pans in the snow, covering the cakes with a baking sheet and putting more snow on it highly effective to cool the cake to frost in 15 minutes.
It sounds like you want the cake to be less sweet? You could probably cut the sugar a bit more in the cake itself, perhaps down to 1 cup or even 3/4 cup. The frosting is more difficult. You can try adding no milk at first, and less powdered sugar and only add milk as needed. Or perhaps make a different frosting altogether, like my Vegan Chocolate Ganache or this Tofu Chocolate Mousse (it works wonderfully well as a less sweet frosting).
vegan cakes always shock me with their simplicity. came out super moist. i added a little more turmeric to make it a Turmeric Cake i thought the flavors turned out really bright and nice.
I’m thrilled that the cake turned out wonderful for you and that you like it! Thank you for sharing your glowing review and feedback!
Amazing!!! This is phenomenal and would fool any non-vegan! Delicious!
I must have done something wrong. My cake didn’t rise. I use aluminum free baking powder. I use a toaster oven. I used 2 8″ round glass baking pans. My layers were only 1.25 inches tall. Could My apple cider vinegar be old? Help?
Oof, this did not work well with AP flour, turned out flat and pretty chewy. My mom had tested it with cake flour and it worked well, so next birthday we will make the effort to get it!
Let me first start by saying that I love every recipe I’ve tried from your site! I just have a question about the milk and ACV. In your other recipes you put them together and let them curdle. Do we not have to do that for this recipe?
Thank you! You don’t have to do that for this recipe, that is correct. I just made it easier. 🙂
Do I have to use turmeric or yellow food dye? Does it do anything other than make it yellow? If I don’t use it, will it effect the texture, taste or density? If it does nothing other than color the cake, I’d rather leave it out unless you advise otherwise. THANKS!
Hi Michael. I use turmeric only for the color. Leaving out the turmeric will not effect the cake’s taste, texture, or density. Happy baking, and enjoy!
Hi Nora!!! I love and use a lot of your recipes and they turn out wonderful, but I have yet to try these, so I’m just wondering if the turmeric will leave a taste? Thank you so much!!!!
Hi Makenzie. I have never noticed any off flavor from using the turmeric. I’m so glad you are enjoying my recipes! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
I had a question about the yellow cake recipe. My grandson is allergic to mustard, therefore I do not want to use the turmeric. Can I substitute something for the turmeric or can it be left out of the recipe? Thank you so much for your recipes. My other grandson is allergic to all dairy, eggs, etc so cegan is the way to go.
Yes, you can simply use yellow food dye of some kind. Hope that helps!
Can this recipe be used for cupcakes?
Yes, it can. Fill liners half full and bake cupcakes for 18-20 minutes.
When you mention half sheet pan, do you mean a 13×18 half sheet, or 9×13 for this cake? I’d like to make a 9×13 vegan birthday cake with this recipe. Thanks!
I mean a 13×18, but you can make a 9×13 inch cake with the recipe as written as well. It will need longer to bake, probably around 40-50 minutes. Thanks and enjoy!
Great recipe! We paired this with the suggested chocolate frosting and it was so delicious! Next time I make it I would use a soy milk with vanilla or almond milk, rather than a neutral soy because I could taste it just a teeny bit.
As a side note I did adapt the recipe to match our family’s traditional birthday cake, which is minty yellow cake with mini chips and mint chocolate frosting. For anyone who likes mint- we just added one tsp mint extract to both the cake and frosting. It was delicious- I haven’t had the family cake since I became vegan and it was spot. on. Thanks so much, Nora!
This is so fun to read! I’m thrilled the cake was a hit for the family birthday cake! Thank you for taking time to share your family tradition and your fantastic review! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
Could I use a bundt pan to make this cake?
Hi Tami. I haven’t tried it, but I think a bundt pan will work. I’d guess that the cake will take around 1 hour to bake. Enjoy!
Big hit! I did go ahead and use all purpose flour and it was as predicted very dense, almost like super moist cornbread, but it was fantastic. Everything else in the recipe was kept exactly the same. Thanks for this, Nora strikes again!