Classic Vegan Pound Cake: Moist with a Tight Crumb! (2024)

This is the best vegan pound cake with a perfectly moist, buttery, dense crumb. The cake is vanilla flavored with just the tiniest hint of almond, perfect for pairing with fresh berries, whipped cream or cup of bold coffee.

This recipe includes a video, plus instructions for baking the cake in a loaf pan, a bundt pan, or muffin pan!

📝 Why You’ll Love This Vegan Pound Cake:

• Taste:It has a lovely subtle vanilla flavor with a hint of almond. The cake is rich, perfectly sweet and ‘buttery’.

• Texture:My goal was to achieve atightcrumband adensetextureas close to a traditional pound cake recipe as possible. Not a simple task but I’m happy to say that we achieved this texture after many recipe tests!

• Storage: This cake stays moist at room temperature for 4-5 days and can be frozen.

• Customizability: While I don’t recommend subbing the ingredients in the actual cake, the world is your *vegan* oyster when it comes to glaze or icing flavors. I’ve included a few ideas from lemon icing to strawberry icing in the blog post below.

• Why We Love This Recipe: When it comes to recreating classic recipes, making a vegan pound cake was high on my priority list. I am so excited about this recipe because this cake has a texture that is just like I remember it! Dense, moist, sweet and buttery. A thick slice of this cake with a bold cup of coffee makes for a delicious dessert.

Ingredients:

Ingredient Notes:

Traditional pound cake recipes call for equal amounts of eggs, sugar, and butter – a pound of each. However, in vegan baking, we can’t rely on those same ratios.

First, since this is an eggless recipe, we need an egg replacement.Second, when recipes contain large quantities of butter, vegan butter can behave differently during baking, especially without the presence of eggs.This is something especially apparent in recipes like vegan brownies.

The goal with this vegan pound cake was to stay true to the simplicity of the classic version while adapting the ingredients. To compensate for the lack of eggs, which typically help leaven the batter, I’ve also incorporated leavening agents to achieve the desired rise and texture.

Below are a few more ingredient notes including what brands I used for each one:

• All Purpose Flour:I’ve opted for all purpose instead of cake flour in this recipe so it’s a bit more accessible. If you have cake flour, you can certainly use it- it will create a more delicate crumb. I usedKing Arthur’s Unbleached All Purpose Flour.

• Vegan Butter:This recipe uses salted vegan buttery sticksnotvegan butter from a tub. The brand I use is Salted Earth Balance Buttery Sticks. If you have Earth Balance at your grocery store, I highly recommend using it for the best results. Other brands may create a slightly different texture, especially ones made with different oils.This should be softened at room temperature (see the pic. below!).

• Dairy Free Yogurt:This acts as the vegan egg replacement and adds moisture to the vegan pound cake. I used Forager Unsweetened Vanilla Bean Yogurt {Coconut & Cashew based}.

• Plant-based Milk:I used Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk. You can use oat milk or soy milk too.

Let the Vegan Butter and Yogurt come to Room temp!

Why This Recipe Works

Using the Right Leavening Agent:

• This recipe relies solely on baking powder as the leavening agent. Baking soda, often used in quick bread recipes, can create an overly coarse texture when used alone.
• Too much leavening can also cause the cake to rise rapidly during the initial baking phase, only to deflate and sink later. Baking powder provides a steady, controlled rise, resulting in a tender yet sturdy crumb.

The Role of Vegan Yogurt:

• Instead of silken tofu or other vegan egg replacers, this recipe uses vegan yogurt. Yogurt not only adds moisture to the batter but also acts as a binding agent, helping to hold the cake together and prevent it from becoming crumbly.
• When testing this recipe, silken tofu created a texture that was too firm and not delicate enough.

The Role of Almond Milk:

• A small amount of almond milk is added to the batter. This helps thin out the batter’s consistency, allowing it to rise during baking. Without the almond milk, the cake did not rise very much or have a domed top.

The perfect amount of Dairy Free Butter:

• Achieving the right ratio of vegan butter is so important in this recipe because we want that buttery taste and texture. Unlike traditional pound cake recipes that rely heavily on eggs to emulsify the butter, this eggless version requires some adjustments.
• Using too much vegan butter can lead to an overly oily or greasy texture since there are no eggs present to help incorporate and stabilize the fat. Because of this, this recipe uses less ‘butter’ than non-vegan recipes.

Step-by-Step Instructions

🍓 *Ingredient Quantities & Video Tutorial are in the Recipe Card Below!*

STEP 1:Measure out the vegan butter, dairy-free yogurt, and almond milk. Cover and let them come to room temperature for at least 8 hours or overnight.Do not skip this!!Softened vegan butter makes a huge difference in the overall texture.

STEP 2:Prep the baking pan by greasing it and dusting with flour. You can also line it with parchment paper. Measure out the remaining ingredients and set them aside.

STEP 3:In a stand mixer, cream the sugar and softened vegan butter together until fluffy, airy and lighter in color.

STEP 4:Sift in ½ of the prepared dry ingredients. Mix until just combined (about 20 seconds with the mixer). The batter should be a coarse crumble.

STEP 5:Add the room temperature vegan yogurt, almond milk, vanilla extract and almond extract. Mix for about 20 seconds with the mixer to form a smooth batter.

STEP 6:Fold in the remaining dry ingredients until just combined with a spatula.

STEP 7:Transfer to the prepared pan. Dip a butter knife in melted vegan butter. Run down the center of the loaf about 1” deep to create a line.This creates a uniform crack on top.

STEP 8:Bake at 425°F (215°C) for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350°F (175°C) and bake for another 40-50 minutes until golden brown and domed on top.

Pan Conversions

At this time, I’ve tested this recipe in an8.5″x4.5″ loaf pan, a9″x5″ loaf pan,a12 cup bundt panand astandardmuffin pan.

However, if you’d like to make this recipe in a mini loaf pan or a different size, you can increase or decrease the amount of batter and slightly adjust the cooking time. See below for how much batter different pans hold.

The recipe provided below yields about 4 1/2 cups of batter, which is perfect for an 8.5″ x 4.5″ loaf pan. If baked in a 9″x5″ pan, the recipe yields a slightly shorter loaf.

• 8×4″ Loaf Pan:4 cups batter

• 8.5×4.5″ Loaf Pan: 4 1/2-5cups batter

• 9×5″Loaf Pan: 5-6cups batter

• Bundt Pan:Holds between 8-12 cups of batter, depending on diameter and shape

Vegan Pound cake in a Bundt pan:

To make a bundt cake, I doubled the ingredient amounts in the recipe card. If your bundt pan is on the smaller size, you may have a bit of extra batter which you can bake in a muffin pan to make cupcakes. (Cupcakes take about 22-24 minutes at 350°F.)

Then, I baked the bundt cake at 425°F for 15 minutes, followed by 350°F for an additional 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center came out with just a few moist crumbs.

Serving Ideas

Once baked and cooled, the cake is ready to ice, slice and serve! The cake is perfect on its own, but we also love serving it with some coconut whipped cream and sliced strawberries. The recipe below includes a basic glaze for the cake. You can play with different flavors by adding in your favorite baking extracts. Below are a few ideas:

Flavor Variations for Icing

• Vanilla Bean Glaze:Use vanilla bean paste or scrape 1/2 a vanilla bean pod into the icing.

• Lemon Glaze:For a lemon glaze, use 1/3 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp lemon extract, 1/4 tsp lemon zest and 1/2 tsp lemon juice in the icing. Add a bit of almond milk as needed to thin the glaze.

• Strawberry Glaze:For a strawberry flavor, mix 1/3 cup powdered sugar, 1 tbsp of strawberry preserves, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2-1 tsp of almond milk.

Storage

Cover the pound cake with plastic wrap if storing at room temperature or keep it in an airtight container. It will stay moist at room temperature for 4-5 days, but it can also be stored in the fridge. Just let it come to room temperature before serving!

If you plan to store the pound cake for longer than 4-5 days, I recommend freezing the slices. Freezing will help lock in moisture and ensure the slices maintain a perfect texture even months from now.

Trouble-shooting

Below are a few common problems that can arise when making a pound cake.

❶ Use Room Temperature Vegan Butter, Yogurt, and Almond Milk:This is so important for a smooth, well-emulsified batter. It helps create a dense, tight crumb.

❷ Mix Half of the Dry Ingredients After Creaming Butter:Gradually adding the dry ingredients in two batches helps prevent over-mixing and helps prevent the butter from separating from the batter.

❸ Accurately Measure Flour with a Scale or Use the Spoon and Level Method:Like with so many baking recipes, accurate measurements are so important for achieving the right rise and texture in the final product! Please use a scale if possible. 🙂

❹ Score the Top of the Pound Cake for a Pretty Crack:Cakes with heavy batters have a tendency to crack on top. If you lightly score the top of the batter with a buttered knife before baking, it creates an attractive, decorative crack on the finished cake.