Vegan Angel Cake

Vegan angel cake - this vegan version of the retro British cake is just as good as the original childhood favourite.

It consists of three layers of pink, yellow and white vanilla sponge cake filled with vanilla buttercream. It is an attractive crowd-pleaser that is easy to make too!

This vegan angel cake is so moist and tender, it practically melts in the mouth. Three layers of soft vegan sponge cake are sandwiched with vanilla buttercream; it is simple, but oh so moreish!

This retro British cake is a classic tea time treat which goes wonderfully with a hot cup of tea or a cold glass of (almond) milk. It would also make a great birthday cake!

This is a very simple cake to make, but unless you happen to have three identical loaf tins then dividing up and lining the traybake tin can be a little tricky so make sure that you give yourself enough time for that.

What Is Angel Cake?:

Angel cake is a classic British cake consisting of three layers of soft vanilla sponge cake coloured pink, yellow and white, which are filled with a thin layer of vanilla buttercream.

It can be found in pretty much every supermarket, but as always, the home-made version is so much better!

British angel cake is absolutely not to be confused with American angel food cake, which is a fatless cake made with whisked egg whites which is baked in a special ring tin.

What Do I Need To Make Vegan Angel Cake?:

Plant milk: You can use any kind you like but it should ideally be unsweetened and soy milk is best as it has the highest protein content.

Non-dairy yogurt: I love using plant yogurt in vegan cakes, it is a great egg replacer and keeps the cake moist as well as adding flavour.

Either soy or coconut yogurt will work, ideally unsweetened. I like the Coconut Collaborative.

I haven't tested any substitutes for the yogurt I'm afraid. Oatly creme fraiche would likely work, and possibly unsweetened applesauce.

Vegan butter and oil: Generally in cakes butter adds flavour, but oil makes the cake more moist. I've gone for the best of both worlds and used both!

For the best results you should use a vegan block butter rather than the spreadable kind in a tub. I recommend Naturli Vegan Block or Flora Plant block. You will definitely need block butter to make the buttercream.

For the oil I tend to use sunflower as it has a neutral flavour, though any neutral flavoured oil will work.

Vinegar: This reacts with the bicarbonate of soda to help the cake rise and give it a light texture. I use either apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar. You can also use lemon juice instead.

Vanilla, lemon and raspberry extracts: Traditionally angel cake is just flavoured with vanilla - the different layers are all the same flavour. But I thought that it would be nice to flavour each colour differently.

I went for vanilla for the white layer, lemon for the yellow and raspberry for the pink. The effect is pretty subtle so you can definitely just use vanilla for each layer instead.

Caster and icing sugar: Caster (superfine) sugar is best for the cake as it dissolves easily but granulated will also work.

You will also need icing (powdered) sugar for the buttercream. (I used golden icing sugar).

Plain flour: Just regular plain (all-purpose) flour. I don't recommend swapping it for wholemeal, it will make the cake too dense.

I haven't tried making this cake gluten-free, but I suspect that it would work ok with a gluten-free flour blend.

Cornflour (cornstarch): Adding a bit of cornflour (cornstarch) gives the cake a lovely light texture. You can swap it for more plain flour if you don't have any.

If you have cake flour then you can swap both the plain flour and the cornflour for cake flour, so a total of 325g of cake flour.

Baking powder and bicarb: Using both baking powder and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) will give you the best rise and texture. Don't swap one for the other, you will not get the same result.

Salt: a little bit of salt rounds out the flavour.

Gel food colouring: You need to make sure that you use bake stable gel food colouring. A lot of the food colourings that you can buy from supermarkets are not bake stable and your cake will fade and turn brown as it cooks.

Not all food colourings are vegan friendly as they may use cochineal, so you will need to check the specific brand to make sure that it is safe.

I use Rainbow Dust ProGel colours which are vegan friendly (as far as I can tell). In pink and yellow.

How To Make Vegan Angel Cake:

(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)

Start by lining the tin. You will need a 23 x 33 cm / 9 x 13 in traybake tin which you will divide into three sections.

Fold a piece of tin foil over several times into a thick piece the same width as the tin and either the same height or slightly higher. Repeat this so you that have two thick strips of tin foil.

Place these strips crosswise in the tin, dividing it into three even sections. Take a long piece of tin foil (about 75 x 23 cm) and use it to line the tin, going over the top of the two foil strips to hold them in place.

Brush the foil with melted butter and place a long strip of baking parchment (about 75 x 23 cm) over the top, folding it over the tin foil strips. (If you have some of that 2-in-1 foil and parchment then use that instead).

To make the cake, start by weighing the bowl that you are going to be making the batter in; take a note of the number.

Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl - plain flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Then whisk in the sugar.

In a large jug, whisk together the milk, yogurt, melted butter, oil and vinegar.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir with a balloon whisk until no dry lumps remain.

Weigh the bowl again. Subtract the weight of the empty bowl and divide the resulting number by three. This tells you how much batter you need to weigh out into each bowl.

Divide the batter between three bowls, weighing out the amount from your calculation into each.

Stir a teaspoon of vanilla extract into one bowl, into another stir a teaspoon of lemon extract (or vanilla) and a drop of yellow food colouring, and into the third stir a teaspoon of raspberry extract (or vanilla) and a drop of pink food colouring.

Pour each colour of batter into a separate section of your prepared tin and spread them level.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then carefully turn them out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Once the cakes are cold, level the tops of the pink and yellow layers (but not the white one), and trim the sides so that they are all exactly the same size.

Spread half of the buttercream over the yellow cake layer and place the pink layer on top. Spread over the rest of the buttercream and top with the white cake layer. Enjoy!

Top Tips:

As with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!

Take time lining your tin to make sure that it is exactly divided into thirds. If you happen to have three loaf tins measuring approx 11.5 x 21.5 cm / 4.5 x 8.5 inches then you can bake each colour in a separate tin instead. (The batter cannot be left to sit before baking so only do this if you have three loaf tins).

To make sure that your cakes are exactly the same you should weigh the batter with a scale when you divide it into three. To do this I weigh the bowl before I add any of the ingredients and make a note of this number. Once you have finished making the batter, weigh the bowl again (this time with the batter in it). Take the weight of the full bowl and subtract the weight of the empty one, this gives you the weight of your batter. Divide that number by three and that tells you how much batter to weigh out into each bowl.

Make sure that you don't over-beat the batter as that can make the cake tough. Just mix it until no dry lumps remain. I recommend stirring it by hand with a balloon whisk.

Because it is important not to over-beat the batter, you need to make sure that your wet ingredients and your dry ingredients are extremely well mixed in their separate bowls before you combine the two together.

The cakes should be completely cold before you trim and level them otherwise they may crumble.

The cake will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for around five days.

Can I Freeze It?:

Yes this vegan angel cake freezes well.

You can either freeze leftover slices of it, or if you want to make it in advance and freeze it before serving then you should freeze the individual layers (each separately well wrapped) without the buttercream.

Allow them to partially defrost at room temperature then make the buttercream and assemble the cake.

More Vegan Versions Of Classic British Cakes:

• Vegan Battenberg
• Vegan jam and coconut sponge
• Vegan sticky toffee pudding
• Vegan Earl Grey tea loaf
• Vegan parkin
• Vegan pineapple upside-down cake
• Vegan simnel cake
• Vegan lemon drizzle cake
• Vegan Victoria sponge cake

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