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Vegan angel cake with three slices cut off. Blue jug, flowers and a grey cloth in the background.
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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!
Course Dessert
Cuisine British
Keyword cake
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings 10 people
Author Domestic Gothess

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 310 g (2 ½ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
  • 15 g (1 ½ packed Tbsp) cornflour (cornstarch)
  • 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 240 g (1 cup + 3 Tbsp) caster (superfine) or granulated sugar
  • 240 ml (1 cup) unsweetened non-dairy milk (soy is best)
  • 80 g (⅓ cup) unsweetened non-dairy yogurt (I use the Coconut Collaborative)
  • 60 ml (¼ cup) neutral oil (I use sunflower)
  • 140 g (5 oz) vegan block butter (I use Naturli Vegan Block) melted
  • 2 teaspoon cider or white wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon each vanilla, lemon and raspberry extracts (or 3 teaspoon of vanilla extract)
  • pink and yellow gel food colouring (see post above for recommendations)

Buttercream:

  • 60 g (2 oz) vegan block butter (NOT the spreadable kind. I use Naturli Vegan Block) slightly softened
  • 120 g (1 cup) icing (powdered) sugar sifted
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4. 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 that you 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). Try and line the tin as neatly and evenly as possible so that you don't have to trim the cakes too much later.
  • 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 plain flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the bowl. 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. You really do only need a teeny bit of food colouring, don't be heavy handed with it!
  • 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.
  • To make the buttercream, whisk the butter, sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract together until light and fluffy.
  • 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. Store in an airtight container.

Notes

  • 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).
  • The cakes should be completely cold before you trim and level them otherwise they may crumble.
  • See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.