Eggless Vanilla Cake Recipe (Can Be Made Vegan!)

Jump to Recipe

This eggless vanilla cake recipe is so soft and moist, full of vanilla flavor, and could not be easier to make (even without a mixer!). It can be made fully vegan by subbing in dairy-free milk. I did tons of recipe testing to find an extremely versatile vanilla cake recipe that you can use to celebrate your friends and loved ones with egg allergies, dairy sensitivities, and those that are vegan by choice. I’m so excited to offer this one, especially since many of you have been asking for egg-free cake recipes for years! 

One Reader, Kate, says: “Just wanted to say thank you for this recipe (and your eggless chocolate one). I’ve returned to it time and time again for birthday cakes and school birthday cupcakes for my kids, to cater for all the kids who are egg, nut and dairy free. I routinely get comments about how delicious the cakes are – even from people who usually complain about having to eat a “….-free” cake!” ★★★★★

The Recipe Tests

One of the things that kept me from starting this eggless vanilla cake testing journey was that I was a bit overwhelmed. There are quite a few different egg replacer options out there (flax seed, aquafaba, vinegar, actual egg replacement products) and I didn’t know where to start. My vegan vanilla cake already uses aquafaba, but I wanted to create a recipe that’s even easier with ingredients that are super accessible. So that led me in the direction of using vinegar, which ended up being my preferred egg replacer! The vinegar in this recipe reacts with the baking soda to create a beautiful rise while helping maintain a velvety soft crumb. 

Once I nailed the eggless vanilla cake recipe base, here are some things I tried to make it even more versatile: 

• I replaced the whole milk with soy milk, which ended up being my preferred method of making this cake vegan
• I replaced the whole milk with oat milk. The result was a bit too soft and fluffy and didn’t have enough structure. 
• The previous test led me to replace the cake flour with all purpose flour when subbing the whole milk for oat milk. This added a lot more structure but the cake was too dense. 
• I tried making the cake gluten-free and it turned out too gummy. I’m going to come up with a separate gluten-free vanilla cake in the future though, so stay tuned!

The Easiest Egg-Free Vanilla Cake Ever

This eggless vanilla cake is extra moist with a velvety soft crumb and has the perfect vanilla flavor. It could not be easier to throw together, even if you don’t have a stand mixer! You’ll essentially mix the dry ingredients together, mix the wet ingredients together in a large liquid measuring cup, then pour them into the dry ingredients and mix until combined. That’s it! In my recipe testing I found that you can do this by hand with a large bowl and whisk, or let your stand mixer do the work for you. The result is the same in the end, and I love how accessible that makes this recipe. 

In addition to being simple, the recipe only uses eight ingredients that you can easily find in the baking aisle of your local grocery store. They work together to create a vanilla cake that is so soft and moist, perfectly structured, and packed with vanilla flavor. You wouldn’t even know the eggs were missing! 

Eggless Vanilla Cake Key Ingredients and Substitutions

Here are the key ingredients that make up this eggless vanilla cake + the substitutions you can make:

• Cake Flour. This helps yield a super soft crumb and I can attest that subbing this for all-purpose flour will make the cake a lot more dense. You should be able to find cake flour in the baking aisle at your local grocery store, but just in case you can’t, I have a recipe for homemade cake flour that will work as a substitute. 
• Granulated Sugar. Not just responsible for sweetening the cake, this ingredient also contributes to the soft texture. You can use half granulated sugar and half brown sugar if you want to give the cake an even richer flavor. 
• Baking Soda. The baking soda helps this cake rise, particularly when combined with the vinegar. This chemical reaction will only happen with vinegar and baking soda, so I don’t recommend any substitutions with this one. 
• Whole Milk. The fat in whole milk gives this cake a rich texture and flavor while helping bind the ingredients together. After substituting lots of milk alternatives, my favorite recommendation for making this recipe dairy-free is to use soy milk in place of the whole milk. 
• Vanilla Extract. Responsible for the beautiful vanilla flavor in this cake. You could also substitute half of the vanilla extract with almond extract, or really any other extract you’d want to use as a flavoring!
• Vegetable Oil. This gives the cake tons of moisture and my favorite oil to use is plain vegetable oil since it doesn’t affect the overall flavor at all. You can substitute this for canola oil or any other clear baking oil as long as you don’t mind the flavor. 
• Distilled White Vinegar. Not only does it contribute to the velvety crumb of this cake, the white vinegar reacts with the baking soda to make it rise in the baking process. If you don’t have distilled white vinegar on hand, you can substitute it for apple cider vinegar. 

Making this a Vegan Vanilla Cake 

I love how simple it is to make this cake fully vegan! I did lots of testing to figure out which non-dairy milk would work best in place of the whole milk in this recipe. Soy milk was by far the best substitute, as it most closely mimics the protein content and makeup of whole milk. 

If you need a soy-free option, you could try oat milk or almond milk. These both have significantly lower protein content though, so the final result of the cake will technically work, but just be careful with the layers because they end up extremely soft. Without the extra protein, the structure of the cake isn’t as strong. To combat this, you could try using a homemade version of cake flour in place of the actual cake flour. Since it’s made with all-purpose flour as a base, it makes up for a lot of the extra protein and thus will give the cake more structure. 

Can this Cake be Made Gluten-Free? 

Unfortunately, this cake didn’t work when I substituted gluten-free baking flour in for the cake flour. It ended up super gummy! BUT I’ve added some gluten-free recipes to my baking list because that gets requested all the time, so stay tuned for those coming to the blog in the (hopefully) near future! For now, if you’re looking for great GF baking recipes, check out my friend Butternut Bakery. 

What Frosting to Pair with Eggless Vanilla Cake

I chose to pair this cake with my favorite vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles to make it celebratory. The double vanilla flavor is so delicious and my kids absolutely devoured it! A couple details about the decorating: I frosted the cake with a smooth buttercream finish, used these rainbow sprinkles around the bottom border (and sprinkled on top) and used Wilton Tip 4B to pipe swirls on top.

The best thing about vanilla cake is that it goes with literally any frosting you can think of. I have a few of my favorite suggestions below, but keep in mind you’ll need to double the recipes below to have enough buttercream for filling and frosting the cake: 

• Vegan Vanilla Buttercream (if you’re making this cake dairy-free)
• Chocolate Buttercream
• Strawberry Buttercream
• Raspberry Buttercream
• Funfetti Buttercream
• Lavender Buttercream

Here’s a video of the baking process for this eggless vanilla cake. Enjoy!

If you love recipe videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel! I’ve got a growing collection of cake recipes, decorating tutorials, and Cake Basics over there. Hit the subscribe button on my page so you never miss a new video.

Did you make this cake? I want to know how it went. Let me know in the comments section below or tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me a photo. I love to see what you make!