I know I’m not alone when I say my love for chocolate cake runs DEEP. I’ve just always had a soft spot in my heart for a good chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (bonus if it has sprinkles!). So when I went about making this Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe, I made sure it had all the essentials: extra moist, rich chocolate flavor, just the right balance of sweet and decadent, and has that melt-in-your-mouth crumb we all want in a chocolate cake. It’s a true rival to my (full-dairy) One-Bowl Chocolate Cake recipe and I could not be more satisfied with how the vegan version turned out!
Read MoreTag: cake recipes
Vegan Vanilla Cake Recipe
Ever since I published my favorite fluffy Vanilla Cake Recipe, I’ve gotten lots of questions about how to make it eggless or full-on vegan. The truth is, I’d been wanting to make a vegan vanilla cake for years, but everything I read about vegan baking scared me into thinking it was going to be a huge mountain of recipe testing I was going to have to climb (spoiler alert: it was). Still, I kept it on my list, mainly because I wanted an option to offer those asking for the vegan version of my vanilla cake recipe. But it wasn’t until I had my son and had to cut out dairy shortly after that it moved from the bottom of the list to the top. I rolled up my sleeves, put on my apron, and began my absolute OBSESSION with creating the perfect, fluffy, easy, flavorful, can’t-even-tell-it’s-vegan cake recipe. I can say with assurance after what seems like a hundred recipe tests that this is the one.

Sugar & Sparrow’s Best of 2020
My, what a year it’s been! 2020 was hard, weird, tragic, wonderful, and just all the things at once. It’s the year I became a mom to the sweetest baby boy and the year I launched Cake Basics after dreaming about launching a series like that for so long. I’m thankful to be welcoming a brand new year and starting on some fresh goals, but first, I want to share this year’s greatest hits from my Instagram! These are the recipes, tutorials, and cake designs that you all loved the most:
Read MorePeppermint Mocha Cake Recipe
Now that I’ve shared my Eggnog Cake Recipe and my Hot Cocoa Cake recipe, it’s only fitting that I close out my 2020 holiday cakes with another that’s based on a festive drink: this decadent Peppermint Mocha Cake! This one may be my favorite one of all and it even impressed my husband, who is not a coffee drinker or a big fan of peppermint. We could not stop tasting it and talking about how good it was, so I am confident that you’ll love it too. Oh, and just look at that candy cane drip.
Read MoreFestive Eggnog Cake Recipe
Of all the years, 2020 has everyone ready to kick off the Holiday season earlier than ever. It almost feels like the last chance we have at a little magic and I am here for it. So much that as soon as I felt like I made it out of the newborn haze of maternity leave (and realized I could wear Bubs around the kitchen in my Solly Wrap), I got inspired to start testing all the Holiday cake recipes I’d been dying to try since last Christmas. First on the list: this tasty and festive Eggnog Cake!
Read MoreBasic Vanilla Buttercream Recipe
I’ve tested a ton of buttercream recipes in my day, but my go-to is a super simple American buttercream recipe that I’ve tweaked to my liking. I’ve used this recipe for frosting countless cakes and cupcakes and I’m a big believer that a good vanilla buttercream is something every baker should have in their recipe box. There’s nothing fancy about the way this recipe is made, but it will certainly taste like you whipped up something special!
Vegan Chocolate Cake with Oreo Buttercream
I’ve been wanting to create vegan versions of my cake recipes for awhile now, but vegan baking is one of those fascinating things that takes a ton of research. It felt a bit intimidating to scour the internet for the dairy-free substitutes, so I just kept putting it off. But with ingredients like eggs, milk, and butter in short supply due to the pandemic, I think now is the perfect time to offer you a cake recipe that uses ingredients you can (hopefully) find! Whether you’re vegan, dairy-free, or you simply need a cake recipe with limited ingredients, this Vegan Chocolate Oreo Cake is so easy to whip up and tastes amazing! Perfect for celebrating a #QuarantineBirthday or just making a cake for the fun of it.
Read MoreThe Fluffiest Yellow Cake Recipe + Chocolate Frosting
When you think of the most classic birthday cake ever, what comes to mind? For me, it’s always been yellow cake with chocolate frosting. All throughout my childhood, my momma used to mix up a box yellow cake, bake it in a casserole dish, smear canned chocolate frosting on top, and write Happy Birthday on it with those little tubes of icing colors you can still find at the grocery store to this day. I loved those birthday cakes. And I’m really surprised that after all my years of caking, it’s taken me this long to nail down the perfect yellow cake recipe. Well, wait no more!
Read MoreCranberry Orange Cake Recipe
My husband and I are big fans of the Great British Baking Show (if you haven’t seen it, power up Netflix right now!) and the other night we were watching a contestant bake a cranberry orange flavored dessert. While I’ve never really been all that intrigued to use those flavors before, my husband leaned over and said, “A cranberry orange cake would be delicious. You should make it.” It’s because of him that I found myself in the kitchen zesting oranges and rolling cranberries in sugar, wide-eyed at the Holiday scents filling the air. I ended up with a delicious orange flavored cake dotted with fresh, juicy cranberries, topped with zesty orange buttercream and tons of Christmas cheer! Thanks for the suggestion, husband. You were right.
Read MoreHomemade Cake Flour Recipe
There’s a reason why the majority of my cake recipes call for cake flour instead of all-purpose (aka plain flour). The short answer is that cake flour is what makes my cakes ultra light and fluffy! Maybe it’s because I grew up on boxed cake mixes, but I’m always after that light, fluffy (yet moist) texture when crafting a cake recipe. I get tons of questions about whether or not it’s ok to substitute all-purpose flour and while it’s not something I recommend, there is a way to create homemade cake flour using all-purpose. I’ll show you how!