This vegan Victoria sponge cake is so easy to make with NO weird ingredients! A light and fluffy sponge piled with jam and buttercream.
🍴Why you will love this recipe
What could be more quintessentially British than a slice of Victoria Sponge cake and a nice cup of tea? Well here's a deliciously light and moist vegan Victoria Sponge deep-filled with jam and buttercream that you will bake again and again once you've tried it, I promise!
The sponge is made with dairy-free block margarine which behaves just like butter in baking, and uses vegan yoghurt as an egg-replacer. This works so well - keeping the sponge really light and moist, without having to use vinegar, flax seeds or any other strange ingredients!
Do read my Top Tips below before you start for showstopping results. Keeping the cakes in an airtight tin overnight before adding the jam and buttercream makes them incredibly soft and moist, it is almost like magic!
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📝 What you need
Dairy-free butter Do try to use a block 'butter' rather than spread out of a tub - you will get much better results. I used the new Flora Plant Butter block which is excellent, or Naturli block is also great if you can find it. It tends to be in the same aisle as the dairy butter at supermarkets.
Dairy-free yoghurt I tend to choose soya yoghurt (unsweetened) which gives the best results as it has the highest protein content of the various yoghurts available, and also no powerful flavours. But if you can't use soya any other yoghurt will work fine - I like the new oatly oat yoghurts.
Dairy-free milk As above, I usually use soya milk for baking due to its protein content. Unsweetened is best.
👩🏽🍳 How to make your Vegan Victoria Sponge Cake
For a full, printable recipe with ingredients and detailed instructions, scroll to the bottom of this page 👇🏼.
Grease and line two 23cm cake tins. Beat together the dairy-free block margarine and caster sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the dairy-free yoghurt, soya milk, and vanilla extract, then the flour and baking powder. Mix until fully combined. Divide between the cake tins then bake for 20-22 minutes.
When the cakes are completely cool, smother the bottom layer with jam. Make the buttercream and spread it thickly over the jam, then add the top layer. Scatter with caster sugar then serve.
🔪 Top Tips and FAQs
Here are my top tips for making a perfect vegan Victoria Sponge Cake:
'Rest' your sponge cake overnight in an airtight tin or tupperware. I know it sounds strange but this is the single most important thing you can do to improve the texture of your sponge. This draws the moisture right through the cake, so the sponge becomes extremely soft and moist, and loses its crispy crust.
Get the cakes into the oven as quickly as you can once you've added the flour and baking powder Raising agents start to work as soon as they come into contact with liquid, so have your tins prepared in advance, the oven at the right temperature, and work quickly to get the cakes baking as soon as you can.
Use good quality dairy-free block 'butter. A good quality block margarine makes all the difference, both to the sponge and the buttercream. Tub margarines have much too much water in them for baking.
FAQs
The sponges freeze beautifully, but not the buttercream - so if you need to make these ahead just wait for them to cool completely, then put a piece of greaseproof paper between the two sponges, wrap them in foil and freeze until needed. Then just defrost, and sandwich together with the jam and buttercream when you need them.
If kept in an airtight cake tin or container this victoria sponge keeps moist for 2-3 days.
In this recipe the vegan yoghurt and soya milk are used as the egg replacer. They have a good protein content so behave like eggs to bind the cake mixture, and work with the baking powder to give a good rise to the sponge cakes.
You can also use flax 'eggs', (a mixture of ground flax seeds and water), though they produce a slightly more heavy, dense sponge, or a shop-bought egg-replacer, though these often lead to a more crumbly cake.
⭐️ Reader Testimonials
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Absolutely the BEST textured cake I have ever eaten – plant based or otherwise. It never lasts long in our house!" Jenny
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "I have just made this as a two tier wedding cake and it was absolutely excellent! Totally recommend! Xx" Diane
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "This is such a wonderful recipe!!! I have struggled finding a vegan recipe that taste as good as its non-vegan counterparts and many other recipes come out really dense or reaking of vinegar. But this one baked great! Thank you very much for sharing such a brilliant recipe." Krystle
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "The BEST Victoria sponge I have ever made, vegan or not! What an amazing recipe." Kathryn
🍽 If you liked that...
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Victoria Sponge Cake
Ingredients
For the sponge cakes:
- 200 g dairy-free block margarine
- 300 g caster sugar
- 200 g dairy-free yoghurt soya yoghurt (unsweetened) works best
- 200 ml dairy-free milk soya milk (unsweetened) works best
- 3 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 400 g self-raising flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
For the buttercream:
- 150 g dairy-free block margarine
- 200 g icing sugar
- strawberry or raspberry jam
Instructions
For the cakes:
- Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two 22cm cake tins.
- In a food mixer, beat the margarine and sugar together for 2-3 minutes until pale and fluffy.
- Add the yoghurt, soya milk, and vanilla extract, then the flour and baking powder. Mix until fully combined, (don't beat it, just a slow mix).
- Divide the mixture between the two tins, and bake for 20-22 minutes until an inserted skewer or knife comes out clean. Rremove from the oven and turn out onto a cooling rack.
For the buttercream:
- Beat the margarine and icing sugar in a food mixer for 3-4 minutes until very light and fluffy.
- When the cakes are completely cool, (a few hours at least), smother the bottom layer with plenty of jam.
- Pipe or spread the buttercream over the jam, then carefully sandwich the cakes together. Sprinkle the top of the cake liberally with caster sugar.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Free 4-Week Vegan Meal Plan
Have you got your hands on a copy of my meal plan yet? If not CLICK here to download a copy of my FREE 4 Week Vegan Meal Plan today!
For more vegan baking inspiration check out these recipes from blogger friends:
- Helen's Easy Ginger Cake from Fuss Free Flavours
- Elizabeth's Chocolate Cupcakes with Avocado Frosting from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
- Nadia's Vegan Gluten-Free Chocolate Mug Cake from Nadia's Healthy Kitchen
- Rebecca's Peanut Butter & Banana Bread from Munchies & Munchkins
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Name *Rosa Reid says
I made the vegan Victoria sponge on the 08/06/2024 as a sample for a vegan wedding cake. I am not vegan, however I loved this sponge cake it was soft and surprisingly soft. I left it over night as suggested, instead of butter cream I used the Alpro whipping cream to make the filling and frosting, again very impressed with how tasty it was, the whipped cream held its form it is quite stable. I left it in the fridge overnight and on the Sunday it tasted even better. I have a granddaughter who is vegan she sampled it and quoted "it’s the best Nanny Rosa" she said it was moist and to sweet either. I had pretty much the response from my neighbour Kate who is also a vegan, she said it is the best vegan cake she has tasted, she said the cream is amazing and light and not to sweet.
I found and used this recipe from the domesticgothess.com site. Hannah mentions the recipe is credited to Kate... The Veg Space Kate Ford... Thank you for this amazing vegan Victoria sponge recipe.
This will definitely be my go to for my Vegan friends and family.
Kate Ford says
Thanks so much for the feedback, so glad you enjoyed it!
Dawn Powell says
Hi please could you tell me what oven temperature I should use for fan oven. Thank you 🙏
Lynn Buckley says
Made this yesterday, left in tin as advised, my friend who I made it for said if was gorgeous and she wanted the recepie. Than you so much. We live in a boat and use calor gas, it took a lot longer to cook. I couldn't get the block margarine and had to use tub.
Becca says
I have been using this recipe for the best part of 5 years now and it has never once let me down! I use it as a starting point for all my cakes now - Victoria, salted caramel, lemon, coffee, you name it I’ve probably made it using this recipe as a jumping point. Absolutely fantastic recipe that turns out great every single time! 🙂
Kathy says
How do you measure 200 g of yougurt
Kate Ford says
Hi Kathy, you weigh it on scales. It equates to around 200ml if you find that easier to measure, but most readers have said they prefer to weigh it in with the other ingredients. Hope that helps, Kate x
Kylie says
First time I made this cake, it was amazing!! I was surprised how well it turned out. This time around, the cake broke when transferring from the cooling rack. I'm wondering what I may have done wrong?
Thank you!
Katie Taylor says
I make this cake regularly as I have an egg intolerance and so can't use regular cake recipes. This is the best recipe for an egg free cake that actually rises and is light and fluffy. I don't use the vegan ingredients, I use dairy yogurt, milk and margarine. I reduce the sugar content by half as I feel it doesn't need to be that sweet. I've also cooked it with fruit at the bottom and with cocoa powder added to make a chocolate sponge. All have turned out perfectly.
Larissa says
Can I just suggest that you add "room temperature" margarine to the recipe? I jsut tried to cream cold butter with sugar and it was a disaster, so have to start over again. Thorough descriptions of steps really help those of us that aren't pro cooks. Thanks
Nancy says
Hello Kate,
Hope you are well!
I have made this cake several times and it is absolutely fantastic! I think it's perhaps the yogurt that makes it so special.
I've been looking at making an orange cake and I thought that maybe if I alter this recipe a little bit, I could get the desired outcome. I think that maybe if use half the quantity of vanilla extract and half the quantity of orange extract plus orange peel I would get a tasty orange cake but, would you have any recommendations?
Kate Ford says
Hi Nancy, if you do a search in the recipe index you will find my recipe for Sticky Vegan Orange cake which might be worth a look - it also uses yoghurt, but the sponge has gound almonds for extra richness and flavour, and an orange drizzle. If you wanted a plain orange cake you could leave the orange slices off the top and just make it a plain cake, but they do look pretty!
Sue says
This is an excellent recipe - thank you. I've made it several times now and it works every time - and it doesn't have bicarbonate of soda in the recipe which is great because it spoils vegan cakes in my opinion!
Kate Ford says
That's great to hear, thanks Sue!
Cecile says
She was licking the plate😊