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...
.... you might also enjoy these vegan recipes from The Veg Space:
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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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Erin says
Can I use all purpose flour? I dont usually have self rising.
Kate Ford says
Yes that's fine, just add 2tsp baking bowder for every 150g plain flour.
Hema says
OMG! I made this heavenly cake just now!
So many vegan cake recipes and THIS IS THE BEST ONE BY FAR! Im from the UK and its nearly 1am, I'm baking last minute for a leaving do!
I am vegetarian and not a vegan but as we don't eat eggs I always look for vegan recipes. This is my first ever review (after trying many many recipes) and you have won my vote for best vegan cake ever!
As opposed to some of the negative reviews- The cake does rise twice as much, it only requires 20 minutes to cook and even though the curdled look made me think it was going to be a big disaster it has been the best vegan cake I have made! Very close to the eggless bakery cakes we get. Follow her instructions carefully and you can't go wrong! so many tips in the blog and also a lot of trouble shooting in the reviews, it's hard to ruin this cake!!!
Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe! I can't wait for peoples comments at work tomorrow. will def try more of your recipes.
Thanks
Kate Ford says
That's so great to hear - thanks for the review Hema! X
Kathryn says
The BEST Victoria sponge I have ever made, vegan or not! What an amazing recipe. I used the extra protein soya yoghurt which helped to give a brilliant rise.
Kate Ford says
That's fantastic to hear, thanks so much Kathryn! X
Nikhil says
This is a really good recipe! First time actually baking and it tasted as good as it looked!
If I was to make it less sweet for family who cannot have so much sugar, what would I do?
L says
This was a really nice cake overall and one of the best vegan sponge recipes I have tried but it is far, far too sweet - to the point I struggled to enjoy it. If I reduce the sugar, will it still name the same?
Susan Lee says
Just made your vegan Victoria sandwich cake , oh boy am I impressed. I have always struggled to make a "normal," Victoria Sandwich but your recipe is fantastic. Thank you so much.
Kate Ford says
That's great to hear - thanks so much Susan! X
LauraGrace says
Amazing! This recipe results in a tatsy, fluffy sponge which actually rises perfectly - very clever ingredients combination! Versatile and simple to make - can't wait how to see my attempt at your vegan toffee apple cake goes 🙂 Thanks so mucb for the recipe!
Kate Ford says
That's great to hear, thanks so much Laura! Kx
Caroline says
Hi, how could I turn this into a chocolate cake? Thanks
Kate Ford says
Hi Caroline, just add cocoa powder in with the flour (check it is vegan) - about 4 tsbp. Enjoy!
Caroline says
Hi how would I make this as a chocolate cake? Thanks
Gary says
Hi I’ve been trying to make a good vegan lemon and poppy seed cake with limited success. Do you think that if I added the lemon into the wet ingredients and folded poppy seeds in with the flour that I could adapt the above recipe?
Thanks in advance:)
Kate Ford says
Hi Gary, a better bet might be to add poppy seeds to my lemon cake recipe here: https://www.thevegspace.co.uk/recipe-easy-vegan-lemon-cake/ - if you add the drizzle syrup its really lemony, a lovely moist cake and would be perfect with poppy seeds! Hope that helps.
Nicola says
Can I exchange soya yogurt with coconut yogurt do you think
Kate Ford says
Yes absolutely. It might have a bit more of a background flavour as it tastes slightly stronger than soya yoghurt, but not an unpleasant taste at all. Enjoy! X
Laura says
I've made this cake several times now and its fabulous! I reduced the sugar to 200g as it was a bit sweet for me but the sponge is delicious. Best cake recipe I've come across since becoming vegan.
Kate Ford says
That's so great to hear - thanks Laura!
Rebecca Williams says
Hello, I was wondering would this cake be ok to be covered with sugar fondant and decorated? I'm vegan and making a cake for my nan's birthday her favorite is Victoria sponge but i wanted to cover it and do a golf themed cake.
Many thanks
Kate Ford says
Yes absolutely, a lot of people have tried this and it has worked really well. Hope it goes well!
Amy says
Hi, do you think this would work as well with non-soy plant based milk/yoghurt such as oat milk etc? Thanks!
thevegspace says
Hi Amy, yes definitely - any dairy-free milk/yoghurt would work fine. I tend to use soya or oat as they are creamy and don't have a strong flavour, but any you can find would work fine. Kate x
Lorna says
I'm about to try this recipe as all others I've found to be soggy/dense can I ask tho the 200g of soya is that meant to be g or mls? Also is Oat milk an acceptable alternative?
thevegspace says
Hi Lorna, 1g = 1ml of milk so either grams or ml is fine - I measured it in g as I weigh mine in with the yoghurt when I make this, but either way will work fine! I've never tried it with oat milk but can't imagine it would cause any problems as its really creamy just like soya. Let me know how it goes!
Pipilota says
Hey!
I'm very eager to try the cake, as a vegan I usually get to eat only chocolate cake and I wanted something with real cream 🙂
But since I don't have 2 small cake forms, do you think I could do with muffin forms and just cut them afterwards for filling them?
How would the cooking time change?
Thanks very much in advance!
thevegspace says
Yes absolutely! I've done this before and they are so lovely. I would start checking from about 15 minutes - just stick a toothpick/cocktail stick into one of the cakes and if it comes out clean they are ready to come out the oven. Hope they turn out well!
Pipilota says
Hey!
My little muffins just came out of the oven and they are really tasty 🙂
I reduced the sugar a little bit, next time maybe even a little more, as the cakes are quite sweet 😀
Haven't tried the creme yet, but the cakes really turned out well! Thanks for this great recipe!
All the best,
Pipilota
Sara says
I notice you have the soya milk given in grams (recipe states 200 g). That isn't a usual fluid measure so seems a bit odd to me, so thought I would check if that was right? Appreciate your response.
thevegspace says
Hi Sara, I use grams there because of how I tend to weigh things - I put my bowl on the scales and weigh the yoghurt then add the milk in and find it easier than getting a separate measuring jug out. But 100ml soya milk weighs about 102g so if you prefer to measure in a jug 200ml will work absolutely fine too. Hope that helps! Kate
libby says
Hi I'm looking to make a vegan wedding cake for my sister in law. Do you know if this cale would be suitable to ice with fondant icing? Also would the recipe work if I doubled the ingredients to make a larger cake?
thevegspace says
Hi Libby, yes its just like a 'classic' victoria sponge so would be fine covered in fondant, though it doesn't keep for more than a few days so I would try to ice it as late as possible if you can. And certainly double the ingredients, the only thing that would be affected is the cooking time. Might be better to make three thinner layers than two really thick ones - a trial run might be a good idea! Hope that helps and do let me know how it goes, would love to see the finished cake! Kate x
Shivani says
Thank you SO MUCH For this! I cannot wait to try it X
thevegspace says
Ooh lovely - let me know how it goes!! x
Rebecca says
This was delicious! I'd like to make it again , does anyone know if the unfilled sponges freeze okay? I know you can freeze regular sponge cakes, I'm just not sure as this one contains soya yogurt.
thevegspace says
Hi Rebecca, glad you liked the recipe! Yes I freeze these all the time with no problem at all - the yoghurt is cooked into the sponge so not a problem. Kate x
Claire Keating says
Is the temperature for an electric oven based on conventional or fan? I've got mine in at 160 fab, just done 20 mins and the top is still wobbly
thevegspace says
Hi Claire, the recipe is for a fan oven - ovens are all different and I go on how long it takes to cook in mine - just leave it in until it is cooked through. Hope it turns out well. Kx