The best vegan pound cake is moist, rich, buttery and dense (but not heavy) and topped with a delicious almond glaze. It’s also easy to make.
This vegan pound cake with an almond glaze is simply perfect. It’s rich, moist and dense like a pound cake should be.
Traditionally a pound cake is made with a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs and a pound of butter (and usually makes more than one loaf).
So with this vegan pound cake, I had to do a lot of improvising and I tried all sorts of combinations, and in the end did not replace the eggs at all.
I used vegan butter, sugar, flour and vegan buttermilk as the main ingredients and the result was total pound cake perfection.
We’ve now also made a vegan lemon pound cake that is equally delicious, so check that out too.
How To Make Vegan Pound Cake
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add vegan butter and white granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together. Add vanilla extract and mix in.
- Prepare your vegan buttermilk by adding 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding in soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line. Let it curdle into buttermilk.
- Add the vegan buttermilk to the mixer and mix in with the vegan butter and sugar. It will look curdled but this is fine.
- Sift all purpose flour into a separate mixing bowl, add baking powder and salt and mix together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix into a batter with a spoon. Be careful not to overmix.
- Transfer the batter to a 9×5 loaf pan (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with parchment paper so that there is overhang on either side) and smooth down.
- Bake at 350°F for 60 minutes. At the 40 minute mark, bring out the cake and tent it with foil and then return it to the oven for the final 20 minutes.
- It’s ready when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Lift the cake out of the loaf pan using the parchment paper overhang and place it onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare the almond glaze by adding powdered sugar, soy milk and almond extract to a bowl and mixing in until smooth.
- Spoon this on top of your cooled pound cake and smooth it down. It will likely run down the sides a little, this is fine.
- Top with almond flakes or slivered almonds and then place it into the fridge for 10 minutes for the topping to set.
- Cut into slices and serve.
Tent With Foil
Tenting your pound cake with foil for the last 20 minutes of baking, stops it from over-browning on top. And if you’re wondering what ‘tenting’ is, it’s exactly like it sounds.
Take foil and place it in a tent like shape over the top of your loaf pan. It allows it to continue to bake without over-browning on top, while also protecting your cake so that the foil doesn’t push down on it from the top (the reason for the ‘tent’, rather than just putting foil over the top).
Since it’s only for the last 20 minutes, the cake has done all its rising by then so opening the oven at this point to put a foil tent over the top doesn’t interfere with your cake rising and doesn’t cause any sinking side effect.
Almond Glaze
As delicious as this vegan pound cake is, well sometimes pound cake can be considered a little…. boring. The almond glaze on top takes care of that!
It jazzes it up very nicely and it looks and tastes absolutely delicious.
Storing Instructions
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay good for a few days or covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week.
It’s also freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
More Delicious Vegan Cakes
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Coconut Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Pound Cake
Ingredients
For the Vegan Pound Cake:
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Vegan Buttermilk (240ml) 1 Tbsp lemon juice + soy milk up to the 1 cup line
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
For the Almond Glaze Topping:
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar (120g)
- 1 ½ Tablespoons Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
- Few Drops Almond Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray a 9×5 loaf pan with non-stick spray and line it with parchment paper so that there is overhang on either side.
- Add vegan butter and white granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together. Add vanilla extract and mix in.
- Prepare your vegan buttermilk by adding 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding in soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line. Let it curdle into buttermilk.
- Add the vegan buttermilk to the mixer and mix in with the vegan butter and sugar. It will look curdled but this is fine.
- Sift all purpose flour into a separate mixing bowl, add baking powder and salt and mix together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix into a batter with a spoon. Be careful not to overmix.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared 9×5 loaf pan and smooth down.
- Bake for 60 minutes. At the 40 minute mark, bring out the cake and tent it with foil* and then return it to the oven for the final 20 minutes. It's ready when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Lift the cake out of the loaf pan using the parchment paper overhang and place it onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare the almond glaze by adding powdered sugar, soy milk and almond extract to a bowl and mixing in until smooth. I didn't use the stand mixer for this, I found it was easy to mix up in a bowl.
- Spoon this on top of your cooled pound cake and smooth it down. It will likely run down the sides a little, this is fine.
- Top with almond flakes or slivered almonds and then place it into the fridge for 10 minutes for the topping to set.
- Cut into slices and enjoy!
Notes
- Vegan buttermilk – is best made with soy milk as it curdles really well. Almond milk also works.
- Tenting with foil. At the 40 minute mark, bring out the cake and add foil to the top in a tent shape. So let the top be quite high (in a tent shape) so that it doesn’t press down on the cake from the top. Put the cake back in for the last 20 minutes.
- Storing: Keep your pound cake stored at room temperature (covered) for a few days or in the fridge (covered) for up to a week. It’s also freezer friendly up to 3 months.
This works well with a gluten free flour blend. The blend I use is 4 parts white rice flour, 1 part soy flour, 1 part besan flour, 1 part sweet rice flour, 1 part potato starch 1 part tapioca flour. I also added 2 teaspoons guar gum to the flour mix. I didn’t top it with the glaze since I wanted it for strawberry shortcake. The left over pound cake was good as is.
Thanks so much for sharing Lynn, so happy it worked great as gluten free.
I made this today but I haven’t tried it yet. It was very easy to make. After I try it I’ll come back and rate it. Thanks for sharing.
Could I add either lemon/orange zest or juice for extra flavours?
You can definitely add zest! I wouldn’t add juice as it would throw out the balance of ingredients.
This is so easy I love it. I will try it with a chocolate glaze.
A very nice cake, I put melted butter on top with cinnamon sugar instead of the icing. It was like a tea cake . Yumm
Thanks for another great recipe
Awesome, thanks so much Sandra!
Can be done gluten free?
Hi Sylvia, you could try it with a gluten free all purpose flour blend. 🙂
This cake is absolutely delicious! My oven might be a little fast because the cake is done after 45 minutes (tent at 40 per the recipe, and then 5 minutes more.) Best recipe ever!!!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Ann!
This recipe is wonderful! I use it with my Easter lamb cake pan and it works perfectly.
Just would like to ask if it’s possible to just replace the flour with Gluten free flour 1:1?
thanks!
Carolina
Hi Carolina, I haven’t tested this cake as gluten-free but usually a gluten-free all purpose flour blend or 1:1 flour is a good choice.
I am OBSESSED with this pound cake. It has the perfect texture and density – moist and dense without being claggy. I had been looking for the perfect pound cake base recipe with which to get creative with flavours and this one has worked out wonderfully. I’ve made two variations so far – once as an orange cake (with orange zest & juice), and once as lemon-lavender (lemon zest & juice plus culinary grade lavender oil & buds), both absolutely divine. This is my go-to vegan blog, your recipes always turn out excellently (and I have very high standards when it comes to baking – only the best will do!) Thank you for another winner 🙂
Thank you so much Ashley! Those variations sound amazing!