The Best Vegan Pound Cake

Ah, pound cake, or “quatre-quarts” as we call it in French. It’s probably the sweet that brings back the most nostalgic memories from my childhood.

In my younger years, my junior high school would treat us to pound cake as an afternoon snack, or « quatre heures », during outdoor trips. Why? Because here, you can find low-cost pound cakes sold in 29 ounces (800g) for less than $5! It’s a tasty and convenient treat, and every kid loves it. Oh I forgot to mention, it also keeps the school accountant happy.

While those cheap pound cakes tasted pretty good, I can assure you that my recipe tastes MUCH better!

⭐️ Why You Should Try It

Dreamy and buttery crumb.

My vegan pound cake is so rich and buttery that it literally melts in your mouth. While it has a dense texture, just like the classic, it is still moist and tender. Guests who tried this pound cake were SHOCKED it was vegan! That alone says a lot about how delectable it is!

To develop this recipe, I had to do some research and understand what makes pound cakes so special. I started by calculating the percentage of fat, sugar, and carbs in traditional pound cakes, as well as checking the nutritional information on the packaging of the ones sold at the supermarket. My research showed that most pound cakes in France contain, on average, 29% sugar, 48% carbs, and 24% fat.

With that in mind, I started experimenting with different ingredients to create a vegan pound cake that taste as good as the traditional one minus the eggs!

It stays moist for days.

Forget about cakes that become dry the next day. My pound cake stays moist for up to 4 days! That is due to a combination of ingredients such as vegan yogurt and oil that allows the texture to stay soft and perfectly tender. This means you can enjoy it throughout the week.

We love to have it for breakfast with yogurt, as an afternoon snack, or as a dessert topped with coconut whipped cream and fresh berries!

Impressive yet simple to prepare.

You will need only 9 simple ingredients and about 20 minutes of prep time to whip up this pound cake. It’s as easy as combining all the ingredients in a bowl, transferring the batter to a cake pan, and baking it until golden brown.

📘 What is a Pound Cake

A pound cake, also called “quatre-quarts” in French, is a sweet cake traditionally made with equal parts: flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. While its exact origin is unclear, it is believed that pound cake appeared in Nothern Europe in the early 18th century.

Later on, other add-ins, such as vanilla extract, dried fruits, or chocolate chips, were included.

🧈 Ingredient Notes

Unlike the traditional pound cake, this recipe calls for more than four ingredients. However, it still uses easy-to-find and budget-friendly ingredients. Here is what you will need:

Flour

I use basic all-purpose flour for this recipe, as it’s the one used in most classic pound cake recipes. There is no need to use bread or cake flour here. On a side note, I didn’t develop this cake recipe to be gluten-free so I cannot recommend any substitution for the all-purpose flour. You may try using a 1:1 gluten-free baking blend but I cannot assure you it will work as I haven’t personally tried it.

Plant-based yogurt

After trying different egg alternatives, such as aquafaba and applesauce, I finally settled on unsweetened plant-based yogurt. It gave the best and most consistent texture, bringing moisture and tenderness to the cake. Since I always have soy yogurt in my fridge, I used that, but any vegan yogurt will work.

You can use any vegan yogurt as long as it is unsweetened and unflavored. Blended silken tofu works too. You can learn more about that below.

Sugar

Like in traditional recipes, I went with granulated white sugar. The main advantage of using white sugar is that it has a bland flavor as opposed to other types of sugar like coconut sugar or maple syrup. This allows the vanilla flavor to shine!

Butter

You can use store-bought or homemade vegan butter. Butter not only adds the needed richness but also a lot of flavor! I do not recommend replacing it with oil, as it would alter the flavor and the texture.

If you use store-bought butter, I recommend Earth Balance, Country Crock, or Violife. I had the best results with brands that are firm when chilled. Stay away from the spreadable butter.

Oil

The addition of oil does two things. First, it brings extra richness to the crumb. Secondly, it helps the cake stay softer for longer. See, oil always results in a more tender crumb compared to butter. Cakes made with only butter tend to dry very quickly. Adding oil prevents that!

Use a neutral oil such as canola, grapeseed, or sunflower. I advise against using coconut oil as it imparts a coconut flavor to the cake.

Plant-based milk

Any unsweetened vegan milk will work. You can use almond, cashew, or even oat milk. I only use a very small amount of milk to thin the batter since the yogurt already brings a lot of moisture.

Vanilla extract

For the best aroma, opt for high-quality vanilla extract. You can elevate the flavor even further by replacing the vanilla extract with the seeds from half of a vanilla bean or the sugar with vanilla sugar.

Baking powder

I used regular baking powder to allow the cake to rise and give it a fluffier texture. Do not substitute with baking soda as the results would be completely different.

Salt

A pinch of salt goes a long way in enhancing the overall flavor. If you use salted butter, omit the salt.

🥣 How to Make It

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt to a large mixing bowl. Whisk until combined.

2. Melt the butter. Melt the vegan butter over low heat until just melted. You do not want the butter to be hot. Otherwise, it will activate the baking powder. If the butter is too hot, let it cool for a few minutes.
3. Whisk in the wet ingredients. Pour the melted vegan butter, yogurt, oil, almond milk, and vanilla extract into the dry ingredients. Whisk until combined. The batter will be very thick. This is normal.

4. Transfer to a cake pan. Once the batter is smooth, transfer it to an 8×4-inch loaf pan and spread the top into a smooth and even layer.
5. Make the split. Here is my secret tip to get the cake to split exactly in the middle. Dip a spatula in oil or melted butter and draw a line in the middle of the batter. This will allow the cake to crack precisely in the middle, not more cracks on the side! Creating that line of oil or butter in the middle of the batter is the magic trick to give your cake an aesthetic look.
6. Bake. Finally, bake the pound cake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown.

🧁 Lowering the Sugar

If you are wondering if you can lower the sugar content of this pound cake recipe, I have got you covered! I conducted a few tests by lowering the sugar by 25% and by 50%. Here are the results:

• 50% sugar: The lower amount of sugar made the batter much thicker, and I had to add an extra 3 tablespoons of milk. This pound cake didn’t rise as well as the others and was also a bit dryer. Taste-wise, it tasted good, but we thought it was missing a bit of sugar. I think this version would be great served with a sweet spread such as vegan Nutella or jam.
• 75% sugar: This version had a texture and shape almost as good as the 100% sugar one. I didn’t have to add any extra liquid.
• 100% sugar: Obviously, this pound cake had the best shape of all and a sweetness comparable to the traditional ones. It was also moister than the two other versions.

Conclusion: Each version tasted good, but the one containing only 50% sugar was significantly dryer and had the worst shape. The 75% sugar version was probably my preferred version, but be aware that I do not particularly have a sweet tooth.

🥛 Yogurt vs. Silken Tofu

Many of you have asked me if they can replace the yogurt in this recipe as it’s not always easy to find unsweetened vegan yogurt. The answer is yes! You can replace the yogurt with silken tofu. I tested this recipe with yogurt and silken tofu and compared both. Here are the results:

• Yogurt version: I used regular unsweetened soy milk yogurt that contains only soy milk and cultures and baked the cake as noted in the recipe.
• Silken tofu version: To replace the yogurt, I use an equal weight of silken tofu. Since silken tofu is not as liquid as yogurt, it has trouble dissolving into the batter. To prevent that I blended it into a cream before using it. Baking time was the exact same as the yogurt version.

Conclusion: Whether I used yogurt or silken tofu, there was no significant difference in texture or flavor. The slightly different shape and texture you can see in the photos above might just be the way I cut it and the lighting. Taste-wise, I found it tasted exactly the same.

🧑🏼‍🍳 Omitting the Oil

I also tested the recipe by omitting entirely the oil while keeping the butter. It resulted in a cake that was slightly dryer. So if you want your cake to stay moist and tender for days, I do not recommend doing so. On the other hand, if you want to save a bit on calories, feel free to remove it. Personally, I believe that pound cake is a treat and not supposed to be a healthy food anyway, so a few extra tablespoons of oil are not going to change much.

Note: To prevent waste, I tested all of these with half of the batter and baked them in a 5.75×3-inch loaf pan. You may notice the texture doesn’t look as thin as in the other photos. That’s simply because the cake is smaller, hence the texture looks coarser.

🍫 Variations

This delicate pound cake is delicious as is, but you can enhance it by incorporating:

• Chocolate chip: Add 3/4 cup of chocolate chips or chocolate chunks into the batter for extra sweetness. If you add chocolate chips, I suggest reducing the amount of sugar in the batter by about 25%.
• Dried fruit: Add about 3/4 cup of finely chopped dried fruits, such as figs, orange peel, dates, or raisins. Just like with chocolate chips, I recommend lowering slightly the amount of sugar in the batter.
• Orange: Add the zest from one orange to the batter.
• Lemon: I have made a specific recipe for lemon pound cake here!
• Marble: Divide the batter in half and add 3-4 tablespoons of cacao powder and 1 tablespoon of milk to one of them. Then, pour half of the vanilla batter into the pan and top with half the chocolate batter. Repeat once.
• Cinnamon: Add 3/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon for a holiday-spiced pound cake. You can even combine the cinnamon with orange zest!

🍵 What to Serve It With

You can serve this vegan pound cake as an afternoon snack with tea or coffee, for dessert with a dollop of whipped cream and fresh berries, or for breakfast with almond yogurt or cashew yogurt!

💬 FAQ

If you are looking for an elegant, buttery, and dense pound cake that tastes just as good as the classic without the eggs, you will love this recipe!

🍰 More Vegan Cake Recipes

Vegan Pumpkin Bread

The Best Vegan Banana Bread

Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread

Vegan Lemon Pound Cake

⭐️ Did you like this recipe? Let us know in the comments below, and tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!

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