Vegan Gluten-Free Vanilla Wedding Cake
Vegan Gluten-free Vanilla Wedding Cake is a showstopper, amazingly delicious, perfectly sweet, soft, tender, buttery and moist and is so good, it tastes just like any traditional wedding cake. It is frosted with a melt-in-your-mouth vegan buttercream frosting.
Servings: 3 layer 8 inch cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups (480g) regular white rice flour
- 1 1/2 cups (192g) cornstarch
- 2 1/4 cups (432g) fine pure cane sugar (I used Florida Crystals brand which is a very pale color, but white will work)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon (15g) baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fine salt
- 3 3/4 cups (900g) full-fat coconut milk, room temp! (Thai kitchen is the absolute best texture of milk) DO NOT USE POLAR BRAND
- 1 1/2 cups (360g) liquid coconut butter, slightly warmed (I use the MaraNatha brand from Sprouts, I’m sure other locations sell it too)
- 2 tablespoons (30g) vanilla extract
VEGAN BUTTERCREAM FROSTING (Yields about 6 cups frosting, double the recipe for the full cake to ensure you have enough)
- 3 4 oz (1 1/2 cups, 336g) Earth Balance vegan butter sticks
- 1 1/2 cups (288g) Spectrum Organic Shortening
- 7 1/2 cups (1,140g) powdered sugar (I used Sprouts Vegan)
- 1 tablespoon white vanilla powder (I use this instead of extract to keep the frosting white. You can sub with extract if you like, but use HALF.)
- 3 tablespoons (45g) coconut milk
NOTE
- Please absolutely USE A SCALE! It's SO important for accuracy in baking, especially with cakes and even more so, a cake like this. I cannot stress this enough. Make sure you are zeroing out in between each ingredient and add them slowly as to not too much. Do not sub even one of these ingredients. I worked endlessly to perfect this recipe and each ingredient plays a very important role. If you are allergic to any of these ingredients, then unfortunately this recipe is not for you. It simply is not going to work out as intended by changing it. THE only ingredient you could try subbing would be the cornstarch for potato starch (same weight amount) but I've baked for years with each starch and they ALL act differently, particularly with cakes. I tested tapioca and it is NOT a suitable sub for this because there is a large starch amount and made the cake nasty, gooey and chewy. Potato starch may work, but it WILL make the cake a bit more crumbly since it doesn't bind quite as well as cornstarch and makes things a bit more tender/dry.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- DO NOT MAKE THIS CAKE MORE THAN A DAY IN ADVANCE or store it in the fridge. Because of the high starch amount, it will start to dry out after a full day of sitting (the first 24 hours is the best, most moist and buttery result) and storing it in the fridge will really dry it out and make it hard.
- This written recipe is only for the three 8 inch layer cake (bottom tier) since I figured a lot of readers will just want that recipe for birthdays or whatever. If you are wanting to make the whole cake as pictured with the top 3 6 inch layer tier, see the NOTES below for the recipe for the top tier 6 inch 3 layer cake and follow the steps in the post.
- Believe it or not, this cake has a very mild coconut taste. I had taste testers not even pickup that there was coconut, but if you hate coconut, you will likely taste it.
- Please refer to the actual post for the detailed step-by-step instructions. If just wanting to make an 8 inch 3 layer cake (the recipe above is for that only) and not a wedding cake, then you can just skip the dowels. Please still follow the other instructions for chilling the layers for JUST 30 minutes before trimming and frosting, as this step is important for "setting" the cake, as well as further sets the overall structure of the cake. Since this cake is gluten-free, this magical step works beautifully with this brief chilling. So, in other words, do not frost this cake until after it has chilled in the fridge 30 minutes, ok? This applies whether you are doing just a basic 3 layer cake OR the full 2 tier cake.
- If you are wanting to make the whole cake as pictured with the top 3 6 inch layer tier, see the NOTES below.
- Make sure your coconut milk is at room temperature and see post above for the coconut butter info.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and lightly spray with nonstick spray 3 8 inch round aluminum cake pans (they bake evenly and work the best) that are 2 inches tall on the sides. Do not flour the pans. I use coconut oil nonstick spray and it works like a breeze. Wipe off any dripping excess oil. Place a round piece of parchment paper on the inside of each pan cut to fit neatly inside. The easiest way to do this is to place the pan on the paper and trace around the pan with a pen and cut just inside the line.
- Grab a very large bowl and add the white rice flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Use a large whisk very well until mixed.
- With full-fat coconut milk, the coconut cream will separate from the water in the can. You will need 3 cans to have enough milk (if just doing the bottom 3 layer cake and 4 cans if doing the full cake). You need to scrape out all of the water and cream from the cans into a blender or another bowl and either blend it until smooth or whisk very well until completely smooth and mixed. If you do not do this first, you run the high risk of either getting too much cream or too much water and not the right mixed combo of each, will be really affect the cake's texture. Please do not skip doing this! Weigh the appropriate amount in a separate large bowl.
- Add the liquid coconut butter and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid. Whisk until completely smooth, making sure to get the bottom. Make sure it's all completely mixed.
- Divide the batter evenly into all 3 pans and smooth out the tops with a spoon. Pick up the pans and slightly jiggle them to even out the tops.
- Bake all three 8 inch cakes on the center rack for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of each cake. All mine were done right around 28 minutes. A few dry crumbs are ok, but not wet batter! Next, (if doing) start the 6 inch cakes (recipe for those under NOTES below), they will bake anywhere from 22-30 minutes. Mine were done at 25.
- Refer to the above post for detailed cooling instructions and further cake details.
- To make the buttercream, add the room temperature softened vegan butter and shortening to a huge bowl and beat on low until just blended. Add the sugar about a cup at a time blending on low until all is incorporated. Add the milk and vanilla and beat just until light and fluffy. Cover with plastic wrap to keep it moist until ready to frost.
Notes
- This wedding cake size (the full one pictured) will serve around 40-50 guests considering wedding cakes slices are typically smaller than traditional birthday cake slices.
- To Make the Top Tier (6 inch 3 layer cake): you will need to also make this recipe:
1 1/2 cups (240g) white rice flour, 3/4 cup (96g) cornstarch, 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (216g) fine pure cane sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons (7g) baking powder, 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, 1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons (450g) full-fat coconut milk shaken well, 3/4 cup (180g) liquid coconut butter, 1 tablespoon (15g) vanilla extract - Follow the same steps for preparing the batter as above. Baking time is a bit less, from 22-28 minutes. All 3 are baked at the same time and mine were done at 25 minutes.