Vegan Pound Cake
This Vegan pound cake is perfectly sweet and delicious! It is shockingly quick and easy to make. This Vegan lemon pound cake is refreshing, dense and great for breakfast and dessert.
For more plant based ideas, check out these Vegan Breakfast Ideas!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- This Vegan pound cake is quick and easy to make.
- It has a delicious lemon flavor.
- This recipe is made in one mixing bowl.
- It is made without eggs, without milk and without dairy.
- Great for breakfast, an afternoon snack or dessert.
- This pound cake is delicious with coffee or tea.
- This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, nut free, egg free and Vegan.
- Check out this Vegan Coffee Cake for another flavorful recipe.
Ingredients & Substitutions
These are the main ingredients and substitutions for Vegan pound cake. Scroll down to the recipe card for full ingredients list and instructions.
Use room temperature Vegan butter. Earth Balance butter sticks are a great option. I have not tried this recipe with another brand or coconut oil.
Granulated sugar adds the sweetness. Coconut sugar or brown sugar would both darken and change the overall flavor. Therefore, use granulated sugar.
Vanilla extract adds a classic homemade flavor.
Both lemon juice and lemon zest add the bright fresh lemon flavor. For a vanilla flavored pound cake, omit both lemon zest and lemon juice.
Coconut yogurt adds moisture. For best results, use an unsweetened plain variety. Kite Hill is a great option. If desired, use Vegan sour cream in its place.
Both gluten free 1 to 1 flour and all purpose flour can be used. I used gluten free flour to keep this pound cake gluten free.
Baking powder helps the pound cake rise slightly while baking.
What is Pound Cake?
Pound cake is a classic dessert. It actually dates back to the 1700s.
This recipe gets its name from its ingredients. Traditionally, pound cake was made with a pound of flour, pound of sugar, pound of butter and pound of eggs.
They are typically baked in a loaf pan or Bundt pan.
Pound cake is dense, sweet and buttery.
Taste & Texture
This Vegan pound cake is sweet with a nice lemon flavor. The lemon glaze adds a lot of lemon flavor. For a more mild flavor, use dairy free milk instead of lemon juice in the glaze.
The texture is dense, moist and soft.
How to Make
Step 1
First, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
Step 2
Add Vegan butter and granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix until creamy and no clumps of butter remain.
Step 3
Then, add in vanilla extract, lemon juice, lemon zest, and coconut yogurt. Stir to combine.
Step 4
Add in flour and baking powder. Stir until just barely combined. Do not over mix the batter!
Step 5
Add pound cake batter to the lined loaf pan.
Step 6
Bake for 38 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Step 7
Finally, remove from oven. Allow cake to cool for at least 1 hour before making glaze.
Step 8
To make glaze, add lemon juice and powdered sugar to a bowl. Stir until combined. Add more lemon juice for a thinner glaze.
Step 9
Remove Vegan pound cake from pan. Place on parchment paper on top of wire rack. Drizzle with glaze. Slice and serve!
Expert Tips & Tricks
For best results, carefully measure all ingredients.
Beat Vegan butter and sugar until no clumps of butter remain. This usually takes 1 to 2 minutes with room temperature butter.
Use unsweetened yogurt for best results. Vegan sour cream works well too.
The batter will be very thick. It is very important to not over mix the batter!
Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Allow Vegan pound cake to fully cool before glazing.
For a vanilla flavored glaze, replace lemon juice with dairy free milk.
For a thinner glaze, use more lemon juice or milk.
Flavor Variations
Instead of lemon, make a vanilla flavored pound cake. Omit lemon zest and lemon juice. In the glaze, use milk instead of lemon juice.
Feel free to add blueberries to the batter. This creates a lemon blueberry cake.
Replace lemon zest and lemon juice with almond extract. A little almond extract goes a long way!
Feel free to add chocolate chips to the batter.
How to Serve & Store
Serve Vegan pound cake once cooled down and glazed.
Serve with coffee or tea.
Store leftovers covered at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Butter cake is usually larger and lighter in texture than pound cake. Pound cakes are typically smaller and more dense in texture.
There are several ways to make pound cake more moist. First, the yogurt (or sour cream) makes it more moist. Do not over mix batter. In addition, do not over bake.
No! Glaze is highly recommended, but optional.
You May Also Like
- Vegan Pineapple Upside Down Cake
- Paleo Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake
- Brownie Cake
- Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
If you make this Vegan pound cake recipe, I would really appreciate a review! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. I would love for you to follow along! For more ideas, check out these Vegan Recipes.
Get the Recipe: Vegan Pound Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup Vegan butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 cup coconut yogurt
- 2 cups gluten free 1 to 1 flour, or all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
Glaze
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- First, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Add Vegan butter and granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix until creamy and no clumps of butter remain.
- Then, add in vanilla extract, lemon juice, lemon zest, and coconut yogurt. Stir to combine.
- Add in flour and baking powder. Stir until just barely combined. Do not over mix!
- Add batter to lined loaf pan.
- Bake for 38 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Finally, remove from oven. Allow cake to cool for at least 1 hour before making glaze.
- To make glaze, add lemon juice and powdered sugar to a bowl. Stir until combined. Add more lemon juice for a thinner glaze.
- Remove pound cake from pan. Place on parchment paper on top of wire rack. Drizzle with glaze. Slice and serve!
Notes
- I love Earth Balance Vegan butter sticks for this recipe.
- For this recipe, I used Kite Hill unsweetened coconut yogurt.
- If desired, substitute coconut yogurt with Vegan sour cream.
- The batter will be very thick. Do not over mix! Stir until just barely combined.
- Bake pound cake until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- The glaze is very tangy and lemony. Feel free to substitute lemon juice with dairy free milk for a more neutral flavor.
- Store leftovers covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- This pound cake tends to become more moist the second and third days.
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8 Comments on “Vegan Pound Cake”
Was very chewy and took much longer than stated time. I was pretty disappointed . Not a repeater.
Can this pound cake be frozen prior to glazing? Looking for make-ahead desserts! Thanks!
Hi Elaine! It may become a little firm once frozen and thawed. Worth a try though!
This pound cake is gorgeous! The vanilla mixed in gives it such a wonderful flavor! Really great! Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you for this vegan pound cake recipe.:) It’s super easy to follow and yet so delicious.:) YUM!
I had friends over for dinner and didn’t know what dessert to make since one of them was vegan. Appreciated by all my guests! And it was my first time trying to make a pound cake. I would say that I am super satisfied, very good! Thank you for this delicious recipe!
I love “plain” cake but pound cake was my favourite and this vegan version ticks all the boxes for me!
This vegan cake recipe sounds really good! I must pass it to a friend who is allergic to dairy!