VEGAN VANILLA CAKE

Ingrediente

(makes two 8-inch round layers, approx 1.75 inches tall)

120 g (1 cup) all-purpose flour, unbleached (for gluten paste)

120 g (½ cup) water, room temperature (for gluten paste)

450 g (2 ¼ cups) white sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

8 g (2 teaspoons) white miso paste*

360 g (1 ½ cups) water, room temp (for batter)

149 g (¾ cup) oil (any flavorless vegetable-based)4 teaspoons butter extract**

3 teaspoons vanilla extract***

2 teaspoons salt

319 g (2 ⅔ cups) all-purpose flour, unbleached

20 g (2 ¾ tablespoons) chickpea flour or besan****

For Vegan Vanilla American Dreamy Buttercream: (makes about 4 ½ cups):

510 g (2 ¼ cups) unsalted plant-based butter sticks⟡, softened slightly

120 g (1 cup) powdered sugar (1), unsifted ok if not clumpy

8 g (1 ½ teaspoons) vanilla extract

5 g (1 teaspoon) butter extract (optional, but delicious)

⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt (to taste, start with a pinch)

312 g (1 cup) sugar syrup⟡⟡

30 g (¼ cup) powdered sugar (2), optional

30 g (2 tablespoons) plant-based milk or creamer (optional)⟡⟡⟡

Instrucțiuni

Preheat the oven + prepare the pans.

Move your rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C).

Spray with oil the insides of two 8" cake pans and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.

Mix the gluten paste.

In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose flour (labelled “for gluten paste”) with the water (labelled “for gluten paste”).

Mix on medium-high speed for about 2-3 minutes. The flour and water will be clumpy at first, then gradually stick together and smooth out as gluten develops. You’re done mixing when the paste can form a soft, sticky, loose ball.

Combine the wet ingredients with the gluten paste.

Add the white sugar, baking powder, white miso paste (if using), and a splash of the water (labelled “for batter”) to the gluten paste, and mix on low speed until everything is well mixed.

Add the remaining water in a steady stream until all is used, then mix on medium speed for 30 seconds.

Add the oil, extracts, and salt and mix for an additional minute on medium-high speed.

Set this aside.

Sift in the dry ingredients.

In another small bowl, sift in the all-purpose flour (labelled “for the batter”) and chickpea flour. Whisk the dry ingredients together for about 30 seconds.

Mix everything.

Add the dry ingredients to the cake batter in 4-5 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition.

Once everything is added, mix for another 10-20 seconds on low speed.

Fill the pans.

Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared pans.Bake for about 50-55 minutes.Generally, vegan cakes take a little longer to bake. Poking the surface of the cake too early (with a skewer or thermometer) can cause the center to sink, as the cake is more delicate. I suggest using visual cues to assess doneness first, then try a poke test. You’ll know the cake is done when it has a slightly domed, shiny surface. When you shake the pan, the centers should not jiggle. Pressing gently on the cake's surface with your fingertip should leave a slight indentation, but it should feel somewhat firm. After this, you may attempt a poke test with a skewer, which should not have any crumbs attached.

With a thermometer, this cake is done around 200-205 F/89-91°C.

Cool the cakes.

Move the pans to a wire rack and allow them to cool in the pans. Some cakes will deflate slightly (particularly the chiffons), but all my cakes are designed to be cooled while resting upright in the pans.

Remove cake from the pan.

I remove cakes from their pan while they are still slightly warm to preserve moisture.

Once the cake pan has cooled enough to handle, slide a knife around the perimeter of the cake to loosen it, then carefully invert the pan onto a wire rack or plate. The cake should fall right out, and you can peel the parchment off the bottom. You can leave the cakes out if your frosting is done, and you're immediately moving to assembly. Usually, if it's more than 30 minutes, I will wrap the cake in plastic to reduce moisture loss. The cakes must be completely cooled before moving on to the assembly.

Make the Vegan Vanilla American Dreamy Buttercream:

Prepare the Frosting Butter.

Add the slightly softened plant-based butter to the stand mixer bowl (or a large bowl, if using a hand mixer).

Using the whisk attachment (or a hand mixer), mix on low to break it up, then whip on high until smooth and creamy.

Add the powdered sugar (1), extracts, and a small pinch of salt to the butter, whisking again at medium-high speed for 1-2 minutes more.

Add the sugar syrup incrementally.

Add the syrup in 3 to 4 additions. Stop the mixer, add a small amount, then mix at medium speed with the whisk attachment. Repeat until all the syrup is incorporated, scraping down the bowl a couple of times for even mixing. Mix at high speed for 1 minute after adding all the syrup. Since corn syrup is clear, it can be hard to tell when it’s fully emulsified, so set a timer and mix for the full minute.

Adjust frosting for sweetness and density.

Adding this second amount of sugar will make your buttercream slightly looser. You can easily adjust the buttercream back to a firmer consistency by adding a little softened vegan butter.Taste the frosting; the amount of powdered sugar you add in this step is dependent on the type of sugar syrup you use (some are sweeter than others) and your preference for sweetness. You can add more powdered sugar or none at all, depending on your preferred sweetness.

If it tastes okay, move on to Step 4.If you would like it sweeter, add powdered sugar (2) in small increments, tasting as you go until you reach the desired sweetness. Once you have the desired sweetness, mix on high speed for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Adjust frosting for texture and flavor.

Taste the frosting; if it's too buttery, add the plant-based liquid one tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

Adjust salt and extracts as needed.If you’re working on a stand mixer, switch to the paddle attachment and smooth the frosting at low speed for a few minutes to remove large air pockets. If you’re using a hand mixer, switch to using a spatula to press and smear the frosting against the side of the bowl. It’s not nearly as effective as the stand mixer, but it should work a little at smoothing things out.

Note

https://www.sugarologie.com/recipes/vegan-vanilla-cake

*White miso paste is a thick paste made of fermented white soybeans and provides a very slight umami flavor that is often missing from vegan cakes. It’s absolutely not essential in that its presence or absence will not impact the texture or structure of the cake in any way. It’s more of a “nice to have” ingredient, and I’ll often use it if I already have it in my fridge, as it adds a more complex flavor profile to the final vanilla cake.**Butter extract is an essential base flavor for this cake. Without it, the cake will taste a tad “green/vegetal” from the chickpeas. My favorite extract so far is LorAnn Butter Bakery Emulsion, which is a vegan product. Their Butter-Vanilla extract is also good, though a little light on the butter flavor, and their Buttery Sweet Dough extract is very delicious, tasting like buttery sugar cookies. You can view the results of this experiment in the introductory section of this recipe.***This is a vanilla cake, so you can use vanilla here, or really highlight the butter flavor by adding extra butter extract. I also like to use almond extract, but it's strong, so I use only half the amount of vanilla called for in this recipe. Ube is also delicious, and you can use the full amount listed in place of vanilla.****Chickpea flour is a finely ground powder made of dried and ground chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans). You can use either product labeled “chickpea/garbanzo bean flour” or “besan.” The latter is slightly stronger in protein power, yielding a slightly higher rise for your cake, but it is also more “beany” in flavor. For the cake above, I used Bob's Red Mill Chickpea Flour.⟡You can use most plant-based butters, just ensure they are available in stick form and therefore are formulated to be more stable or solid at room temperature. I used Country Crock Unsalted Plant Butter sticks for the recipe pictures above.⟡⟡There are several types of sugar syrups you can use in this buttercream. In my photographs above, I’ve used light corn syrup. If you’d like to use another type of syrup, refer to my American Dreamy Buttercream master guide. Even though this is a vegan recipe, the sugar syrup substitutions are the same.⟡⟡⟡If, at the end of mixing, you find your buttercream is too thick/heavy/overly buttery, you can add the plant-based milk/creamer. Start with one tablespoon, whisk on high speed, and taste it. You can keep doing this until you like the texture and taste.