Eggless Vanilla Sponge (Layer) Cake

Eggless Vanilla Sponge (Layer) Cake by DK on Feb 11, 2014

Vanilla Sponge Sandwich Cake Recipe | Eggless Cakes Recipes

A recipe that's requested more often than not is for eggless Vanilla sponge cake. Given that we consume eggs and it forms a huge part of our protein intake on a day to day basis, I really have no incentive to make them without. But having an eggless recipe that works is always good and hence this is mine. It comes handy especially when I have people coming over who don't have eggs as part of their diet for whatever reason.

Given my love for cooking and baking, not using eggs does not seem a good enough reason to avoid making a cake! :) Refined white flour is given a step motherly treatment in my kitchen and I tend to use it minimally. Hence this cake uses Whole Wheat pastry flour which tends to work perfectly instead of all purpose in most of the recipes when used as one to one substitute.

I had some strawberry Jam left over and was wondering if I could finish it before making/buying a fresh batch. The fridge also housed a wee little raw milk cream that needed to be used right away. Since it was right one day before my grocery shopping, carton of eggs were missing as well. I decided to make full use of this situation to make that long pending recipe request for an Eggless Sponge cake. This Vanilla Layer cake or a Sandwich cake if you will, helped to use up the sparse ingredients. You can, of course, skip the cream and Jam and make one regular cake instead.

Cook time: Under 30 min
Prep time: Under 15 min
Yields: Makes one 9 inch Sandwich Cake

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups (200 grams) Whole Wheat Pastry Flour or see Tips
1 cup (250 ml) Homemade Yogurt or store bought (not sour)
3/4 cup (165 grams) Organic Sugar or see Tips
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1-1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup (125 ml) Organic Canola Oil or see Tips
1-1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp Water, optional see Tips
1/4 cup Whipping Cream, see Tips
1/4 cup Strawberry Jam
Organic Powdered Sugar to dust, optional, see Tips

Tips

1. Whole Wheat Pastry Flour: Though I have personally not used it, I am told that substituting this with Chapathi (Atta) flour works equally well. You can do part wheat and part All Purpose flour or just use All Purpose flour instead. If using All Purpose flour, skip the 2 tbsp Water.

2. Sugar: I use Evaporated Cane juice since the sugar is natural and no chemical or animal by products were used so vegan as well. You can use regular white sugar instead. Since I am making a layer cake with Jam in the middle, I wanted the cake to be only mildly sweet hence used 3/4 cup sugar. If making just a regular cake and/or if you want your cake to be sweet, use 1 cup sugar instead.

3. Canola Oil: If using canola oil, I would suggest using only Organic or Non Gmo Canola oil. Or use any Vegetable Oil instead that is neutral tasting and has no taste of its own.

4. Whipping Cream: You would need about 2/3 cups of whipped cream which is enough to cover the cake. So 1/4 cup cream is enough. It makes approximately 3/4 cups. You can increase or decrease the amount depending on how much whipped cream you like.

5. Powdered Sugar: I usually grind my Organic sugar to make my own Powdered sugar. But if buying I would recommend organic powdered sugar since regular powdered sugar has cornstarch added to it that is GM unless otherwise mentioned. If GM is not a concern then use regular powdered sugar.

Method

1. Preheat Oven 350F. Grease and line your cake pans. I used two 9 inch pans. Sift the flour in a bowl. Set aside.

2. In another bowl, whisk the sugar and yogurt

3. until the sugar dissolves and is well combined.

4. Add baking powder and baking soda to this yogurt and mix well. Leave aside for 5 mins or until you can see the bubbles appearing. The yogurt mixture would look frothy.

5. To this, add vanilla extract , oil and 2 tbsp water. Mix well.
Important Note: Since I am using Whole Wheat flour, I needed additional liquid to avoid the cake being dense since unrefined flour tend to absorb more liquid. The amount might vary depending on the quality of your flour, the kind of flour and the climate. Start with 1 tbsp additional liquid and use as required. Refer step 9 for more details.

6. Add about 1/3 cup of the flour to the wet ingredients

7. and gently mix until combined.

8. Repeat until all the flour is used.

9. Make sure not to overbeat the batter. Gentle mix and fold is more than enough especially given that this is wheat flour. Otherwise you will have dense cake in your hands. The resultant batter should be thick, flowy and creamy. If you are using whole wheat flour but your batter is not this consistency (looks drier), add additional 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil (or a mix of water and oil), 1-2 tsp at a time. I have used 1 tbsp canola oil and 1 tbsp water (instead of 2 tbsp water) as well to good results.

10. You can use also use two 7 inch pans or just use 1 pan to make this. Pour the batter into the pans.

11. I only had 9 inch pans on hand hence used 2 of them to make the layers. I distributed the batter equally between them.

12. Bake for 20-25 mins

13. or till a fork / knife or skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. The cake should have risen, feel just firm to touch and would be golden brown.

14. Let it cool and then remove from the pans. Remove the wax paper.

15. While that's cooling, whip the cream and set aside.

16. Spread the Jam all over one cake.

17. On top of that, spread the whipped cream.

18. With the remaining cake, sandwich the Jam and cream.

19. Dust it with powdered sugar if using.

Slice and serve. You can store the cake in the fridge in an airtight container or wrapped in foil.

Filed Under these categories

Egg Substitutions

Recipe Reference

used nita mehta's recipe as a base to come up with my version.

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25 Comments

By Nonono on Apr 16, 2016

Can u just use vegetable oil rather than canola oil

Yes, any neutral tasting oil will work. --DK

By Gaurav Sharma on Feb 16, 2016

I would like to taste this eggless vanila sponge cake.

By Aakanksha Thakore on Aug 22, 2015

Hi DK! I tried this recipe and it was yumm! Just one query, if I want to use this same recipe for a chocolate sponge,how much Cocoa powder is required?

By Vasudha on Nov 29, 2014

Thank you so much!!! I made this came today as a nutella swirl sponge cake and my 3 year old twins helped me polish it off. I have been baking at home for the last few months. I look for healthy recipes that use whole wheat flour and your website is one of my favorites. On another note, do you use white whole wheat flour??

By Nadine on Jul 17, 2014

Hi, thanks for this wonderful recipe. I have not tried yet, but definitely will soon. Question: May I substitute coconut oil for the canola oil?

By Glyn on Jun 8, 2014

The ingredients are easy to find and I think this would be so easy to make too! So I must try this at home.. Thanks for the share :wink:

By dev on Jun 8, 2014

hi dk ,can yiu tell me what is proportion to make whipped cream ,bez I tried it and pick also came but some how when I am applying in my cake it's not stay nicely ,so plz explin me .yrs is very cremy and thick.

I do mention it in the ingredients list. Also refer my Tips section for more details. --DK

By sweta on Jun 6, 2014

Thans for this recipe. Can I use ghee instead of oil.

By Madhavi on May 21, 2014

8) amazing.. just amazing recipe... cake turned out brilliant... for a beginner level baker like me.. thanks a lot DK

I am so glad to hear that :) Thank you --DK

By NK on May 11, 2014

Hi DK! Thanks for the amazing recipe! Just like you, I too prefer whole wheat WHEREVER possible in my cooking and that makes me a huge fan of your blog! :) I tried making this cake with chapati atta but it turned really dense and non fluffy :(. Any idea where I can find whole wheat pastry flour in India? I am based in Mumbai. Thanks again!

I am not sure of the availability of whole wheat pastry flour in India. But Atta flour should work well from what many of my readers have informed me. Try adding a little more liquid next time around since wheat flour absorbs more liquid. Insufficient liquid might have forced you to over mix thereby dense. Add few additional tbsp of liquid and mix gently. --DK

By maitu on Apr 8, 2014

I will try the recipe this easter, it looks so yummy. most of your recipe are so marvellous

By maitu on Apr 8, 2014

I will try the recipe this easter, it looks so yummy. most of your recipe are so marvellous

By Smita on Apr 1, 2014

It was very interesting to see the recipe. But I have a question that the it should be better to use metallic utensils or non the non stick utensils. Please suggest.

By Naola de Ruiters on Mar 12, 2014

:?: Thank you for this lovely recipe. Also for the tips as our ingredients names differ from yours here in South Africa. I love baking and just love this. I have a question, please. What is baking soda? Is it the same as baking powder or is it a liquid?

By Naola de Ruiters on Mar 12, 2014

What an interesting cake. Thanks for the tips as well. It helps so much as our ingredients names are not not the same. What is baking soda. Is it a liquid? Much thanks for this awesome recipe.

By Sowmya on Mar 8, 2014

Hi DK, I used this sponge cake as base for making lamingtons, it came out well... Thanks, But even with APF I added 2tbs water as I felt batter was very thick, probably My yoghurt was very thick... Make sure to mix batter very gently is an important tip! Thanks once again...

By Vz on Feb 20, 2014

Hi How do i measure the oil-using dry measuring cup or the liquid measuring cup??

By Sunitha on Feb 17, 2014

Hi, Which OTG do you use for baking.Please let me know.

By Kira - HealthAble Old Soul on Feb 15, 2014

I love making yogurt cakes - they turn out so moist! Being eggless too helps a lot out in our family!

By Neha on Feb 13, 2014

thanks for the receipe DK!! it looks yummy..one quick question..I had made an eggless choclate cake couple of months back for the first time and it was badly burnt as I followed the specified timings for pre-heating the oven and baking it..on a second attempt, I did not pre-heat and just baked for 10 mins and it came out nice and fluffy..any idea why this could have happened? Based on that experience I fell 20-25 mins is a bit too much for baking it..Appreciate you response!!! Thanks a ton..

Every oven is different and its always prudent to use the temperature/time specification in a recipe as a guidance and adjust according to your oven. Or do the next best thing - invest in an oven thermometer. You will understand your oven better. Yours probably heats up faster and higher than what it shows --DK

By Ruchita on Feb 13, 2014

Hey when you suggest some products that are peculiar to US, please can you keep in mind your fans from India as well. We do nt hav the luxuary to always get all the products. Thanks :) :-P :-P :-P Love your recipies thoroughly.

Oh yes, I definitely do. Which is why I painstakingly write the "Tips section" in which you will find alternatives for ingredients I use to the best of my knowledge :) --DK

By Jay on Feb 12, 2014

Nice cake...will try it soon. Btw, where do you buy non gmo canola oil? I usually buy from Costco and it doesn't say non gmo on it there...

If it doesn't say non gmo, then it most probably is. Any health based grocery should carry them. I am not sure if you have shops like Whole Foods, Sprouts in your area. They carry them. You get both Organic and/or a seal with Non Gmo. They both are good options. --DK

By Priya on Feb 12, 2014

Yayyyyy!!!! Thank you thank you. I am one of those who sent you this request. I was going to send you a mail again today as a reminder and tada....saw this post. Waiting for your posts is like waiting for my favorite serial - unbearable wait. Hopefully you will get to do all the recipe request. I am sure you have many. I myself have sent you 14 :mrgreen: Can't wait to see your version of all the recipes. Thank youuuuuuuuuuuu :-D :evil:

And my husband wonders why I have this huge grin every time I read my comments. Can anyone blame me? :) Thank you Priya. I wish to complete a huge backlog and hopefully I make a huge dent this year. --DK

By Hari Chandana on Feb 12, 2014

Looks so soft and moist.. yummy! :)

By Nandita on Feb 12, 2014

The cake looks irresistible!!! And so healthy. I will be trying this soon :)