This vegan orange cake is a marvelous treat. It is crammed with vibrant orange flavor in every bite and on top goes a yummy orange marmalade frosting. The recipe is soy-free and nut-free and you need just one bowl and 10 ingredients to make it. You can be sure it is the best vegan orange cake you will ever eat!
Vegan Orange Cake
Citrus is a marvelous flavor for cakes, and one I never can get enough of. This vegan Orange Cake is a dessert I've baked over and over for many years, after first finding the recipe in the Joy of Cooking. Over the years I've made some tweaks and, most importantly, I've multiplied its deliciousness by doubling the recipe and slathering it with a fluffy, decadent orange marmalade buttercream frosting.
This is a delicious cake, full of orange flavor in every bite. It has a tender crumb that's perfectly but not cloyingly sweet, and the marmalade buttercream is soft and fluffy and to die for.
It is also a rather easy cake to make: it should take you no more than 10 minutes to throw the ingredients together and perhaps another 10 to whip up the frosting, if that. It's also a one-bowl recipe because you can throw all your ingredients for the cake in one by one, and then rinse out the bowl and use it to whip up your frosting. And best of all, you can even make your cake a tad boozy, as I sometimes do (but not this time), by subbing a couple of tablespoons of the orange juice with an orange liqueur.
Ingredients for Vegan Orange Cake
- Flour. I sometimes use unbleached all purpose but when I'm feeling a little extra-healthy, I've used whole wheat pastry flour. Both give great results that are quite comparable. You can also use half and half if you're undecided.
- Orange. You need both the orange juice and the orange zest here. I use the pulpy juice, so if you want to just toss your oranges in a blender and juice them, go right ahead. Or just buy fresh squeezed orange juice that's pulpy off the shelf at your grocer's. You will need a whole orange to zest, though.
- Orange marmalade. This is for the frosting, and it's wonderful.
- Vegetable oil. In vegan cakes, oil not only subs for butter, I think it makes the cake more moist, which is a win-win, isn't it?
- Baking soda. There is no baking powder in this recipe and 2 teaspoon baking soda is all you need for the leavening.
- Apple cider vinegar (use regular vinegar if that's what you have)
- Pure vanilla extract
- Sugar. I use turbinado, which makes the crumb darker, but any kind will work.
- Powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar, for the frosting.
- Vegan butter for the frosting.
How to make the best Vegan Orange Cake recipe
- This is a one-bowl recipe, like I already said, so you don't have to worry about mixing the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients, then merging them. You can start out by throwing in your wet ingredients -- the orange juice, zest, oil, vinegar, vanilla and sugar -- beat it all until combined, and then throw in the dry ingredients and mix until they come together.
- Scrape your batter into two 8- or 9-inch cake pans lined at the bottom with parchment paper and with the sides oiled. Bake for 30-35 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
- Cool the cakes in the pan, then unmold and continue cooling them on racks before frosting.
How to make the Orange Marmalade Buttercream Frosting
- Make sure your butter is at room temperature -- not hard nor melted, but soft.
- Start out by combining the orange marmalade in the bowl with the butter and whisk, then begin to add the powdered sugar, half a cup at a time.
- Beat in the sugar after each addition and taste as you go to adjust the amount of sugar up or down to your liking. I find that most frosting recipes use too much sugar for my taste. For this cake I used two cups of powdered sugar and it was perfect. More sugar will make your buttercream stiffer, so keep that in mind as well.
- If your powdered sugar has been standing around for some time and is clumping together, run it through a sieve before adding it to the frosting to make sure the buttercream is perfectly smooth and fluffy, the way you want it to be.
- Use an offset spatula or a butter knife to frost your cake. Dump half of the frosting on the first cake, spread it around evenly, then carefully place the second cake, bottom side up on the first cake and frost the top and sides with remaining frosting. This recipe doesn't make enough frosting to get a liberal layer of buttercream around the sides of the cake, but if you want to do that, add another stick of butter to your frosting and increase the other ingredients proportionately.
I hope you'll try and enjoy this amazing Vegan Orange Cake with Orange Marmalade Buttercream Frosting as much as we did. If you make it, be sure to let me know in the comments below or take a photo and tag me @holycowvegan on Instagram!
Frequently asked questions
The cake is delicious without the frosting and you can definitely serve it plain. Sift some confectioners' sugar on top for a pretty look.
Using just olive oil would overwhelm the orange flavor of this cake. I recommend using vegan butter in this recipe, but if you want to use oil preferably use an unflavored vegetable oil, like avocado oil. At best you can substitute half the butter with extra virgin olive oil.
The cake will keep in the fridge for up to five days. For longer storage freeze slices, individually wrapped, in a freezer-safe bag or container. You can also tightly cling-wrap the whole cake, place it in a freezer-safe bag, and freeze for up to three months.
More vegan cake recipes
- Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with a Lemon Glaze
- Vegan Lemon Yogurt Bundt Cake
- Vegan Zucchini Cake with Orange Marmalade Glaze
- Vegan Mango Cheesecake
- Vegan Lemon Blueberry Cake
Vegan Orange Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
For the vegan Orange Cake:
- 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour (can use whole wheat pastry flour or half all purpose and half whole wheat)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups orange juice (sub two tablespoon of the orange juice with an orange liqueur if you like)
- Zest of an orange
- 2 cups sugar
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
For the vegan Orange Marmalade Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 cup vegan butter (2 sticks)
- ½ cup orange marmalade
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Place the orange juice, zest, sugar, oil, vinegar and vanilla in a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Use a whisk or the whisk attachment of the stand mixer to mix for one minute or until everything appears to be well-mixed.
- Add the baking soda, salt and flour to the bowl and mix. Scrape down the sides of the pan after 20 seconds of mixing and mix for 20 seconds more, but no longer.
- Spray two 8- or 9-inch cake pans with cooking spray or oil. Preferably line the bottom with parchment paper, or, if you don't have this, flour the pans. Divide the cake batter equally between the two pans.
- Bake the cakes in a 350-degree oven for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then slide a thin knife around the edges of each cake
- Gently flip each cake onto a plate, slide onto a rack, and continue cooling before you frost.
Make the frosting:
- Place the orange marmalade, vanilla and butter in a bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until combined, around 30 seconds.
- Add the powdered sugar, half a cup at a time, incorporating well into the butter mixture after each addition. Your frosting should be smooth, creamy and fluffy.
Assemble the cake:
- Place one of the cakes, on a plate or cake stand. Dump half of the frosting on the cake, use an offset spatula or knife to spread it evenly, then place the second cake on top, taking care to ensure they line up evenly. Spread the remaining frosting evenly over the top of the cake, using anything that remains for the sides.
- Slice and serve.
Rosie
THANK YOU Vaishali :)......made this for the first time a couple of days ago for a birthday cake after a lovely friend made it for me for my birthday ....OMG - this cake is DIVINE!!! Everyone loved it so much. I accidently added 2 tblspns of vanilla instead of 2 tspn to the cake batter because I wasn't paying attention at that measuring moment and thought (oh no I will have ruined it' 🙁 .... but amazingly it was still fine!! ;). This has definitely become the top of the list of fave special occasion cakes for sure in our household!!! xxx 🙂
Nancy
Best cake EVER
Vaishali
So awesome you made it!
Maria
Hi Vaishali,
Can I cut down on the 2 c sugar and 2/3 c oil in this recipe? If so, how much?
Thanks!
Maria
Vaishali
You can--replace up to half a cup of the sugar or a fourth of a cup of oil with apple sauce. I wouldn't cut down on it too much though. Better to eat it as it is meant to be, but eat less. 🙂
Kadi
Hi! Can I bake and frost this 1 day ahead? Or will the frosting go ugly? ? Sorry if it's been answered, I couldn't find. Thank you! ?
Vaishali
Yes 1 day ahead is just fine!
Kadi
Thank you! Also in the post part it says we'll need to use zest of one orange but in the recipe part it's not there. Should I add zest of one orange to the batter?
Vaishali
Yes and added. 🙂
Adrienne
can i sub sugar to a swerve or stevia?? i am an anti sugar person so i was wondering if there would be any good alternatives of the sugar...if honey or maple too works?? thanks for the recipe i am anxious to try this!
Vaishali
I would go for maple syrup— stevia would make the cake dry.
Susan
Which vegetable oil? Olive oil work? Thx!
Vaishali
Olive would add a strong flavor, so I'd recommend something like avocado, which is flavorless. At a pinch, virgin coconut oil would work better with the flavors here.
Keren
HI, thanks for this great recipe! I made it today for my friends birthday. I only had one tin so did the whole batter in one go and didn't cook it for quite long enough so it was a little under but it would have been absolutely perfect and will be next time I do it! My butter cream icing split though - did anyone else find that? It was my own homemade marmalade which has quite a high liquid content so perhaps the citrus liquid was too much?? It didn't matter it was delicious and looked beautiful despite the splitting (i covered the top in toasted coconut flakes...) thank you. A real find.
Vaishali
So happy you tried! Not sure why the icing split, it could be the liquid. Happy you enjoyed the cake. 🙂
Jane
Wonderful recipe, so fresh tasting. Because I am allergic to any form of margarine, I’ve been afraid to try vegan butter. I placed a thin layer of marmalade between the layers and dusted the top (through a pretty doily) with powdered sugar. It worked very well.
Vaishali
Hi Jane, marmalade only sounds great. I sometimes serve the cake without any frosting and it still works. So happy you tried it!
viyth
I made this for diwali yesterday and it was a great hit! I didn't have any liqueur so used some orange zest instead and baked it in an 8inch round pan. Decided to add a glaze (1/4 cup breakfast marmalade + 1 tablespoon rum heated up for a bit) on top and it was perfect. Needless to say, no leftovers so thank you Vaishali!
Vaishali
So glad you liked it. Happy Diwali! 🙂
Anonymous
This recipe is a family favorite. Family members have requested it for their birthdays, and my grandson is graduating high school today and requested it for his party!! I double the recipe and put it in a 13 x 9 in pan, otherwise there'd never be enough for seconds with my crowd!
Vivienne
I made this cake the other day and it was SO delicious. I baked mine for 35 minutes and it probably still could've gone for another minute or two, but it was still awesome. I also made a small addition that worked surprisingly well (and might've been why it needed a few more minutes).
I removed and discarded the membrane from the inside of 3 oranges (after I juiced them), cut the rind into a small dice, and boiled with about 3 cups of water for 10 minutes. I then drained the rind and put it into the completed cake batter and it gave the finished cake a nice texture. Would highly recommend! This cake also tastes very good with home-made cranberry sauce (any time of year!). Great recipe!
Lisa
Another successful cake recipe from HCV! Thanks Vaishali! I really don't see the need for adding eggs to a cake batter anymore. Seems to me that eggs could be one of the ingredients that make cakes dry out anyway after baking the vegan way several times now. This orange cake is tender, moist, and full of orange flavor, particularly since I added the zest of an orange before blending the flesh to make fresh juice.
Vaishali Honawar
Hi Lisa, so happy you liked it! And can't agree more on the use of eggs in cake -- they do seem to dry the cake out. Besides that smell! Even when I was eating meat and eggs etc., and I did enjoy eggs, I couldn't stand the eggy smell in baked goods. 🙁
Thanks for your feedback, and the orange zest sounds like a great idea! 🙂
Vaishali Honawar
Hi Lakshmi, it's hard to say what could have happened, since you used a convection oven-- I've only made this in my conventional gas oven where the heat comes from the top and bottom. In a convection oven, a fan blows the heat around which should allow for even cooking. Perhaps next time you might try reducing the temperature a little bit-- by about 25 degrees-- and see how it works.
Leslie Sanford
I know this is kind of belated, but I want to thank you for taking a stand against Michael Vick. You are so right, and I feel his punishment was totally inadequate because of his fame. And now this animal torturer has a new dog - I fear for its life and am sure it will be trained to fight. A pit bull would be too obvious, so he got a Belgian Malinois - used frequently by military handlers and can be trained for aggressiveness and attack.
shani
this cake is so amazing!! made it twice now and it came out perfect each time 🙂
not to mention - easy! can whip it up in less than 10 minutes!
a tip - before I put it in the oven I sprinkle it with poppy seeds for a orange and poppyseed cake 🙂
so delicious - you don't need frosting!
Selvi
Hi Vaishali...I baked this cake twice using all the ingredients in the same proportion except for the liqueur part. I used one cup of fresh orange juice instead. I threw in some orange zest. I also used unbleached flour and substituted the oil with melted vegan butter. The final product was soft and moist and tasted delicious. However, the orange cake appeared more like a brownie as in the colour. When I took it out from the microwave convection oven, it was light in color but became brown over time. I used a dark colored baking tin. It took 15 minutes to bake at 150 degrees Celsius.How do I get the orange color as illustrated in your picture to live up to its name "orange cake"?Thank you.
Vaishali
Hi Selvi, it's strange about the color. A dark tin can indeed darken the final product, but the cake pan I use is also a pretty dark one. One possibility is the microwave convection oven which might brown differently than my gas oven does. Is it orange inside, or brown inside as well? Anyway, glad you liked the texture and taste.
Selvi
Hi Vaishali...thank you for the reply. It's also brown inside...dark chocloate so to speak. The thing is it was lighter in colour when I took it out from the oven once baked and as it cooled down...it was browning all round. This has only happened to this recipe. I have tried other recipes and they turned out normal. Anyway, the cake is still good to go. Thank you.
Vaishali
Sorry I couldn't be more help, Selvi, but glad it at least tastes good. Happy baking! 🙂
Jessica
So, cupcakes were great. I also added fresh diced pineapple, used spiced rum in place of the Cointreau I did not have, decided that made it a kind of spiced cake so added fresh ground cinnamon and nutmeg, used carrot orange juice b/c that's what I had, threw in a handful of poppy seeds because why not, and used half and half canola oil and olive oil for the veg oil, again, what I had. I doubled the recipe and did one 8" cake and 12 cupcakes. RAVE reviews by all.
Vaishali
That's great to know, Jessica, so glad the recipe worked as cupcakes. Thanks for sharing with the rest of us.
Donna
Do you think the orange cake recipe would work out ok using gluten free flour? I can't use almond or any other nut flour as my daughter is anaphylactic with ALL nuts and most seeds, so it needs to be just GF flour or a mix of that & GF oat flour?
Vaishali
Hi Donna, GF flour should be fine for this cake!