Vegan Almond Layer Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting

The absolute best Springtime Almond Layer Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting (that’s secretly vegan)! Made with super simple ingredients, the cake itself is moist, perfectly sweet, hinted throughout with almond and vanilla! Bonus? Each layer of fluffy cake is coated with a delicious, roll your eyes back good – vegan almond buttercream that’s sweet and creamy. There’s so much to love here! Every bite is sweet, nutty, light and fluffy, and truly delicious. It’s the perfect cake to enjoy any Spring day, but especially for Easter!

→ This post is also available as a Web Story: Vegan Almond Layer Cake

About The Recipe

It’s officially Good Friday and we couldn’t be more excited! The weather is warming up, the sun is shining extra bright, and there isn’t even a cloud in the sky. It’s a beautiful day! So, is there a better time to share a beautiful cake than on a beautiful day?

I definitely don’t think so! Especially when it’s a cake as good as this one.

If I’m being honest, the absolute best thing about this cake (other than how pretty it is!) is that it’s secretly vegan! You would never know it until someone told you. The cake itself is light and airy, fluffy, perfectly sweet, spring-y…everything a perfect cake should be! Then, there’s the frosting… Rich, silky, sweet, smooth, and SO. GOOD. Even non-vegan’s love this cake!

We knew we wanted to do something for Easter this year. Just something a little extra special. It really came down to what do we think of when it comes to Spring/Easter…

Growing up, there were always beautiful Easter baskets waiting for me and my brother on the kitchen counter. They were filled with beautiful pastel colored toys, stuffed animals, and – of course, candy!

Everything from chocolates to candy coated nuts.

My favorite was always the jordan almonds.

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So, when my mom and I sat down to figure out what we wanted to do for Good Friday, it didn’t take us that long at all to come up with a recipe! Almonds. Specifically, an almond cake.

But, with me being me, I didn’t just wanna post another layer cake. I wanted to try something new and special because – well, this recipe is special.

I quickly decided that I wanted to do a small two tier cake…which also meant it was my first time ever making a tiered cake!

Honestly, it was more fun than I thought it was going to be! I asked my mom to double the recipe, because the recipe below only makes one layer cake, and I wanted two layer cakes…technically.

The hardest part was really trying to make sure the cake was level all the way around. I’m still not too great at that part, but I think for a first attempt, it went over pretty well!

To say I’m proud of this cake is an understatement…especially since the entire cake is made from plants!

Equipment Needed

• Mixing Bowls
• Whisk
• 8 Inch Cake Pans
• Mixer
• Offset Spatula
• Cake Board
• Turning Cake Stand

Ingredients

For The Cake:

• All-Purpose Flour
• Almond Flour
• Sugar
• Baking Powder
• Salt
• Vegan Egg
• Vegetable Oil
• Unsweetened Almond Milk

For The Buttercream:

• Vegan Butter
• Powdered Sugar
• Almond Extract

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. If the almond flour is lumpy, you may need to sift it.

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Stir in the vegan egg, vegetable oil, vanilla, and almond milk.

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Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until the cake tests done and is pulling away from the pans. Let cool in the pan and turn out. Let finish cooling on a wire cooling rack.

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Beat the butter in a mixer on high speed until creamed. About 3 minutes.

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Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well in between each addition.

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Stir in the almond extract. You may need to add a splash of unsweetened almond milk if the buttercream is too thick.

To layer the cake, place one layer on the cake stand and spoon about 1/2 on top. Spread evenly across. Place the second layer on top and coat with remaining frosting.

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Decorate however you want and serve!

Decorating Tips

• If you want to make a two tier cake like I did, there are a few things you should know! I recommend building both cakes separately and then transferring the smaller tier on top of your base. This way, all you have to do is frost them! Try to make the frosting as level as possible to keep the top tier straight, but if you need it, you can add in supports.
• If you use fresh flowers to decorate, be sure that they have not been fed any plant food or any harmful chemicals. Also, if you stick any stems in the cake, wrap them with parchment paper to keep the plant from touching the cake. Be sure to gently wash petals and stems before use!
• You can pipe flowers or really anything with our buttercream recipe!
• Feel free to use slivered almonds or crushed almonds to decorate.
• Edible flowers can also be used.
• Feel free to color the buttercream!

What Vegan Egg To Use

In this recipe, we used Just Egg. It’s one of our absolute favorites to bake with and it makes conversions easy!

We personally haven’t tried making this recipe with Flax Eggs or an Egg Replacer, so we can’t guarantee the outcome if you change what egg substitute you use. If you can find Just Egg, we highly recommend it!

How To Store

This is an oil based cake, so it needs to be kept in the refrigerator! You can store the whole cake in a covered cake plate, or slice the cake in individual portions so you can just grab a slice of cake whenever you want one! It should keep for about 4-5 days.

Substitutions

• Don’t have almond flour? No worries! Add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract and use 2 cups of all-purpose flour. The flavor won’t be as good, but it will still taste like almonds.
• If you aren’t vegan and want to make this recipe, use 2 large eggs and 3/4 cup whole milk. To make the frosting, use 1 1/2 cups salted butter.

Expert Tips

• If your almond flour is lumpy, you may need to sift it.
• When making the cake batter, make sure you beat out all the lumps! The batter should be smooth.
• You may need to cut the tops off of the cake layers to ensure that they’re even.
• If the frosting is too thick to spread onto the cake, add a splash of almond milk.
• The recipe makes one layer cake. We doubled the recipe for the pictures.
• Depending on how you decorate this cake, you may need more frosting.
• We used almond oil based butter for the buttercream.
• Make sure the almond milk is unsweetened!

When you make this Vegan Almond Layer Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting, leave a comment down below! We love hearing from you and answering any questions you might have! Also, be sure to tag us on social media and hashtag it #BakersTable.