Pound cake is a staple in the world of baked goods. It’s a simple yet delicious dessert that millions of people love to indulge in. If you’re on a vegan diet, you may be asking: is pound cake vegan?
As with all baked foods, traditional pound cake contains milk, eggs, and butter. All these ingredients are animal byproducts, making pound cake unsuitable for vegans. However, there are alternatives that can be used to make vegan pound cake.
Read on to learn more about how to make a vegan pound cake.
What Makes Food Vegan?
Those abiding by a vegan diet can only eat plant-based foods. Their food intake mainly consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts, nut butter, whole grains, and legumes.
On the other hand, vegans won’t eat any animal-based foods, such as beef or chicken. Furthermore, vegans abstain from eating animal byproducts, such as eggs, dairy, or even honey from bees.
Can Vegans Eat Pound Cake?
Not only is pound cake not vegan, but all traditional cakes are also not vegan. The main ingredients used when baking traditional cakes are milk, butter, and eggs. All these baking ingredients are animal byproducts that don’t match vegan diets.
What Substitutes Can Be Used to Make It Dairy Free?
Making dairy-free pound cake is challenging since milk and butter are two essential ingredients. However, there are substitutes you can use instead when making vegan cakes.
You can use oat milk or coconut milk instead of regular milk. You can easily find both these alternatives at the grocery store.
When substituting these ingredients into your recipe, use a one-to-one ratio.
Oat and coconut milk have a thick texture and an excellent mouthfeel that’ll make your vegan pound cake rich and fluffy.
As for butter, there are various alternatives you can switch it with. For starters, you can buy vegan butter from your local grocery store. You can also use dairy-free yogurt, olive oil, coconut oil, or coconut butter.
If you want to get creative, you can substitute regular butter with mashed bananas or avocados. Doing so will give your pound cake an added layer of fruity flavor.
Vegan Lemon Pound Cake Recipe
Do you want to make a pound cake without sugar, butter, milk, or eggs? We’ve got an amazing recipe for you to try!
It’s just as rich, fluffy, and delicious as the real deal while being completely free of animal byproducts.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to bake one cake:
- 1 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
- 1 tablespoon of baking powder
- 2 tablespoons of lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons of lemon extract
- 1 cup of vegan sour cream
- 2 tablespoons melted vegan butter
Once you have all these ingredients at hand, here’s what you’ll need to do:
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ then prepare a 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan by greasing it.
- Insert the butter, lemon zest, and sugar into a large bowl. Mix thoroughly using an electric hand mixer.
- Next, add the vegan sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon extract to the bowl. Mix them until they combine with the other ingredients. Don’t worry if the mixture looks curdled.
- Add the salt, baking powder, and flour to the bowl and stir them into the mix with a large spoon.
- Now it’s time to pour the mixture into the prepped loaf pan. Put the pan on the oven’s middle rack and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. You’ll know when it’s time to take the pan out when you can poke the cake with a toothpick and it cleanly comes out.
- Once you’ve taken the pan out of the oven, let the cake cool for 30 minutes. Next, remove the cake from the pan and place it on a cooling rack.
- Finally, cut your pound cake into slices and enjoy!
Final Thoughts
Are you wondering if pound cake is vegan? The answer is no. Traditional pound cake contains animal byproducts, such as milk and eggs.
However, you can use substitute ingredients, such as oat milk and vegan butter to make a vegan pound cake.
Try out the recipe we’ve outlined above and you won’t be disappointed!
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.