If you're looking for an easy (and delicious) way to use up oranges this citrus season, this vegan orange cake is the answer.
It comes together in just a few easy steps and uses 10 pantry staple ingredients. You can even swap the oranges out for their slightly more exotic cousins to make a vegan blood-orange loaf cake!
Serve it with a cup of tea or coffee or with a generous smothering of homemade vegan orange curd.
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📖 Recipe Overview
- Quick & Easy Preparation - This eggless vegan orange cake comes together in one bowl with minimal equipment. You don't need a stand mixer or electric whisk to make it, and it only requires about 15 minutes of hands-on prep.
- Soft, Fluffy Texture - Springy and light without being dense.
- Intense Orange Flavor - Thanks to using real orange zest and freshly squeezed orange juice.
- Pantry-Stape Ingredients - Made with common ingredients, you don't need any bizarre or unusual vegan substitutes to make it!
🧾 Ingredients Needed
Here are all the simple ingredients you need to make this vegan orange olive oil cake from scratch:
Ingredient Notes
- Olive oil. I purposely made this orange cake without butter (vegan butter of course), as olive oil makes for a fluffier crumb. The oil keeps the cake moist, tender, and fluffy once baked. You can use light olive oil, or another neutral oil such as rapeseed, or sunflower oil if you're not a fan of its flavor.
- Soy milk: Together with apple cider vinegar, these ingredients are mixed together to form a vegan "buttermilk". This will help the cake to become super fluffy and light, a staple for most vegan cakes.
- Brown sugar. I use light muscovado (not to be confused with dark muscovado) in baked goods as it is less refined than most other sugars and gives a subtle caramel flavor. You can use cane sugar, coconut sugar, or light brown sugar in its place.
- Vanilla. You can either scrape out a vanilla bean or use vanilla bean paste. This adds another layer of flavor to the orange loaf.
- Organic confectioners sugar/Icing sugar. This forms the base of the standard icing which is flavored with freshly squeezed orange juice. You can use blood oranges to give the glaze a wonderful peachy-pink hue.
- Oranges. If you decide to use blood oranges, your vegan orange loaf will have a deeper orange color. (Reference image below shows a regular orange loaf on the left and a blood orange cake on the right).
🥣 How To Make Vegan Orange Cake
Find the complete list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
This vegan orange cake recipe is quite simple to prepare. Here’s how it’s done:
Step 1: Rub together the zest and sugar. This is a tip I picked up from The Loopy Whisk. Essentially, this allows as much of the natural oils from the oranges as possible to be released and flavor the sugar.
If you're using a vanilla pod, rub it into the sugar here also!
Step 2: Whisk in the oil. Next, whisk the olive oil into the sugar mixture.
Step 3: Whisk in the wet ingredients. Mix in the buttermilk and orange juice, that's all your wet ingredients prepared.
Step 4: Add the dry ingredients. Whisk in the plain flour, baking powder, and sea salt until "just combined". Don't be tempted to over-mix the batter!
Step 5: Bake. Pour the cake batter into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 45-55 minutes. To check the cake is done, insert a toothpick. It should come out almost clean with a few crumbs but without any raw batter.
Step 6: Make the glaze. Now you can relax for most of the time while your loaf cake is in the oven, you only need a couple of minutes to get the glaze ready.
Simply whisk together the powdered sugar and freshly squeezed orange juice until smooth and set aside, that's it!
Step 7: Glaze the cake. Cool the cake, then drizzle the orange glaze on top. You can use as little or as much as you like!
📝 Recipe Tips
Use unwaxed oranges: Organic if possible. Waxed fruits are generally not vegan due to their coating. It's also a good idea to go for organic if you can as you'll be using the orange peel.
Measure in grams: With any baking, accuracy is key, and measuring in grams will always be more accurate.
Declump the sugar: Light muscovado sugar can sometimes "clump" together. Get your hands into the dry ingredients and work out any lumps of sugar as these can create spots when baking.
Use a parchment paper sling: A parchment sling covers the bottom and sides of the loaf tin, making it so much easier to lift out your vegan loaf cake once baked. King Arthur Baking shows detailed images of how to create a parchment sling.
💬 FAQs
Store it in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Yes, you can freeze this cake in an airtight container and defrost it a couple of hours before serving.
If you want to frost this cake instead of glazing it you can also use vegan cream cheese frosting for some orange creamsicle flavor vibes!
🍰 More Vegan Loaf Cakes
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star ★★★★★ rating in the recipe card below and consider leaving a comment as well, thanks!
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Description
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake
- 180 ml (¾ cup) soy milk, or plant-based milk of choice
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) apple cider vinegar
- 200 g (0.9 cup) light muscovado sugar, or cane sugar or coconut sugar
- 3 tablespoons (3 tablespoons) orange zest
- 1 (1 teaspoons) vanilla pod, or 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 118 ml (½ cup) olive oil, or neutral oil such as rapeseed or sunflower oil
- 60 ml (¼ cup) orange juice, freshly squeezed
- 300 g (2.4 cups) plain flour, sifted
- 2 ½ teaspoons (2 ½ teaspoons) baking powder, sifted
- ¼ teaspoon (¼ teaspoon) sea salt
Orange glaze *see notes
- 90 g (¾ cup) organic confectioners sugar (icing sugar)
- 2 tablespoons orange juice, freshly squeezed
Instructions
- Prepare: Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F). Lightly grease an 8" loaf tin and place a sling of parchment paper into it to help lift out the cake once baked.
- To make the vegan "buttermilk" add the soy milk and apple cider vinegar to a small bowl, stir and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
- Add the sugar and orange zest to a large mixing bowl. If you're using a vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds and add them to the bowl as well. Use your fingertips to rub the zest into the sugar.Add the olive oil and whisk to combine. Then add the vegan buttermilk mixture and the freshly squeezed orange juice, and whisk again.
- Add the sifted flour, baking powder, and salt to the bowl with the wet ingredients and whisk until just combined and there aren't any visible pockets of flour - be careful not to overmix the batter.
- Bake: Transfer the cake batter to the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-55 mins. Check the cake is ready by inserting a knife or toothpick into it, which should come out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack.
- Make the glaze: Meanwhile, add the confectioner's sugar and orange juice to a bowl and whisk until smooth.Once the cake has cooled, place a sheet of parchment paper under the cooling rack to catch any icing. Pour the glaze on top of the cake, you can add more or less depending on your taste.
- Storage: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.you can also freeze this cake in an airtight container and defrost it a couple of hours before serving.
Notes
- Use unwaxed oranges, organic if possible. Waxed fruits are generally not vegan due to their coating. It's also a good idea to go for organic if you can as you'll be using the orange peel.
- With any baking, accuracy is key, and measuring in grams will always be more accurate.
- Light muscovado sugar can sometimes "clump" together. Get your hands into the dry ingredients and work out any lumps of sugar as these can create spots when baking.
- Use a parchment paper sling: A parchment sling covers the bottom and sides of the loaf tin, making it so much easier to lift out your vegan loaf cake once baked.
- If you want to frost this cake instead of glazing it you can also use vegan cream cheese frosting.
- You can double the glaze recipe if you want a thick glaze, just add it in layers so that it sticks to the cake.
Nutrition
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*This recipe was originally published in March 2021. The recipe has since been improved and updated to simplify the instructions.
Excellent! I am getting used to your methods and I must say it a slay every time!
So happy you loved the recipe, Maria!
Do you think I can make a round cake? 23cm could work? Thanks
Hi Laura,
I think so, but the baking time will differ - I would check it after 25 minutes and then gauge how much longer to bake it.
Amazing! You must use good flour though (I had best results with Italian 00 flour) Orange is my favourite flavour and this cake delivers 🙂
Hi Nicole,
I'm delighted to hear that you loved the recipe, thanks so much for your feedback x
This was delicious, so moist and orangey! I was worried about the olive oil but loved the flavor. I think it would be great with chocolate chips as well, might try that next time! Also I made half the icing and that was more than plenty.
Hi Eve-Marie,
Thanks so much for your feedback, I'm so happy you loved it! Chocolate chips sound like a great idea as well. About the icing, a few people have mentioned that so I'll reduce the amount and add a note to the recipe x
Definitely going to try it. Love the way you explain all the steps and really make it sound so easy and delicious.
Hi Ale,
I'm so happy to hear that, and hope you enjoy the recipe!
Texture was amazing. The olive oil flavour was a bit too strong for me. I thought it overpowered the orange flavour a bit. Maybe it was because I used extra virgin olive oil? I think I’ll use vegetable or sunflower oil next time. But other people loved it! One person said it was the best vegan cake they’d ever had!
Hi Lydia,
I'm delighted to hear that the recipe went down so well with everyone! I personally love olive oil but if you're not a huge fan I do think a more neutral oil such as sunflower or rapeseed would be better suited or even a light olive oil which would have a milder flavor.
I just made this and it's delicious!
So orange-y fresh and sweet. Smells and tastes amazing.
The crust was nice and crispy. The inside fluffy and not too dry and not too wet.
I love it!
Thank you!
Love from the Netherlands!
Hi Nicole,
I'm so happy you loved the recipe. Thanks so much for your amazing feedback! x
Im so excited to taste this... it's in the oven right now and smells delicious!
Quick question, olive oil is in the ingredients but not listed in the steps. I just added it to the wet ingredients. Hope that's where it went!
Hi Laura,
You're absolutely right, thanks so much for pointing this out. Hope you enjoyed the recipe x