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Vegan Orange Cake made in 1 Bowl and just 8 ingredients! Easy Moist Citrusy Vegan Cake. Soyfree Palm-Oil-free Recipe.

Weekend calls for some cake sitting on the counter. And this citrusy 1 bowl orange cake makes it very easy to have some around. Esp when glazed with some boozy marmalade glaze! Right?
We end up with a bottle of orange juice or a orange something mix juice every now and then. Hubbs gets some, drinks it a few times and forgets about it. Sometimes he gets it just because there should be something to drink for visitors. And I tell him, we always have water or I can make lemonade. Why get the whole juice bottle, esp when both of us don’t really like it and since packaged juice is just.. that, packaged and questionable. I was brought up in the Orange city in India(yes there is such a city!). Those juicy sweet fresh oranges now appear only in my dreams. The juice from those oranges, so fresh and sweet, also in my dreams. After decades of trying many different options, the sour juice just doesn’t cut it for me. So anywho, I use up the leftover orange juice in this cake. 1 bowl, easy, 8 main ingredients, 2 tbsp oil, vegan orange cake! What do you do with excess juice?
I generally use carton orange juice and the juice varies between brands, types and hence the flavor in the cake. For stronger orange flavor, add zest of an orange to the batter or use orange marmalade frosting. This cake is like a basic sponge cake that needs a moist and flavorful frosting or glaze to make it shine. For more moisture in the cake, add a bit more oil to the batter.

More Cakes from the blog.
- Cream Cheese Marble Pound Cake
- Basic Vegan Yellow Cake
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Marble Cake
- Soy-free Mini Pound cake
- Vegan Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate PB Ganache
- Gingerbread Cake

One Bowl Vegan Orange Cake

Ingredients
Dry:
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or use Spelt flour, (or use 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour)
- 1/2 cup unbleached white flour or all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp starch like corn or arrowroot
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar, I powder raw sugar and use, Add 2 to 4 tbsp more for sweeter.
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- a generous pinch of salt
Wet:
- 1 cup orange juice
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F / 180ºc. Line a 8 or 9 inch cake pan with parchment, or grease well and dust with flour.
- In a bowl whisk all the dry ingredients until combined well.
- Add the wet ingredients to the bowl and mix until smooth. Pour the batter in the prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or a toothpick from near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely before slicing.
- Add frosting of choice like vegan cream cheese frosting, or with whipped coconut cream and fruit, or make a boozy marmalade glaze.
- For the boozy glaze: Mix a tbsp of liquor in a 1/4 cup of orange or apricot marmalade or preserves of choice. Heat for a few minutes until bubbling. Use as glaze or serve with each slice.
- For a regular glaze: Use a tbsp orange juice mixed with the marmalade, or mix 2 to 3 tbsp orange juice with a 1/3 cup or more powdered sugar.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Watch this week: Kidnapped at Birth – “I was taken from my mother at birth. I’m trying to remember her. This is my story.”
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Hello Richa,
Can I use tapioca instead of corn or arrow root starch?
I would love to make this today. It looks delicious and so simple !
Thanks
yes it will work.
Richa
Thank you so much for the quick response !!!
Will be making this today ????
Richa,
You are a “magician” !!! I just made this today.
This cake is wonderful. Not sure how this could happen without any eggs or butter, (which I don’t eat)
I love it and will make it again next time with some sauce to put on top.
I’m soooo happy with the results. My baking efforts in the past have been a failure.
Can’t thank you enough !
Margarita ????????
Yay! I am so glad it turned out so well! Thank you trying it! A glaze or a frosting definitely makes the cake even better as it adds another layer of flavor and moisture.
This is my new favorite cake. And it’s so easy. I have made it 5 times since I saw the recipe. I made some changes: Instead of Vanilla, I used Orange Extract, substituted 1/2 cup of Dark Brown Cane Sugar (mixing it in with the orange juice) for a boost in flavor and to avoid using GMO beet sugar. I also added the Zest of a washed Orange. These little changes really give it the deeper flavor of an orange. Do make this cake!
Thanks! Yes the zest does add a stronger flavor.
I love this one, so simple and so delicious! Thank you!
Yay!
Hi Richa!
Can olive Oil be used in this recipe? Thanks!
olive oil has a strong flavor, that might show up in the cake.
Hi Richa!
Do you think I could use all pastry flour this for thus cake instead of ww pastry flour and spelt?
Yes you can use all pastry flour
Yum….the orange in this cake sounds delicious! I’m recently really into spelt flour too!
Baked this two nights ago, glazed it and ate it last night – my second go at vegan baking (first was a banana loaf). I followed the recipe exactly and it came out really well. I didn’t add any extra rind into the mix, but I did make my simple glace icing with orange juice instead of water and it worked a treat – very tasty.
It got a big thumbs up from the whole family. We all loved it and I will definitely be making it again soon 🙂
Awesome! so glad it turned out so well!!
This is really a mouth watering recipe and would like to try it out. I love desserts very much and vegan orange cake is really going to be in my menu list coming weekend.
Thanks
Hi Richa,
I tried this cake as it looked yummylicious… But mine didn’t turn out too good. I followed the recipe as it is …just increased the qty of the orange juice The following were the issues with the same:
1. Orange flavour was not very intense , I had to add 1.5 cups of juice as the batter was really thick.
2. The cake wasn’t sweet enough hence the taste of wheat flour was coming out in it.
3. It didn’t turn out brown on the top… Was a very very faint brown colour.
Please tell me where I went wrong?
Thanks
Anisha
Hi Anisha,
What kind of wheat flour did you use? Was the orange juice home made or store bought? For a stronger flavor, you can add zest of an orange to the batter. If the sugar is not fine enough then it makes the ake feel less sweet. The cake gets sweeter after sitting for a few hours. You an blend the sugar with a tbsp of flour until very fine and powdery and use that, or add 2 to 4 tbsp more sugar. The browning depends on the flour and orange juice.
You can add a glaze of orange juice + sugar liberally on your current cake, so it adds sweetness. You can also slice the cake and bake the slices at 300 degrees F until crisp (20 mins) to make biscotti/rusk.
Love this rusk idea!! I’m going to try it.
Hi Richa, I tried this morning – great cake!! Just one question, I used all AP flour as that’s what I had on hand. The cake tasted slightly ‘raw’ although it was cooked perfectly inside. Did the AP flour do this?
Maybe the sugar and flour did not mix in well? use finely powdered sugar and whisk in well. and whisk the batter to be nice and smooth. Since this cake doesnt have the sugar mixed into the wet, it needs to be very fine so it incorporates well.
The flavor of the flour should also get mild as the cake sits and the moisture and flavor from the orange juice gets stronger. Let it chill overnight in a covered container and see if that helps. If you try it again, add some orange zest for a stronger flavor and another tbsp of oil as oil.