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Vegan Almond Poppy Seed Cake. Gluten free Cake. Spongy Moist Cake with no Gum. Use as Sponge Cake without poppy seeds. Gluten-free Grain-free Oil-free Recipe. Pin this for later.
I have been trying to make a simple soft spongy cake that is gluten-free and vegan and works well in terms of texture and flavor. After trying some gluten-free blends on the market, making my own blends and such, I finally narrowed it to what I like the cake. The moisture and flavor from Almonds.
I made similar cakes with a combination flours with almond flour, oat and rice flours and that works out well too. The flavor though isn’t neutral enough for me. Also, that cake worked incredible well when it was steamed but was not as moist when baked, though the mixed flour cake works really well with a frosting to add some moisture back. When I saw Brandi’s only almond flour cake using aquafaba, I had bookmarked it to try it. Since I am not a fan of good amounts of applesauce or maple (also because I never have applesauce around when I need it), I played around making many versions. I have made variations of this cake, sometimes with some additional rice/oat flours, different wet ingredients and it comes out beautifully every which way. That is how I bake while testing, just putting things in the bowl and going by texture of the batter for simple and predictable recipes.
The Poppy seeds and almond extract add a phenomenal flavor. This recipe makes a 6 inch pan. I tend to make smaller sizes for gluten-free vegan baked goods. Things get moody quickly and smaller sizes just reduce the chances of getting gummy flats or stony hard pucks. If you bake gf vegan, you know what I am talking about :). Use an icing of choice, which isn’t really needed with the amazing flavor of this almond poppy seed cake.
This soft cake can also be made as a plain vanilla sponge to use in layered cakes or bake it into cupcakes. Make this Vegan Gluten-free Cake that is also grain-free. If you make the cake, please do tag me on Instagram or elsewhere and let me know how it worked out in the comments! Also let me know if you made Brandi’s version which uses aquafaba and applesauce. Thanks for all the trials and errors Brandi!
You can possibly use 2 tbsp aquafaba + 2 tbsp non dairy milk in the recipe. I haven’t tried it. Let me know if you do. Happy Weekend Baking!
More gluten-free vegan baked options from the blog
- Zucchini Bread Loaf. GF Gum-free Yeast-free
- Pumpkin Banana Cranberry Bread – GF Yeast-free
- Almond Butter Blondies GF
- Banana Walnut Loaf – GF Gum-free Yeast-free
- Coconut Flour Brownies GF Gum-free
- Lentil Sandwich Bread – GF Gum-free Yeast-free
Mix your wet and dry to make a smooth batter. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake until a toothpick from the center comes out clean.
Vegan Almond Poppy Seed Cake. Gluten free Cake
Ingredients
Wet:
- 1/4 cup non dairy milk, or 2 tbsp non dairy milk + 2 tbsp non dairy yogurt
- 2 tbsp flax seed meal
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 3 tbsp sugar, raw or other
- 1 tsp vinegar, white or apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract, optional
Dry:
- 1 cup almond flour, I use Bob's Red Mill
- 1/4 cup starch, I use 3 tbsp potato starch + 1 Tbsp tapioca/corn
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 2 to 3 tsp poppy seeds
Instructions
- Prepare a 6 inch cake pan by greasing or lining with parchment.
- In a bowl, mix the flax in the non dairy milk and let it sit for 5 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F / 170ºc.
- Add the maple, sugar, vanilla, vinegar. Add 1/4 tsp almond extract for stronger almond flavor or add lemon zest for lemon poppy seed cake. Mix well until sugar is mixed in.
- In another bowl, mix the almond flour, starches, salt, baking powder and soda, poppy seeds. Break the almond flour lumps if there are any, with your hand or a spatula..
- Add to the wet and mix well until smooth.* Transfer the batter to a greased 6 inch pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees F / 170ºc for 30 minutes or until a toothpick from the center comes out clean.
- Cool for 15 mins, then remove from the pan. Cool completely before slicing. Preferably refrigerate for 15 to 20 mins and then slice. Use an icing of choice. A simple lemon sugar icing works really well.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Thanks Richa. The cake came out great!! My husband and I have switched to vegan diet recently. This cake hit the spot! I used cashew lemon yogurt and cashew milk. Also used lemon zest to accentuate the lemon flavor. I made a real easy lemon juice-powdered sugar glaze for the cake. We couldn’t stop eating it!!!
I made it last night and everyone liked it, even my non-vegan family. I used ground stevia leaves instead of sugar but kept the maple syrup.
This looks great! Should have known you’d beat me to it! I am also working on a very similar recipe, and yes, I do know what you’re talking about when you say stick with small cakes for baking vegan/gf!
This looks delicious. I’m going to try making this recipe in cupcakes for my kids (and me, of course!). I love baking with almond, it gives such a good result.
Thanks for the wonderful recipe! Since having to go gluten free/ vegan/low oil & sugar, I’m always experimenting with new versions of old favorite baked goods. Every summer when the strawberries get ripe, I start looking again for something to serve as shortcake. Almond cake under strawberries and coconut whipped cream? I pinch myself! It’s the first thing I want with coffee when I wake up, and the last thing I want to eat on the porch as the sun goes down. This cake is the perfect sponginess, the perfect crunchy around the edges, the perfect crunchy poppyseed texture inside, the perfect balance of sweet and salty, and the perfect almond flavor. I sprinkled flat-sliced almonds on top to drive it home, before it went in the oven. Oh, and I doubled the recipe and used an 8×8 square pan. Next time I’ll quadruple the recipe and maybe think about sharing a little.
And the other modification that I made was I used soaked chia seeds. They replace the poppyseeds for texture and appearance, and they replace the flax for binding properties. I used two tablespoons of chia in the non-dairy milk, just like it says to do with the flax. It went fine.
Thanks again for this great recipe! It’s a keeper.
Can I use just tapioca starch instead of potato and tapioca?
it might not work well with just tapioca
I know this was an old comment but I thought I’d let you know that I used all tapioca instead of the potato starch and it worked great! I’d be keen to do a comparison, possibly the potato results in a slightly finer crumb?
I made it tonight for a gathering and they all got eaten so I’d say it was a success! The only other modification was adding the zest and juice of half an orange. I included the oil mentioned in the footnotes.
Thanks for another easy and tasty GF V recipe!
Great! Potato adds a bit more volume, The crumb probably depends more the almond flour/meal than the starch.
I’m Sarah from Kuwait . I’ve just made the cake . Can’t find a better delicious recipe .
Thank you so much .
was looking for some good Vegan recipes and thankfully got you. i doesn’t just look delicious but healthy as well. thanks for sharing
I love all the recipes of yours that I have tried, from both cookbook and FB but I have a question. I am curious about the serving size of your recipes, they all (or most at least) are listed as 2 servings but each tha I make is usually about 4. Are they actually 2 and vegan is just a larger serving or are they actually 3-4
I ask because I use MyFitnessPal to track my food intact and I am trying to actuarately track my intake but on days that I make your recipes and opt to have the app copy and add the recipe ingredients and servings my intake is very low and the amount of food made feeds my family of three plus leftovers.
I will be trying this one and look forward to EVERYDAY KITCHEN, which I have already preordered.
Also, just a lil’ OCD but why is the plastic FAT DADDIO sticker still on the cake pan? ????????
Some of the serving sizes on the older recipes default to 2 if I forget to add any or if the widget updates with errors. Many of the serving sizes serve 2 to 3. So it depends on the recipe. For this cake, depends on how much you serve or want. It can serve 1 to 6. Its a small 6 inch cake. For the meals,, i usually serve them paired with other things and it serves about the double what is mentioned. If served as is, they would serve what the servings say for an average hungry adult. Many times the readers say that they eat the whole thing, while for me I can eat 4 servings of the meal, while my husband will eat 2 or 3. I use his serves in general for the blog values
new pan. I didnt see the sticker when i used it for the cake for some reason. I remember removing it sometime later.
I just made this and it’s pretty good. It came out flatter than expected but I didn’t blanch almonds before grinding (not sure if that would have made a difference) and there were some crumbles in the flour. I was okay with that because we love nutty treats. I’d definitely make this again, it’s great without any icing which is how we ate it. I also subbed some items….chia seeds, agave, coconut sugar.