Vegan Victoria Sponge Cake using Barley Flour

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Vegan Sponge Cake

Course 3 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating Series covers some more designing with buttercream icing, royal icing, and fondant. I was eagerly waiting for this course thinking that dealing with fondant would be easier than decorating with the other icings. I couldn’t have been any wronger. Fondant is very high maintenance and at least it was very difficult for me to handle. It’s going to take a lot of practice for me before I can decorate something decent. Taste wise too, I prefer buttercream icing to fondant.

The place where I attended the courses is not offering the 4th part of the course, Fondant and Gum Paste. So I think this is it for me right now. I think I will have to wait until next summer to take the 4th course.

The following were covered in Course 3:

Buttercream Icing
Royal Icing
Fondant

For everything about how to decorate with Fondant check here for exhaustive details.

Vegan Sponge Cake

Coming to the cake recipe which I used for the class, I found it on the box of Ener-G Egg Replacer. It’s a recipe for an egg free Victoria Sponge Cake. I made 2 changes to the original recipe. Used barley flour instead of all-purpose flour and canola oil instead of vegetable shortening.

Vegan Sponge Cake Recipe

Prep TimeCook TimeMakes
15 Mins30 MinsOne 8-inch cake
AuthorCategoryMethod
CakesBaking
Vegan Victoria Sponge Cake using Barley Flour Vegan sponge cake using barley flour and Ener G egg replacer.
Ingredients:
  • 2 cups Whole Barley Flour
  • 1 cup Light Brown Sugar
  • 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1 teaspoon EnerG Egg Replacer
  • 1/4 cup Canola Oil
  • 1 and 1/3 cups Warm Water
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Procedure:
  1. Preheat the oven to 375F for 15 minutes. Line the bottom and sides of an 8 inch square/round pan with parchment paper and grease it with non stick cooking spray.
  2. In a large bowl sift the barley flour and mix together the remaining dry ingredients.
  3. Add the oil and mix well. Add the water and flavor and mix for another 2 minutes.
  4. Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  5. Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack. Then remove the parchment paper from the sides of the pan and slowly invert the pan to remove the cake. Transfer the cake to the wire rack and let it cool completely before frosting.
My Notes & Taste:
  1. The original recipe had used 2 cups of all-purpose flour which I substituted with whole barley flour. So the cake was not spongy as the name implies. It was quite dense. Maybe I should I have added another teaspoon of baking powder. Vinegar would do the trick too but I’m not for it in this particular recipe. Since I needed a layer cake, for the second layer I tried another similar recipe but added 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and felt that the flavor of vinegar was overpowering. You can see in the 2nd picture that the first layer is reddish in color than the bottom layer, it’s because of the apple cider vinegar. It was airy but I prefer the dense cake minus the vinegar smell/taste. Maybe just 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar should be fine or adding some almond extract might reduce the aftertaste. This is again a guess only.
  2. The sweetness was right. If you are going to frost the cake, the quantity of sugar in the recipe is okay otherwise I think adding another 2-3 tablespoons of sugar should be fine for those with sweet tooth.
  3. Do I recommend baking this cake? Well, it depends on the individual taste. In our family, we are trying to include more whole grains and in general to eat more healthy. So we don’t mind the denseness. Especially me baking quite often I cannot be using all-purpose flour so frequently. I’m not lying when I tell that everybody in my family liked this cake. I think our taste buds have accustomed to the texture and flavor of whole grains.
  4. It’s not all times that whole grain flours give perfect results while baking. So if you want to use whole barley flour and also want a cake to suit everyone’s taste buds I would suggest you to bake the vegan barley chocolate cake instead of this sponge cake.
  5. If you are looking for a vegan sponge cake recipe to bake for some occasion like a birthday, anniversary etc I would suggest you try the exact same recipe but with all-purpose flour as mentioned in the original recipe. I too am going to try it and will post my findings here when I’m done.
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Vegan Sponge Cake

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40 COMMENTS

  1. renny

    hi..can u give me a recipe for a egg free royal icing and fondant recipe

    • Madhuram

      I haven’t tried an egg free royal icing and fondant recipe from scratch. So I’m unable to suggest one.

  2. renny

    hi..i am not able to get shortening for the fondant recipe…is there any substitute for it …

    • Taylor

      Here’s a recipe for marshmallow fondant that’s egg-free:
      1 16oz bag of marshmallows (mini or regular both work)
      2lbs powdered sugar
      2TBSP water
      Corn starch (as needed)

      Instructions:
      1. Melt marshmallows and water in a double-boiler.
      Scrape the sides frequently to make sure your marshmallows
      melt evenly and don’t burn.
      2. Put the melted marshmallow in a large bowl or on parchment paper.
      3. Coat your hands in corn starch.
      4. While the marshmallow is still melted, pour all of the powdered sugar into the bowl. Knead until no longer sticky. It should be dough-like.
      5. Refrigerate overnight, covered.
      6. Take out 2 hours before you need to use it. Make sure you knead it before you start using it.

      • Madhuram

        Thanks for the recipe Taylor. This recipe will be vegan/vegetarian too with gelatin free marshallows.

  3. rrobbie

    i think that victoria sopnage cake is the best cake made by man

  4. usha

    Hi,
    Madhu
    your recipes t awesome especially your eggless cakes cookies cup cakes r really good
    at my home we dont eat egg ur recipesite is helping me lo.
    you r using energizer-G but i cant fing it any where in the stores
    can u tell me what else can i use in place of ene-g if i cant find it.

    Thank You
    usha

  5. Sunitha

    Hi.. What did you use to make the fondant? I know, fondant has gelatin in its original recipe. What did you use to replace gelatin in the fondant recipe? Could you please let me know?

    Thanks much!!
    Sunitha.

    Hi Sunitha, if I remember right, the fondant which I bought didn’t have eggs or gelatin. That’s what I usually look for. But it might have had monoglycerides derived from animal sources because unless and otherwise mentioned vegetable derived monoglycerides all others are animal derived only. Since I didn’t want to throw it I used it anyways.

    • Sunitha

      Hi Madhuram..

      First of all, want to thank you for the eggless baking website.. I always browse through your site daily to check for updates..

      I just came to know that Satin Ice Rolled fondant does not have any animal derived ingredients in it and they are saying that it tastes better too… Did you try using this fondant or have you been preparing your own fondant? Pls check the link http://www.satinfinefoods.com/product.htm

      Thanks!!
      Sunitha.

      • Madhuram

        You’re welcome Sunitha. I too have heard about Satin Fondant but couldn’t get it while I took the cake decorating class, so I had to use the one which was available in the store. It didn’t have eggs but had mono-glycerides, which I understand is animal derived unless and otherwise it is specifically mentioned vegetable derived glycerides. Thanks for the link.

  6. Puja

    Hi,

    First of all, great recipes and wonderful blog!!

    Second, are you aware that Royal icing has eggs in it?
    I too am taking Wilton Cake Decorating 1. and plan to take 2 next month. Since I’ve been hearing our teacher mention that we’ll be working with royal icing in course 2, and I wasn’t sure what exactly it was made out of, I googled it and turns out one of the ingredients is eggs.
    I am also a vegetarian and don’t eat eggs, so now I guess I’ll have to work with something else, while the rest of the class works with royal icing.

    Thanks Puja. Yes I’m aware that royal icing has eggs in it and that’s why I used the egg free royal icing powder. It was so easy to make that too. Simply add water and beat it and I got wonderful flowers.

  7. Shweta

    hey…wonderful website…i have been a silent follower till now..i tried the eggless chocolate cake and few more recipes from your site…wanted to know where can i get EnerG egg replacer.

    Thanks Shweta. If you live in US you can find it in almost all (American) grocery stores in the natural/organic products aisle with specialty flours etc. Or else try Whole Foods or other health food stores.

  8. Heather

    Wow! that sounds absolutely delicious, I wish mine turned out like yours though. Would you be able to send more pictures?

  9. Soma

    I have a dream.. to make something as beautiful as this 😉

    Congrats!

    Soma, if I can make it you too can.