This lovely vegan lavender almond cake recipe was created by Maiah Miller for one of our recipe contests. It’s infused with delicate floral flavor and complementary hints of almond. But if you aren’t a fan of almond, don’t worry. The nutty addition is easy to omit. Since her original submission, we’ve updated this post and added that option.
Vegan Lavender Almond Cake with Dairy-Free Buttercream
In the first step for this recipe, Maiah recommends letting the sugar and lavender comingle “for a while.” This is a great make-ahead step. If you are planning ahead, go ahead and pulse the two together in your food processor and store in an airtight container on the counter for a day or two before baking this vegan lavender almond cake.
As you can see below, this is easily a nut-free vegan lavender cake, but you can alternatively go bigger with the almond infusion. For more aromatics, use almond oil as your oil for this recipe.
Special Diet Notes: Vegan Lavender Almond Cake
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian. Just be sure to choose the milk beverage, oil, and butter alternative (for the buttercream) that suit your dietary needs.
For nut-free vegan lavender cake, look for a nut-free imitation almond extract or almond flavor (they do exist!) or omit the almond extract and skip the almond garnish.
- 2 cups sugar (can sub 1 ½ cups agave nectar)
- 3 tablespoons dried lavender, plus additional for garnish
- 2 cups unsweetened dairy-free milk beverage
- 1 cup oil (if using agave, reduce to ½ cup oil)
- 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 batch dairy-free buttercream frosting
- Almond slices, for garnish (optional)
- For optimal lavender flavor, food-process the sugar with the lavender and let it sit for a while to absorb the flavor.
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF and grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar (or agave) and lavender, milk beverage, oil, almond extract, and vanilla extract with a hand mixer until well combined.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until combined.
- Briskly fold in apple cider vinegar, stirring the batter no more than 7 times.
- Pour the batter into your prepared cake pans.
- Bake the cakes for 35 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pans before carefully removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once completely cool, you can frost the layers and garnish with dried lavender and almond slices (if using).
Key Ingredients for this Vegan Lavender Almond Cake
More Vegan Layer Cake Recipes
Loveletter Cakeshop’s Double Chocolate Cake
Strawberry Cream Cake
Chai-Spiced Pumpkin Cake
10 Comments
I made this cake and it was sooo delicious! Thank you!!
The only modification I made is that I added pure lavender extract (1/8 teaspoon) instead of the lavender petals. I also added a little extra almond and vanilla extract for balance
Thank you!! <3
Marvelous! And thank you for sharing your modifications. I didn’t know lavender extract was a thing!
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Can I use this recipe for cupcakes?
Probably – most cake recipes work as cupcakes, but I would start checking for doneness at around 20 minutes.
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WOW! Bravo Maiah! I think the rest of us might have to give up now … that looks incredible! Only kidding about giving up. I was working on a recipe for the contest today. 😉 So much fun!
Shirley
That is one stunning cake! The wheels are already turning so I can figure out a way to make a version I can eat. . . this is such a spectacular special-occasion cake!
How much oil should be used?
1 cup or 1/2 cup per the ingredient list (whether or not you use granulated sugar or agave)