Yield: one 5 x 9″ loaf cake
As a vegetarian, I had many go-to recipes that were perfection personified. My pound cake recipe from Southern Living magazine was the ultimate. When I became a vegan, I set out in pursuit of an eggless, dairyless replacement. After some disappointments, I found this amazing recipe at A Vegan For Dinner’s blog. (I Have removed the link as it is now someone’s anti-aging blog.) I can scarcely recommend this recipe highly enough. It works beautifully every time and, while its simple goodness is perhaps best savored unadorned, I garnished a slice with a few farm fresh berries for the photo. It would also be delicious with a drizzle of my Cream Cheese-Orange Sauce posted with my Carrot Cake Pancakes. And it’s spectacular grilled; a sweet ending to your summer BBQ.
I’ve changed the order of ingredients and how they are put together just a little, increased the amount of extracts and increased the baking time by 5 minutes. But, otherwise the recipe is virtually unchanged.
1/2 cup vegan butter, softened (I like Earth Balance)
1 1/2 cups granulated or raw sugar (I use granulated)
6 ounces (one half of a box) plain or low fat Silken firm tofu (blending or processing first assures no lumps)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cups water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 5 x 9″ loaf pan. Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in tofu until well combined. Add 1 cup flour and, with mixer on low, mix just until incorporated. Add water and extracts and do the same. End with remaining cup of flour and baking powder. Increase speed to medium and beat for 1-2 minutes. Spoon mixture into pan and lightly smooth the top. Place on the center rack of the oven and bake for 55 minutes.
Source: http://aveganfordinner.blogspot.com/
July 17, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Yummm! This is the pound cake you brought to the meeting yesterday right? It was DELICIOUS! I will have to attempt to make some 🙂
Pam
July 17, 2009 at 3:53 pm
i just wanted to tell you how much i enjoy reading your blog! It's filled with beautiful looking and delicious sounding recipes. I love your insights and how balanced your recipes seem. oh and the flavor combinations are so creative! thank you so much!
July 17, 2009 at 7:38 pm
To Kim, the Unlikely Athlete (who seems very likely in my book), yes that's the one. I'm so glad you liked it and I'm so glad to have met you. Please stay in touch and I can't wait to visit TUA. Best wishes with all your endeavors! ~Betsy
July 17, 2009 at 7:41 pm
To Pistachio and Cardamom (great name!)~
I can't thank you enough for your lovely and very generous feedback. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thougths. Everything you mentioned is what I strive for, so I am flattered beyond belief. Many thanks for visiting and commenting!
~Betsy
December 25, 2009 at 11:34 am
How glad I am that Google sent me here!
January 4, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Hi Kissie~
So sorry no to reply before now…I was away for vacation. I hope you had a wonderful holiday.
I'm really glad Google sent you here too–hooray! I have to give A Vegan for Dinner all the credit for this recipe, but I hope you'll come back and visit the site and, when you do, that you'll find lots to enjoy and share.
Cheers!
May 1, 2010 at 7:24 pm
i tasted this batter before putting it in the oven to test it's kid-friendliness…i started screaming for all my little ones to come into the kitchen…no words as i popped a teaspoon into their mouths, just bulging eyes! WE CAN'T WAIT FOR THE FINISHED PRODUCT! it is a beautiful sunny evening in san diego and we are creating a picnic dinner around the expectations of this pound cake! THANK YOU FOR SHARING! vegan has not been nearly as difficult for our family of 5 as i thought it might be! in fact, i have had many more raves from family and friends over recipes just like this than i imagined was possible…many are trying to follow in our footsteps! yay!!!!
May 1, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Oh my goodness, Gail, you made my day. I am anxious to know whether the baked cake met your high expectations! I LOVE that batter; it's a wonder I have enough to make a cake by the time I finish "tasting." I'm thrilled that your and your children's responses were the same as mine to the batter alone.
It's so fun to be on the East Coast imagining your family on the opposite coast enjoying this cake. Thank you for sharing your feedback.
It's really not that hard is it? I find that when I cook at home, it's a "piece of cake;" however restaurant dining–at least where protein and definitely dessert is concerned–is a little trickier.
I don't know about you, but now that I haven't eat cheese in years, I realize that–as tasty as it is (at least as I remember)–it tends to mask or overpower, rather than enhance, the flavors of other ingredients in a lot of "American" dishes.
I bow in your direction for influencing your friends and family AND for not thinking that a vegan diet is somehow not healthy for children…to the contrary!
Let them eat cake!
May 18, 2010 at 11:58 pm
I made this pound this past week and my husband who's non vegan loved this cake. It's moist and delicious.
July 1, 2010 at 10:39 am
Hi…I just found this recipe on the net..and since I live in Europe, was wondering what the cup measure would be for the dry ingredients (in grams preferably) Thanks.
July 6, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Hi there~
So glad you found this recipe and The Blooming Platter. I just returned from vacation to find your message or I would have responded sooner. I am not a metric system expert, so I would recommend that you visit a site like the following from flour, sugar/brown sugar, etc. conversions:
http://www.recipegoldmine.com/kitchart/kitchart2.html. Good luck!
July 6, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Elexius~
Sorry I missed your comment from May 1. That was during a period when I was mysteriously not receiving emails about comments which, I gather, sometimes happens inexplicably with Blogger. I just found it when I was sent an email about the May 18 comment. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to share you husband's thumb's up for this pound cake. My husband isn't a vegan or even a vegetarian either, but he loves vegan baked goods. Cheers!
January 18, 2012 at 4:21 pm
Can I use soy milk instead of water?
January 18, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Cassie, I would say try it and see. Texture is so critical to pound cake and this one was about perfect to me, so I would fear it might make the batter thicker and denser because it already has tofu in it. But I always tinker with recipes, so try it and see what you think and please let us know!
March 17, 2012 at 10:55 pm
[…] Pound cake […]
April 7, 2012 at 7:48 am
I wonder if you could double this recipe and bake it in a bundt pan?
April 7, 2012 at 8:50 am
I’ve wondered the same thing! They look so pretty that way. Please try it and let me know if it works. It might need to cook just a bit longer, though from the hole to the outer wall, a bundt pan isn’t any thicker than a loaf pan. Can’t wait to hear. Thanks!
July 12, 2012 at 11:21 pm
I was searching for vegan pound cake on Google and found a few recipes but tried this one because it seemed the simplest and I am SOOOO glad I did. It was so yummy I am going to make it again. My non-vegan friends could NOT tell this was vegan and it also freezes well, which is a HUGE plus along with the taste. I can’t wait to try your other recipes! Thank you!!
July 14, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Niv, thank you so much for taking the time to let me know! Being a gal from the Deep South, I was a devotee of vegetarian (read: “regular”) pound cake and was forlorn, after trying some other recipes, thinking I would never again taste the likes of my favorite “Southern Living” pound cake once I became vegan. But this did the trick and I’m so glad that you share my enthusiasm. I’m also glad that you experimented to learn that it freezes well…a big bonus, and I’d never tried freezing it. Please come back to TBP and visit often. This week, I’m going to post a recipe for Lemon Verbena Cupcakes that will make you run to your local nursery to snag a lemon verbena plant if you don’t already have one. 🙂 All the best! ~Betsy
August 17, 2012 at 8:08 pm
I made this today for my husband’s birthday and it was so yummy. I used a dark loaf pan and the bottom and sides were a little dark and chewy. I think next time I’ll decrease the temperature by 25 degrees.
I put the pound cake into a trifle with fresh berries and whipped cashew cream. We both went vegan after reading a book that really pushed over the edge. I love finding desserts that taste good. Even my parents who are not vegan liked it! Thanks so much.
I would also be interested in your go to recipe from Southern Living, if you still have it?
Thanks,
Melissa
August 19, 2012 at 6:09 pm
Melissa, my pleasure! Thank you for letting me know and for sharing your trifle idea. Delish! The lower temperature should work with the kind of pan you have, as I’ve never gotten the dark chewiness with this recipe. I was vegetarian for a looooong time and also became vegan due to a book, only one I merely heard described. Didn’t need to read it! My omnivorous family and friends love my vegan food and I’m glad the same was true of your parents and the cake. Let me check to see if I still have that SL recipe. If so, I’ll share with you! Cheers!
September 23, 2012 at 5:25 pm
I made this cake with chocolate chips. the cake is delicious, but it did not come out of the pan in one piece and seems not to be holding together. I used a le creusat loaf pan – I don’t know whether that mattered. And I used water and mocha mix combined instead of just water.
September 24, 2012 at 3:57 pm
Well, I’m glad it tasted good at least, Jeryll. I’m so sorry to hear it wasn’t holding together. The cake has lots of fans and none of us have experience that problem that I know of. The mocha shouldn’t have mattered at all. The pan might have. I only use shiny or dark metal for cakes; is your Le Creuset pan their enamelware? If so, I probably would try something else next time. Or, you could try lining the pan with strips of waxed or parchment paper to help loosen it once you invert the pan on a cooling rack. Also, you might try loosening it around the edges after 10 minutes of cooling, but wait a bit longer before trying to invert. And, finally, did you use regular or mini chocolate chips? If regular, they may have prevented the batter from holding together. Hope that helps!
March 20, 2013 at 9:32 pm
Betsy,
I tried this with soy milk and it was great but more like cake. Do you think it would work with lemon-lime soda instead of water? I was inspired by your spicy ginger cola cake which I plan to make this weekend.
March 20, 2013 at 9:32 pm
I meant regular cake instead of pound cake.
March 20, 2013 at 10:26 pm
I baked this cake the first time and it came out great, just a little dark around the edge because I used a dark pan. The next two times I have baked it, it bakes up pretty but it has the gummy texture instead of the dry one. What could be the problem? Good tasting cake even gummy.
March 21, 2013 at 6:09 am
Well, gummy is no good, Annie! I wish I knew, as everyone loves this recipe. For starters, I might go back to the dark pan! Seriously, gummy sounds like underbaked. Was there a long time between bakings and could there be an issue with your oven temp? Other than that, I have ruined it twice I can think of–creating a cake that was more heavy than gummy but I guess could have been described as gummy–when I inadvertently added the whole package of tofu. When it came out dense with underdone streaks through it, I had to walk back through the process to figure out what I had done wrong. And then I did it again another time! Could you, perhaps have made the same mistake? Please let me know and better luck next time!
March 21, 2013 at 6:13 am
Gosh, Cassia, I can’t imagine why it had more of a cake texture, as everyone loves this cake as a poundcake–well, until Annie experienced an issue with gumminess to which I just responded. You could certainly try the lemon-lime soda water, but I would think that would make it rise more like a cake. Hmm…what a mystery. If you try it, be sure to let us all know!
March 22, 2013 at 4:07 am
The only changes i made were, I doubled the recipe in order to used the whole box of tofu, and I lowered the oven temperature to 325 and baked for an hour and thirty minutes. I don’t think it was under cooked, it just had this gummy streak through it. It baked up really good and the taste was delicious. It is a very good recipe.
March 22, 2013 at 7:38 pm
I think I’ve doubled it, Annie, to bake in a bundt pan. Is that what you did? If so, why don’t you try leaving the oven temp at 350 degrees, as the height and depth of the cake should be about the same in a bundt pan as it is in a loaf pan. It’s just bent into a ring in the former. I think the gummy streak may be batter that didn’t get cooked through in the dense center. I could be wrong, of course, but that’s my guess. So glad you like the recipe!
March 22, 2013 at 8:32 pm
I used two loaf Pyrex dishes. I will try your suggestions. Thanks.
March 24, 2013 at 11:27 am
Annie, I wanted to check myself in terms of my recommendation to you–perfect pound cakes are serious business!–so I did a little research. Essentially, what I learned is that metal pans are typically used for baking cakes so that the inside and outside cook at about the same rate (metal is a better conductor of heat). So, if you want to use glass, like your Pyrex, or ceramic–which you absolutely may do–the recommendation was to NOT change the temperature but to add time in five minute increments and to test with a wooden pick in several locations. You MIGHT also try NOT beating the batter for that last 1-2 minutes so that less gluten develops, the cake is less dense and, perhaps (at least to my way of thinking, though food scientists may balk!) will cook more evenly throughout. You could even fold in the last cup of flour and baking powder by hand. Would love to know the results when you bake it again. Cheers!
May 14, 2013 at 10:00 am
[…] http://www.thebloomingplatter.com/vegan-cakes/vegan-pound-cake […]
May 15, 2013 at 4:58 pm
[…] Pound cake recipe: http://www.thebloomingplatter.com/vegan-cakes/vegan-pound-cake […]
June 4, 2013 at 3:10 pm
Delicious! I used fresh orange juice (instead of water) and the zest of 2 organic oranges and made a glaze of O.J. and powdered sugar. I poked small holes in it when it finished baking with a fork and poured the orange glaze over it. Big hit!
June 4, 2013 at 5:57 pm
It would have to be–nothing brightens flavors like fresh citrus! Thanks so much for sharing!
June 20, 2013 at 3:47 pm
You mentioned that you doubled the recipe and made it in a bundt pan – How did you change the temperature and time? Did you alter anything else I can’t wait to try this – It’s been YEARS since I have eaten a pound cake! (ever since I became vegan). Very excited.
June 23, 2013 at 7:30 pm
Gayathri, I know just how you feel! When I finally find a vegan version of something I’ve longed for it is thrilling! I feel sure I would have mentioned any alterations I made for a bundt cake in terms of temperature and time so, since I didn’t I would definitely leave the temp the same and then check the cake with a wooden pick at the amount of time given. If there is any damp batter adhering to the pick, then I would cook it a little longer in 5 minute increments. I think, though, if I remember correctly–it’s been a while since I made it–that the batter was about as deep in the bundt pan as it is in a loaf pan, and certainly about as wide, so i don’t believe I had to change the temperature. Give it a whirl and let me and other readers know what worked. Thanks and good luck!
September 1, 2013 at 5:38 pm
I made this today, but forgot to add the water… lol. Still turned out well though! haha.
September 1, 2013 at 6:04 pm
Jaime~I think it’s helpful to know the water is optional, so thanks for sharing! So glad you didn’t end up with a brick! Happy Labor Day, ~Betsy
November 2, 2013 at 1:54 pm
Planning on making this for a 95th birthday party. Any idea how many people (or slices) a single recipe will serve?
November 2, 2013 at 2:10 pm
How nice, Lee! I didn’t include a number of slices because I’ve seen recipes that say one loaf pan yields 8 slices (Paula Deen!) to 18. I have always gotten more than 8 and far less then 18, though! So, I would say about 12. Since the cake is 9″ long, and 1 inch is a bit too thick of a slice, I would go for more like generous 3/4-inch slices which would yield about 12 servings. Have fun!
December 8, 2013 at 4:04 pm
I found this recipe at vegancookingwithlove.com. I just polished off a warm, fresh slice from the oven just moments ago. I had no intention of commenting and quite frankly, I was very skeptical about how good it could taste given that I’ve been baking semi-professional with real butter and eggs for years. You’ve made me a believer. This pound cake is delicious! How could this be — with tofu in it? I am loving this vegan life thanks to recipes like this! Thanks for sharing this.
December 8, 2013 at 4:30 pm
Lisa, I felt exactly the same! However, if you can stop at one slice you are a far stronger woman than me. 🙂 Seriously, I too was a “semi-professional” (I catered some) who baked with butter and eggs in my formative years and had the “perfect” pound cake recipe that I swore by from Southern Living (maybe I said that in the intro…) Anyway, I was filled with skepticism too when I slipped it in the oven, although the appearance and flavor of the batter gave me a little glimmer of hope. So, like you, I became a believer and am now so ashamed of myself for not becoming vegan sooner thinking I wouldn’t be able to bake. Not! My pleasure to share!
December 24, 2013 at 5:06 pm
What do you think about replacing the tofu with coconut milk or coconut cream?
December 29, 2013 at 4:35 pm
I’m not sure, but try it and let me know how it turns out! I would go with the coconut cream for greater body. But I believe it is the tofu that gives the cake its special poundcake-y texture. It would be so interesting to know for soy-free folks if your idea would work, so please share results!
December 29, 2013 at 4:36 pm
I’m not sure, but try it and let me know how it turns out! I would go with the coconut cream for greater body. I certainly make cakes, cupcakes and muffins all the time with no tofu, but I believe it is the tofu that gives the cake its special poundcake-y texture. Please share results!
December 30, 2013 at 12:22 am
Has anyone tried this recipe with a gluten free flour mix?
December 30, 2013 at 7:48 am
Georgiana, I wish you would try it and let everyone know! I’ve been having great luck with chickpea flour for cookies (in fact, I need to post those)…might be a little too toothsome for a cake though. Please try your version and share results!
January 4, 2014 at 7:46 am
Hi Betsy,
Beautiful blog. I’m very curious about this cake. When I’ve made things with soy-based ingredients in the past, you can really taste the soy. I know that tofu is basically flavorless, but I’m wondering if any of that soy flavor comes through…..
thanks!
Annie