Vegan School Cake Recipe

Is there anything more nostalgic than a slice of fluffy school cake with sweet icing and rainbow sprinkles? Any British Millennial will remember going to the school canteen and realising it’s school cake day. It has had a bit of a resurgence in the past couple of years and so I have developed this vegan school cake recipe so the vegans don’t have to miss out!

What is School Cake?

For anyone who is not British or around the same age as me, I will explain what school cake is. School cake is a very simple dessert that we used to get in school (before Jamie Oliver came along and made schools dinners healthy). It has a simple and light vanilla sponge which is topped with water icing and rainbow sprinkles. It may not sound like anything special but it is a great source of nostalgia, harking back to the good old days of childhood.

Many people remember being served school cake with green custard which was mint flavoured. I just remember the school cake itself without custard. That is why I decided to veganise it and make a vegan school cake recipe.

How to make this Vegan School Cake Recipe

It is quite easy to make this recipe which uses everyday ingredients that you probably have in your cupboards already. The recipe uses soya milk (you could use almond instead) with vinegar to create the rise. Instead of butter I use vegetable oil. The only thing you really need to look out for to make sure it’s vegan are the sprinkles. Many are not vegan but Dr Oetker Unicorn sprinkles are and they can be found in most supermarkets in the UK.

If you liked this vegan school cake recipe you may also like one of my other vegan recipes I have developed which you can find here.

Vegan School Cake

Difficulty: Easy

Servings

9

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Total time

45

minutes

Ingredients

• For the Sponge

• 150g Caster Sugar

• 50g Light Brown Sugar

• 300g Self Raising Flour

• 1 tsp Baking Powder

• 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

• 300ml Soya Milk

• 100ml Vegetable Oil

• 1 tsp White Wine Vinegar or Cider Vinegar

• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

• For the Icing

• 300g Icing Sugar

• Boiling Water

• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

• Rainbow Sprinkles

Directions

• For the Sponge
• Preheat the oven to 170ºc and grease and line a 20x20cm baking tray.
• Mix the caster sugar, brown sugar, self raising flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder in a large bowl until well combined.
• In a separate bowl mix together the soya milk, vegetable oil, vinegar and vanilla extract.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well until there is no lumps.
• Pour the cake mix into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer come out clean.
• Leave to cool completely in the tin.
• For the Icing
• Put the icing sugar into a large bowl and add the vanilla extract. Add a tablespoon of boiling water and mix. You want it to become a thick but spreadable consistency and you must work fast or it will set. If it it not spreadable add more boiling water 1 teaspoon at a time.
• Pour over the sponge and use a palette knife or spoon to help spread it to the edges and corners.
• Quickly sprinkle over the rainbow sprinkles and leave to set.
• Slice into 9 and serve.