Vegan Spice Cake (Maple Cream Cheese Frosting!)

This frosted vegan spice cake recipe is soft, tender, full of flavor and perfectly spiced. It’s a wonderful plant based dessert for any holiday gathering!

Why you’ll love this vegan spice cake

Warm winter spices. Every bite is filled with the cozy flavors of ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon.
Moist texture. The dairy free cake is so light and fluffy, even without eggs.
No stand mixer required. You don’t need any fancy equipment, just cake pans and an oven. The recipe is fast and easy to make at home.
Delicious maple frosting. Each old fashioned spice cake cake layer is topped with thick vegan cream cheese icing that absolutely melts in your mouth!
Better than a box. Your entire kitchen will smell like a giant gingerbread house, and it might quickly become your new favorite cake recipe. Seriously, boxed spice cake mix just cannot compare.
Perfect for Christmas or the holidays. I’ve brought this festive layer cake to more family gatherings than I can count. Both vegans and omnivores devour every last crumb.

Readers also love this Vegan Carrot Cake

What spices are in vegan spice cake?

So many bakers are afraid of utilizing spices to their full potential. The world of cooking includes much more than just cinnamon! And each aromatic spice comes with its own distinct flavor profile.

Cinnamon offers sweetness without extra sugar.

Ginger adds a sharp, spicy note.

Cloves provide strong and earthy wintertime taste.

Nutmeg gives warmth and a slightly nutty flavor.

Allspice is essential for holiday baking. It adds a peppery kick and enhances the other spices.

Other key ingredients

Applesauce adds moisture and softness to the cake. You can substitute fresh or canned pumpkin puree, or nondairy yogurt for a healthy high protein version.

Pure Maple Syrup imparts a rich caramel flavor and balances the spices.

Flour makes up the base of the vegan dessert. I’ve successfully tested this recipe with whole grain spelt flour, white all purpose flour, and all purpose gluten free flour. Whole wheat and oat flour work but yield a denser cake, so they are not my top choices here.

Sugar is included both for sweetness and texture. You may use classic white sugar or unrefined cane, coconut, or date sugar. Do not substitute the sugar with additional maple syrup or your cake will not turn out light and fluffy.

Oil makes the plant based cake so deliciously buttery. I like coconut oil, but vegetable oil is also fine. If you are on an oil free diet or prefer a low fat and low calorie spice cake, use an equal amount of applesauce instead of the oil.

Pure Vanilla Extract adds even more warmth and coziness. (You can never be too cozy in the winter!) Buy pure vanilla extract, not imitation vanilla flavoring.

Spices are the most important ingredient in spice cakes. In addition to the five spices listed above, some spice cake recipes also include cardamom or a dash of black pepper. Feel free to add those here as well. (I’d use a half teaspoon of ground cardamom to get a chai spiced cake.)

You also need water, salt, and baking soda to make this simple vegan spice cake.

Maple Pecan Spice Cake (3 Layer Cake Recipe)

Variations

Sweet Potato – Use roasted, pureed sweet potato instead of the apple or pumpkin.

Brown sugar – Add a third cup of packed brown sugar instead of the fourth cup of maple syrup. Increase water by one fourth cup to make up the difference in liquid.

Coffee Cake – Stir a teaspoon of instant coffee in with the dry ingredients. Alternatively, swap out half a cup of water with strong brewed coffee or espresso.

Banana – For a banana bread spice cake, substitute an equal amount of mashed banana for the apple or pumpkin. Top with walnuts instead of pecans. This may be my favorite variation.

Vegan Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

While the cake is fantastic on its own or topped with a dusting of powdered sugar, my favorite way to serve this recipe is with the following homemade cream cheese frosting.

The recipe makes about 4 cups of frosting, which is enough to ice the entire three layer spice cake. If you want extra thick layers of frosting, double all ingredient quantities.

12 oz dairy free cream cheese
6 oz salted vegan butter
3 cups powdered sugar, or powdered sugar free sweetener
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp maple extract
optional 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Bring cream cheese and butter to room temperature. Beat all ingredients in an electric mixer, large food processor, or stand mixer. (You can technically whip everything together with a fork, but the vegan icing will not be as whipped and fluffy.)

If too thick, slowly add a teaspoon at a time of dairy free milk. If too thin, add additional powdered sugar.

Store any leftover vegan frosting tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 7-10 days.

Extra frosting? Use it to top Vegan Brownies

How to make vegan spice cake

Step 1: Set the oven temperature. Preheat your oven to 350° Fahrenheit or 176° Celsius. Grease three 8-inch round baking pans or line the bottoms with parchment paper. Set these pans aside.

Step 2: Stir dry ingredients. Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves in a large measuring bowl. Stir well to evenly incorporate all of the spices.

Step 3: Add wet ingredients. Whisk in the water, applesauce or pumpkin puree, optional oil, maple syrup, and pure vanilla extract. Stop stirring as soon as the batter is evenly mixed. (Overmixing cake batter can result in a gummy, dense texture.)

Step 4: Transfer to the pans. Divide the spice cake batter evenly among the three prepared baking pans. Smooth out the tops with a spoon or spatula.

Step 5: Bake. Place all pans on the center rack of the oven. It’s okay if one pan sits behind the others. Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out mostly clean.

Step 6: Let cool. Carefully remove the spice cakes from the oven and place the pans on a wire rack on the counter to cool.

Step 7: Add frosting. Go around the sides of each pan with a knife to loosen the cakes. Invert onto three large plates, then frost the bottom layer.

Step 8: Assemble the layer cake. Place a second cake over the frosted layer and frost the new layer. Repeat with the third layer.

*If you want to be fancy, you can do a crumb layer, where you add a second coat of frosting after refrigerating the cake. Unless I’m baking a cake for a wedding or professional event, I almost always skip this step.

Step 9: Decorate. I chose a star icing tip to pipe swirls of frosting over the vegan spice cake. I also placed whole pecans on top and pressed finely diced pecans into the sides.

Tips for best results

Use the correct pan size. The recipe calls for three 8 inch pans. You can also bake it in two 9 inch pans or one 9×13 inch rectangular baking pan. Note that the baking time may vary slightly.

Preheat the oven. And calibrate your oven to ensure the temperature gauge is correct.

Use a food scale. For the most precise measurements (especially when it comes to sugar and flour), invest in a kitchen scale to go by grams instead of relying on measuring cups and spoons.

Don’t omit the spices. Half a teaspoon may sound like a small amount, but each spice adds so much to the flavor of this cake. I highly recommend including all of them.

Store leftovers. After cooling, you can leave the cake covered at room temperature overnight. For longer storage, I recommend refrigeration due to the perishable ingredients. This cake should keep for about five days tightly covered in the refrigerator or up to three months in the freezer. Thaw frozen cake before serving.

Easy Holiday Spice Cake Recipe (Dairy Free, Egg Free)

The recipe was adapted from my Vegan Gingerbread and this healthy Applesauce Cake.

1. Read through the tips for best results above.
2. Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit (176° Celsius). Grease three 8-inch baking pans, or line the bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
3. Stir the flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves very well in a large bowl.
4. Whisk in the water, applesauce or pumpkin, oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract until just evenly mixed.
5. Divide the batter into the three pans and smooth out the tops with a spatula.
6. Place all three pans on the center rack of the oven. One may have to sit behind the others. Bake 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.
7. Transfer the pans to a wire rack on the counter to fully cool. Once cooled, go around the sides of each pan with a knife to loosen the cake before inverting onto plates.
8. Frost the bottom layer with your frosting of choice. (My favorite vegan cream cheese frosting recipe is included in this post.)
9. Then place a second layer over the first and frost this new layer. Repeat for the top layer of the vegan spice cake.
10. Decorate with more icing and chopped pecans or walnuts if desired.
11. Store cooled leftovers tightly covered on the counter for up to a day, refrigerated for up to five days, or frozen for up to three months.