February 17th, 2025
Vegan sponge cakes
Create professional sponge cakes with vegan ingredients
Plant-based baking has become an exciting avenue for artisans looking to cater to a growing vegan audience or those simply wanting to embrace more sustainable options. While traditional baking relies heavily on dairy ingredients like eggs, butter, and cream for their texture, structure, and flavour, vegan alternatives allow you to create equally soft, light, and utterly delicious bakes.
Sosa's innovative approach to food creation aims to reduce fat and sugar while crafting contrasting texture and stand-out flavour. Here, we explore their approach to creating an exceptional vegan sponge cake that's every bit as delightful as a classic sponge.
Your guide to...
- Traditional sponge cakes
- Key sponge cake ingredients
- Vegan sponge cake ingredients
- Vegan sponge cake recipes
- Essential vegan sponge cake ingredients
Traditional sponge cakes
A traditional sponge cake blends together flour, egg and sugar. The process can vary depending on the desired result and any additional inclusions, such as chocolate, nuts, spices or fruit. All of these elements can affect the structure of the mixture so recipes should be adjusted accordingly.
Exceptional vegan bakes can be achieved by replacing animal-derived ingredients with vegetable-based ones. By understanding the technical function of each ingredient, it is possible to select the most appropriate replacement for your recipe.
“Each basic ingredient fulfils different technical roles such as, for example, emulsifying, aerating, coagulating, adding fat to or jellifying your preparations.
When we understand the technical role and composition of each basic ingredient, we can find a plant-based substitute for it.”
- Sosa
Key sponge cake ingredients
To understand which vegan ingredients are best suited to the cake recipe, it's first important to establish the technical functions of key animal-derived ingredients.
Eggs
In traditional sponge cake recipes, eggs help to bind ingredients together, emulsifying fats and liquids, and through coagulation, helping the mix to rise. Made up of protein, fat (32%) and water (50%), to create a vegan sponge cake that is equally as effective, each of these elements must be met with a vegetable-based replacement.
Vegan sponge cake ingredients
To have an understanding of the technical functions of eggs, allows for each function to be met with alternative plant-based ingredients. For a direct comparison, see the contents of a traditional sponge cake next to a vegan sponge cake, outlined below, as recommended by Sosa.
Traditional sponge cake recipe
Vegan sponge cake recipe
Sosa's revolutionary ingredients, derived from natural sources, provide the best egg replacement options. In particular, Potatowhip and Natur Emul work well at replacing the functions of egg in a vegan sponge cake.
Potatowhip
A protein derived from potatoes that provides the same qualities as both the egg white and yolk. Potatowhip is great for coagulation, bringing air into your mixture, and works well as an emulsifier too.
Natur Emul
A natural emulsifier derived from citrus fibre, which provides a smooth texture and stable mix structure. Natur emul works well in high-fat content, such as cake batter, and its absorbent qualities allow it to retain water, providing moisture in the end bake.
Vegan sponge cake recipes
Create delicious vegan cake options for yourself by mixing up one of Sosa's vegan sponge cake recipes, so you get to enjoy the results!
Almond sponge cake
Ingredients
15g Sosa potatowhip
330g water
150g sugar
110g strong flour
300g almond flour
50g Sosa trehalose
Method
Using a hand blender, mix the water and potatowhip for one minute.
Beat the mixture using a hand blender, add the sugar and trehalose to the meringue and beat for a further three minutes.
Use a plastic sieve to sift in the flour and almond flour.
Spread the mixture into a tray and bake at 200°C for 9 minutes.
Chocolate sponge cake
Ingredients
400g water
20g Sosa potatowhip
250g Belcolade Peruvian dark chocolate (64%)
50g Sosa trehalose
160g Sucranna caster sugar
130g pastry flour
7g baking powder
1g Sosa xanthan gum
Method
Mix the water with the potatowhip and xanthan gum, and blend them for one minute with a hand blender.
Beat the mixture with an electric whisk until it has a firm meringue texture. Add both the sugar and trehalose, and beat for another three minutes.
Melt the chocolate at 40°C and fold it gently into the meringue.
Add in the sifted flour and baking powder, and mix them in gently using a flexible spatula.
Spread the mixture into a baking tray and bake at 190°C for eight minutes.
Essential vegan sponge cake ingredients
You may also like...
Essential tips for plant-based pastry making
Top tips to help you craft plant-based pastries