Vegan Victoria Sponge (2025)

This vegan Victoria sponge cake is a vegan take on the classic English recipe, two layers of rich and moist vanilla sponge cake filled with vegan buttercream and strawberry jam.

The Victoria sponge cake is an English baking classic. Make it alongside some delicious vegan scones for the perfect English tea!

It’s a simple vanilla sponge cake with a filling of buttercream (or whipped cream) and jam. It’s named a Victoria sponge because Queen Victoria was a big fan.

The cake recipe is based on our vegan vanilla cake and the buttercream is based on our vegan buttercream frosting.

We decided to go with a buttercream filling instead of a whipped cream filling because my feeling was that a whipped cream filling could make the cake much too slippy slidey! But of course if you want to use whipped cream then our vegan whipped cream recipe will also work great.

What You’ll Need To Make The Cake:

Ingredient Notes

• Baking soda – this is called bicarbonate of soda in the UK and this, combined with the vinegar is what gives this cake rise. It can’t be substituted, it must be baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) that you use.
• White vinegar – this is distilled white vinegar and works great in this recipe. You can also use apple cider vinegar.
• White sugar – this is white granulated sugar.
• Soy milk – this can be switched for almond milk or any other non-dairy milk that you have on hand.
• Canola oil – this can be switched for vegetable oil or even a light olive oil or any oil that you prefer to use in baking.

What You Need For The Filling:

Filling Notes

• Strawberry jam – you can use strawberry jam or raspberry jam in this recipe. It’s a good idea to use a jam that is fairly thick and ‘sticky’ so that it doesn’t just slide right off the cake.

How To Make Vegan Victoria Sponge Cake

You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.

• Sift all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add white granulated sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.

• Add soy milk, oil, white vinegar and vanilla extract and mix into a batter. Don’t overmix.

• Divide the batter evenly between two 8-inch cake pans (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with circles of parchment paper at the bottom).
• Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
• Allow the cakes to cool for a few minutes and then remove them from the cake pans and place onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

• Add powdered sugar, vegan butter, salt and vanilla extract to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until the frosting is smooth and fluffy.

• Add the jam to a bowl and use a small whisk to whisk it until smooth.

• When the cakes are completely cooled, add the first layer to your cake stand. Spread all the buttercream on top and then spread all the jam on top of the buttercream.

• Top with the second cake layer and sprinkle powdered sugar over the top.
• Your cake is ready to serve!

Recipe Tips

Measure the flour correctly. Either use the spoon and level method which is the only correct way to measure flour if using cups, spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup. Alternatively, weigh your flour on a food scale for complete accuracy.

Whisk the jam. It’s a good idea to whisk the jam before you spread it onto your cake, so that it’s as smooth and spreadable as possible.

Add buttercream first and then jam. Spread the buttercream onto your cake layer first and then top that with the jam. If you do it the other way around it can be harder to keep the buttercream and jam in two separate layers.

Cake pans. This cake works wonderfully in two 8-inch round cake pans (as pictured) for a nice fat cake, but it also works great in two 9-inch round cake pans. If you’re baking in two 9-inch pans then check for doneness (insert a toothpick into the center of one of the cakes, it should come out clean) after 25 minutes of baking.

Recipe FAQ

More Delicious Vegan Cakes

1. Vegan Lemon Cake
2. Vegan Orange Cake
3. Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
4. Vegan Carrot Cake
5. Vegan Coconut Cake
6. Vegan Biscoff Cake

Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!