Soft and Fluffy Dairy Free Birthday Cake
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Celebrate a special birthday with this soft and fluffy dairy free birthday cake! This moist funfetti cake is covered in vanilla frosting and all the sprinkles! No one will ever even be able to guess that it’s dairy free.
Everyone knows that the best part of a birthday is the birthday cake! I have made this dairy free vanilla cake for countless birthdays and to be honest, no one has ever even known that its dairy free.
You can easily adapt this double layer dairy free birthday cake depending on what size of cake pans you have, and you can even pair it with a dairy free chocolate frosting instead of vanilla. It’s the same frosting I use in my dairy free chocolate cake (another birthday favorite!).
Featured Reader Review
“Made this for my nieces birthday, such a hit with the kiddos, will be making again!”
Morgan
Ingredient Notes
- Milk: I love using oat milk or soy milk, since they most closely mimic whole milk in terms of being thick and creamy.
- Sprinkles: I suggest using long strand sprinkles and avoid nonpareil sprinkles as those will bleed in the cake batter.
How To Make This Birthday Cake
Combine wet ingredients.
Mix in dry ingredients.
Add in sprinkles.
Bake!
Make the frosting.
Frost and enjoy!
Recipe Developer Expert Tips
- I always recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh out your ingredients, especially your flour! It is so easy to add too much flour if you use measuring cups, which is going to make the cake dry and crumbly.
- Don’t skip out on lining the bottoms of the cake pans! Otherwise, you won’t be able to get the cakes out in one piece.
- Always let the cake layers cool completely before you start making the frosting. Warm cake and frosting are not a good mix!
More Recipes You’ll Love
If you make this recipe, let me know how it went in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you! You can also tag me on Instagram or Facebook so I can check it out!
Baking FAQ
These are the topics I’m asked about most frequently:
You can get these answers and more in my frequently asked questions post!
Soft and Fluffy Dairy Free Birthday Cake
Video
Ingredients
- ½ cup (105 g) dairy free butter, softened
- ½ cup (108 ml) oil (canola oil, vegetable oil, grapeseed oil, or sunflower oil)
- 3 eggs
- 1½ Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1¼ cup (250 g) granulated sugar
- 2⅓ cup (292 g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (25 g) cornstarch
- 2½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1½ cup (375 ml) unsweetened oat milk, (or other dairy free milk)
- ½ cup sprinkles, (NOT non pareils)
Vanilla Buttercream
- 1½ cup (315 g) dairy free butter, softened
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3-3½ cups (360 g) powdered sugar (icing sugar)
- sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare two 8 inch round cake pans. Spray the inside with cooking spray, then cut out pieces of parchment paper so that they fit in the bottom of each pan (do not skip this step!). Set the pans aside.
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and oil together until combined. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Mix in the granulated sugar.
- Add in flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking powder to a separate bowl and whisk together.
- Alternate slowly adding in the milk and the dry ingredients. Mix until combined. Gently fold in the sprinkles.
- Divide the cake batter between the two cake pans and bake for 24-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then remove them from the pan (by running a butter knife or offset spatula around the edges and then flipping the cake upside down onto a cooling rack). While the cakes cool, make the buttercream.
Vanilla Buttercream
- In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter, salt, and half the powdered sugar together until combined. Add in vanilla. Slowly add in ¼ cup of powdered sugar at a time until it reaches your desired consistency. If the buttercream is too thick, you can add ½ tablespoon of milk in at a time, thinning it out as much as you'd like. If buttercream is too thin, add in more powdered sugar ¼ cup at a time.
Assembling the Cake
- Add an even layer of buttercream between each of the completely cooled cake layers.
- Frost the outside of the cake, scraping off the excess frosting with a bench scraper (this is called a crumb coat). Then place the cake in the freezer for 20 minutes then add another layer of frosting.
- If you'd rather skip the crumb coat, you can simply frost the outside of the cake in one layer then decorate with sprinkles or as desired.
Equipment
Notes
The calorie information provided for this recipe is an estimate. The accuracy of the calories listed is not guaranteed.
Photography by: Callan from The Cozy Plum
why not nonpareils? also what kind of frosting tip did you use for the border on top?
Hi Nat! Nonpareils tend to bleed their color through the cake which is why I don’t recommend them. They are best for decorating on top of the cake rather than in the batter. The border was made using an open star tip 🙂 Enjoy!
this cake is amazing! I switched the flour with white whole wheat and it’s delicious. it’s the first cake that’s easy, delicious and dairy free. Thank you!
I’m so glad you loved it! Thank you for your comment!
hi wondering if this can be made in two 6 inch pans… and if so how long would it take to bake? Thanks Ive made this in 8 inch and it’s delicious
Hi! So glad you love the dairy free birthday cake! Yes, you can adapt this to two 6 inch pans. The batter will be much deeper, so it will have a longer bake time. I’d recommend you keep an eye on it around that 30 minute mark! Let us know how it goes!
This recipe was fairly easy to follow and turned out great! I ended up using this vanilla cake base to make coffee cake! Super good and not overly sweet.Â
Sounds delicious! Thank you for your review!
Do I have to use cornstarch?
I developed this recipe with cornstarch so that’s what I recommend using. If you leave it out, let us know how you adapted it and if it worked for you!
Thank you so much for this recipe! The sprinkles you used in the batter look amazing after baking, mine lost color. Could you please write which sprinkles you used?
Hi Tali! Did you use long strand sprinkles? You’ll want to avoid nonpareil sprinkles as those will bleed in the cake batter!
I made this cake for my husband’s birthday and it was INCREDIBLE!!Â
I’m making it again tomorrow for my son’s birthday. I am also making cupcakes for his birthday party this weekend. How would I adapt the recipe to make it into cupcakes?
Hi Melissa, I’m so glad you loved it! You can totally adapt this into cupcakes. I’d recommend reducing the cooking time – check them around 12-15 minutes as they will cook much faster!
Loved this recipe. Wondering if it can also be made with regular 2% milk?
Yes regular 2% should work!
Do you think it would be okay yo use olive oil or avocado oil instead of the other oils listed? Thank you!
Yes those oils work, but there might be a slight difference in taste!
Loved this cake ! So fun with the sprinkles and really easy to make. A party hit !
Happy to hear you loved the cake! Thank you for the review 😊
Made this for my nieces birthday, such a hit with the kiddos, will be making again!
Thanks Morgan! So glad these worked out for the birthday ✨