The classic from your childhood, turned vegan! Vegan old school dinner sprinkle cake is light, delicious and full of nostalgia.
School sprinkle cake was such a staple of my childhood. I used to take a packed lunch most days, but on a Friday we’d sometimes have school dinner as a treat and I’d ALWAYS get the sprinkle cake. It was so light, sweet and topped with the best jusssst set icing. It was just the best, and I’ve never met somebody who didn’t love it!
But when I thought about recreating it, I wanted to give it an update for the current climate and turn it vegan! So anyone who’s no longer consuming dairy, can still get their nostalgic fix.
Key Ingredients You’ll Need
- Vegan Butter/Spread – now this can be any kind you like, it doesn’t need to be a block style – so tubs are fine. For reference, I used Vitalife Dairy Free Spread.
- Vegan Yoghurt – The yoghurt is our egg replacer, so you want to use something fairly thick in consistency and without any flavourings. I used Alpro Plain Soy Yoghurt.
- Vegan Milk – The milk is used in this recipe to add moisture to the thick batter, help to give the cake a soft crumb texture and add flavour. I used Oatly Oat Drink Semi – but any semi-skimmed or whole version of your favourite plant based milk will work great!
Step-By-Step Process
This cake couldn’t be simpler and comes together in one bowl. Well make it two, one for the cake, one for the icing. But seriously you’re gonna be like….is that it?!
Making the sponge cake
So you can make this with a silicone spatula/wooden spoon by hand, an electric hand-whisk or a stand mixer. It really is up to you, though I personally prefer to use an electric hand-whisk for this kind of small cake. I find it helps to combine the ingredients better, and is so super fast!
So first you’ll cream the butter and sugar together – make sure your butter or spread is at room temperature for best results here! Once they’re combined, the vanilla and yoghurt can be added. Then the dry ingredients. And finally the milk.
And that’s it. Seriously!
The cake batter should be spread evenly in a lined 33x22cm cake/roasting tin and baked for 25-27 minutes until golden brown. At this point, the cake will need to be left to cool completely before you top with icing!
Making the sprinkle water icing
Icing when I was a child was one thing to me. Icing sugar mixed with water. And to be honest I don’t think I thought any other icing existed, aside from the rock-hard royal icing decorations on 90’s wedding cakes. And though I do love buttercream icing and my beloved swiss meringue buttercream, sometimes a simple water icing is more than enough.
So, as you’ve probably gathered all you need to do to make the icing is mix icing sugar and water in a bowl, stirring until there are no lumps. The amount of water you add will affect the consistency. I found 35ml water to 200g icing sugar the perfect thickness.
Once the icing is made, you can pour all over your cake – I find it best to pop the cooled cake back into your baking tin for this step! Otherwise the icing might run off the sides and create a massive mess!
Vegan Sprinkles/Jimmies/Hundreds & Thousands
It might surprise you to know that not all sprinkles are vegan. The shiny coating on sprinkles can sometimes be made from beeswax, whey powder (dairy) or shellac (confectioners glaze), which is derived from insects. So do make sure you read the ingredients list!
As most of my readers are from the UK and USA I’ve found two websites where you can buy vegan sprinkles, to help you out on your quest!
I hope that helps you guys!
Tips & Tricks
Yes! The beauty of vegan bakes, or just baking without eggs, is that it makes halving/doubling recipes so much easier!
Make sure you add your sprinkles when the water icing is still wet! This way as the icing sets, the sprinkles will stick to the icing.
The cake will keep well for 3-4 days in an air-tight container. Though the icing will get a little harder.
I really hope you love this vegan old school dinner sprinkle cake as much as I do. And it brings abit of nostalgia to your day! Its light, moist and so so tasty! The perfect afternoon treat or lunchbox snack!
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Vegan Old School Dinner Sprinkle Cake
Ingredients
Sponge
- 225 g vegan butter/spread room temperature
- 225 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 120 g vegan yoghurt
- 250 g plain flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 75 ml vegan milk
Icing
- 200 g icing sugar
- 35 ml water
- 50 g vegan sprinkles
Instructions
- For the sponge: Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 4. Then grease and line a 33x22cm cake/roasting tin and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the vanilla and yoghurt. Then beat in the flour, baking powder and salt. Your batter will be very thick at this point. Finally, beat in the milk until just combined. Then spread evenly in your prepared tin, and bake for 25-27 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and place on a cooling rack to cool completely.
- For the icing: In a medium bowl, whisk together the icing sugar and water until there are no lumps remaining and you have a fairly thick paste. Place the cooled cake back into the baking tin for ease, and pour over the icing making sure its even. Then scatter over the sprinkles and leave to set.
- Finally, slice the cake and enjoy!
