Vegan Mimosa Cake (Gluten Free and Sugar Free options)

Your favorite cocktail, but in cake form!  Bubbling over (get it?!) with champagne and deliciously bright orange zest, this vegan mimosa cake is tender, moist, and sure to become your new go-to treat for brunch!

Hello, reader.  Whatever time it is when you are reading this, whatever day of the week it may be, throw all that out the window.  Let’s pretend it’s 11am on a Sunday.  That’s right people, it is brunch o’clock.

I immediately regret writing that, but too late, let’s live in my shame together.

Sunday brunch is the best meal of the week.  Whether you are going out or staying in, cozying up with family or having friends over, there is nothing better.  Somehow we’ve made it socially acceptable to eat everything from eggs and bacon to cinnamon buns to biscuits with gravy, and they all fall under the same umbrella.

But no matter which main course you crave, there is one thing universal at every proper brunch gathering – mimosas!!  So wasn’t it only a matter of time before we got wise and turned our favorite brunch drink into our favorite brunch pastry?! Welcome into your life, a Vegan Mimosa Cake.

This cake is made with champagne and orange zest, and topped with a fresh orange juice glaze.  It’s moist and tender, rich with flavor, and ready in under an hour!  That’s right, you don’t even need to wake up extra early to get this cake out on the brunch table.  So, who is ready to get to it??  

How To Make It:

I did a lot of versions of this vegan mimosa cake before landing here.  Like.. a LOT.  There’s a lot to consider!  I needed to preserve the integrity of a mimosa, but still have it work in cake form.  Plus I learned quickly I didn’t love the way juice from the oranges baked with everything, and opted instead for just zest in the cake part.  And I wanted to add a healthy amount of champagne, but not so much that it broke down the structure of the cake.  It needed to stay light and fluffy so it felt brunch-y, but be dense enough to hold form in the thick bundt cake pan.

You can see why this took me a while.

But here we are.  The result is delicious, and EASY!  This will take you less than an hour from start to finish, can be done in two bowls (one if you must), and requires very little cooling time so you can get it from oven to brunch table almost immediately. 

Here’s my order of operations for this cake. 

• In advance, take out the vegan butter and non-dairy milk from your fridge to let them come up to room temperature.  I know this is an early in the day cake, but don’t worry, the butter doesn’t need to be super duper soft.  For reference the day I took these photos I took the butter out at 8am and made the cake at 10am, and even stopping frequently along the way to take photos of the process it was out of the oven a bit past 11am.  BRUNCH O’CLOCK!
• When you are ready to bake, start by making the vegan buttermilk. Haven’t done this before?  It’s so easy!  Basically you use non-dairy milk and mix it with a bit of apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, or lemon juice, and let it sit for a few minutes to curdle.  This gives it a thicker texture and keeps the end result extra moist and well formed.  I like to use soy milk since it curdles better and is thicker than other options, but I promise if you don’t have soy on hand, any non-dairy milk will do here.
• While that is curdling, measure out your dry ingredients into a small bowl.  (Optionally gluten free) flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.  Mix together.
• Zest your oranges.  I think the zest of 2 oranges is the perfect amount here, but you can certainly do a little more or less.  Add the orange zest and granulated sugar (see the Ingredients Needed section to learn how to make these sugar free!) into a large bowl and mix together.  The moisture from the zest will create a soft crumb-like texture to the sugar mixture, and give it an orangey color.  This is the first photo below.
• Next, add your softened butter into the bowl with the zest/sugar mixture, and cream together until it’s light and fluffy.  This is the second photo below.

• Add in the rest of your wet ingredients.  Vegan buttermilk, champagne, unsweetened applesauce, and vanilla extract.  At this point, the mixture will appear separated and honestly just ugly.  You’re on the right track don’t worry!  This is the first photo below.  It will come together with the dry stuff.
• Finally, add in the dry ingredient mixture and stir all together.  It will take a minute, but it will come together fairly smoothly like you see in the second photo below.  There will still be some lumps, but that’s okay, better to have some lumps than to overmix, as that can cause the cake consistency to be very tough.

• Pour the batter into a well-greased bundt pan, and get it into the oven!  I usually take mine out around 38-40 minutes, of course all ovens vary slightly, so you may want to use a toothpick or a knife to test for doneness by making sure there is no wet batter left before removing.
• Let it cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before removing.  I put a cooling rack over the bottom of the Bundt pan and invert the whole thing so the cake comes out cleanly onto the rack. 
• Last but not least- I highly recommend using an icing here.  It will keep the cake moist for longer, and it really adds to the flavor.  I use fresh juice from the oranges, a little more zest, and powdered sugar, but you can use non-dairy milk if you’ve had enough orange flavor.  I do not recommend using champagne in the icing.  I’ve tried this, personally I find it to have an off putting taste, but hey maybe you will enjoy.

That’s it! Vegan Mimosa Cake eating time!! Nutritional info can be found below in the Notes section below the recipe instructions.

Storage:

After the vegan mimosa cake has fully cooled, seal air-tight in plastic wrap or a cake stand, and keep at room temperature.  They will stay good around 3-5 days. 

Pro Tips & Tools:

• Make sure you are measuring your flour either by weight or using the spoon and level method.  Do not scoop directly from the container, as you will wind up with too much! This is so important! If you want to buy a pre-made gluten free flour blend, make sure it’s King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour, it is BY FAR the best one for my recipes, NOT Bob’s Red Mills or any others. If you want to make a homemade blend, here is a link to the one I use.
• Make sure you measure your liquid ingredients using liquid measuring cups.  This will ensure accuracy!  I love this set.
• Be an orange master! Get the finest zest using this microplane, and get the most juice out of them using this juicer.
• Need a bundt pan?  Here’s the one I used for these pics, and here’s a less snazzy one I also use and love.
• In all my trials of this cake, I used a few different versions of inexpensive Prosecco and sparkling wine from my grocery store, nothing fancy.  If you want to make sure it stays bubbly between opening it for baking and drinking it while eating, these stoppers are fantastic.

Ingredients Needed:

• Fresh oranges – I use 3 total: 2 for zest in the cake, and another 1 for zest in the icing.  Plus I use a bit of juice from one orange for the icing.
• Granulated sugar – If you want to make these sugar free, I love using this Monkfruit Sweetener in place of granulated sugar.
• Vegan butter – I use Earth Balance sticks
• Non-dairy milk – any will do, I usually use soy or almond
• Apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, or lemon juice – to curdle the vegan buttermilk
• Champagne – use whatever you want to drink afterwards, since you’ll only use less than a cup for the cake 🙂 
• Unsweetened applesauce
• Vanilla extract
• Flour – Make sure you are measuring your flour either by weight or using the spoon and level method.  Do not scoop directly from the container, as you will wind up with too much! This is so important! If you want to buy a pre-made gluten free flour blend, make sure it’s King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour, it is BY FAR the best one for my recipes, NOT Bob’s Red Mills or any others. If you want to make a homemade blend, here is a link to the one I use.
• Cornstarch
• Baking powder – I recommend using baking powder that has no added aluminum. This one is my go-to.
• Salt
• Powdered sugar – optional, for the icing. If you want this part to be sugar free, you can use this Monkfruit Powdered Sweetener in place of powdered sugar.

What To Bake Next:

• Want more fruit based brunch options? Try this Vegan Blueberry Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Filling, or this Vegan Lemon Pound Cake, or this Vegan Marbled Banana Bread, or these Vegan Lemon Blueberry Scones.
• Want other FUN brunch options? Try these Vegan Cinnamon Sugar Donuts, or this Vegan Coffee Cake, or these Vegan Coconut Donuts.
• Want more fruit in your baked goods? Try these Vegan Lemon Bars, or these Vegan Banana Bread Cookies.