Fluffy and soft vegan mango cake packed with fresh mango and lots of flavor! This easy cake uses less than 10 ingredients and comes together in one bowl.
Even though this mango cake is eggless, you don't need any store-bought egg replacers, just like my strawberry cake and lemon blueberry cake.
Why you'll love this cake
DIFFICULTY RATING: This mango cake is easy to make! All you need to do is blend the mangoes (if your not using canned mango pulp), mix the dry and wet ingredients in one bowl then bake.
FLAVOR: This cake is bursting with mango flavor as we're using 3-4 fresh mangoes or 2 whole cups of mango puree!
TEXTURE: Fluffy, soft and not dense at all. This cake is moister than a sponge cake but fluffier than a bundt cake or banana bread.
Ingredients you'll need
Ingredient notes
All-purpose / plain flour or even cake flour will create the fluffiest vegan mango cake.
Sugar preferably regular granulated sugar because we want the beautiful yellow/orange mango to shine through. Coconut sugar will work but will make the cake darker in color and denser.
Mangoes, either fresh, frozen or canned. Interestingly, pureed mango is a great egg replacer for this eggless cake.
Baking powder and soda. As this cake is PACKED with mangoes, I added more leavening agents to ensure the cake is fluffy. You won't taste them at all.
A complete list of ingredients, quantities and instructions are in the gray recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Preparing vegan mango cake
First, add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and whisk until there are no lumps. Then add all your wet ingredients (including your mango pulp or puree) and mix until combined.
The mango cake batter should have a consistency similar to a thick pourable pancake batter. Some lumps in the batter are fine, as long as there are no lumps of flour.
Baking the cake layers
The cake batter is thin enough that it'll naturally flatten out after you pour it into your cake tins. If you own cake strips, I recommend using them for this cake.
The mango cake layers are ready when you can insert a toothpick in the middle and it comes out mostly clean. This is a very moist cake so a few crumbs on your toothpick are fine - just make sure there's no wet batter on it.
Decorating the cake
Dairy-free cream cheese frosting goes wonderfully with this vegan mango cake! Its tart flavor compliments the fruity notes and delicate flavors of the cake.
Cream cheese frostings tend to be a little soft so here are a few tips to overcome that:
- Add a little cornstarch. This absorbs the liquid in the cream cheese and makes a firmer frosting.
- Adding more powdered sugar. The more sugar we add, the more stable the frosting!
- Avoid overwhipping the frosting. Interestingly, when cream cheese is overwhipped, it can become too soft.
Alternatively, you can top your eggless mango cake with:
- American-style buttercream. Check out the notes of the recipe card for more detail
- Stablized whipped cream, only if you make a one-layer cake. Whipped cream is VERY soft and will not always withhold a two-layer cake.
Customizing this recipe
I've tried reducing the sugar for this recipe but the less sugar I used, the more dense the cake. Sugar doesn't only sweeten a cake but adds moisture and improves its texture.
Normally I'd recommend replacing the plain flour using a blend of 50% almond flour and 50% gluten-free all-purpose flour (by weight ) OR a high quality 1:1 gluten-free flour. However, I haven't tested this eggless mango cake recipe with gluten-free flour so I can't vouch for the results.
As this vegan mango cake contains a lot of fruit, it's best to bake it in thinner layers, such as in 8-inch cake pans or larger.
This recipe does work in a bundt tin but the final cake is denser and you'll have to back the cake for longer.
Alternatively, this cake recipe works well as mango cupcakes or muffins! You can see how tall they rose on my Instagram. I'd recommend using the recipe below and baking it in a muffin pan.
More Summery vegan desserts
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Vegan Mango Cake
Ingredients
Dry cake ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose plain flour
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of any good-quality salt, (note 1)
Wet cake ingredients
- ~2 cups (480g) mango puree, approx 3-4 medium-size ripe mangoes (note 2)
- ⅔ cup (165g) dairy-free milk
- ½ cup (125g) neutral flavored oil
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream cheese frosting + decorations (note 3 for alternatives)
- 3 cups (300g) powdered sugar / icing sugar
- ½ cup (120g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup (115g) vegan block butter, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons (20g) corn starch / corn flour
- 3 tablespoons (45g) melted vegetable shortening or coconut oil, optional for a firmer frosting (use refined coconut oil for no coconut flavour)
- 1-2 mangoes, sliced or diced
Instructions
- Note: I'd recommend using grams for this recipe. Like all my recipes, this was tested using grams so you'll get the best results if you weigh your ingredients.
To make the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease or line 2 x 8-inch (20 cm) round cake pans with parchment paper.
- Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix until there are no lumps. Add all the wet ingredients to the bowl and mix until there are no more pockets of flour.
- Divide the cake batter into the 2 cake tins. Bake the cakes in your oven for 25-30 minutes.
- The mango cakes are ready when you can insert a toothpick in their center and it comes out with no wet batter on it. As this is a very moist cake, a few crumbs on your toothpick are fine!
- Allow the cakes to cool in their cake pans tin for 10 minutes. Then remove the cakes to cool on a wire rack.
To make the cream cheese frosting:
- Add the powdered sugar, vegan cream cheese, butter and corn starch to a mixing bowl. Cream until combined and smooth.
- If using vegetable shortening or coconut oil, slowly pour the liquid into the bowl while mixing the frosting.
- Add more powdered sugar and/or coconut oil for a firmer frosting. Cream cheese frosting is normally quite soft but it can be thickened and stabilized with additional sugar.
- Chill the frosting until needed.
To assemble the cake:
- When the cakes have completely cooled, slice the dome of one of the cakes. Place that cake on a serving plate.
- If you chilled your buttercream, stir it a few times to make sure it’s smooth and soft. Spread or pipe around 1 cup of buttercream on the cake and place the remaining cake on top.
- Spread or pipe the remaining frosting on top and decorate with the remaining mangoes.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge until serving. If you used coconut oil in your cream cheese frosting, the cake will keep at room temperature for at least 1 hour on a 20°C (80°F) day. If you used vegetable shortening, it will keep for a little longer. However, if the temperature is any warmer, I'd recommend chilling the cake and letting it come to room temperature just 30 minutes before serving.
Notes
- For extra flavor, add 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder to the dry ingredients.
- I managed to get around 160g of mango flesh from 1 medium Kensington Pride mango. However, depending on the size of your mangoes, you may need less or more. This recipe also works well with frozen or canned mango.
- For a conventional buttercream, substitute the cream cheese with more vegan butter and add lemon juice to taste.
Nutrition
This post was originally published in January 2020 and updated in September 2021.
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I was requested to make a vegan chocolate mango cake.
Can I use add unsweetened chocolate powder to your recipe?
Hoping to hear from you soon.
I’d like to make a practice cake before I make one for a client.
Thank you.
Claudia Mossman
Hi Claudia, yes you can experiment with substituting some of the flour with unsweetened cocoa powder!
Hi Alina, you can replace apple cider vinegar with white vinegar or lemon juice. However, it's not 100% needed!
With the cream cheese, it's possible to make your own using cashews and tofu. However, it's a little fiddly, especially if it's your first time baking a cake, and I don't know how it will work in the frosting. I recommend making a normal buttercream frosting instead. Check out the one from my lemon cake recipe :).
Anthea, tell me please is there a substitute for apple cider vinegar? And I don’t have vegan cream cheese. Only cashew butter, coconut oil and cacao butter. Which of those is better as a substitute for cream cheese? I am going to bake this cake on weekend for a family celebration 🙂 And I’m a bit nervous 🙂 Never in my life have I baked a cake before.
Amazing recipe! Such a light delicious sponge! Added lemon to the frosting to give it an extra kick and it was amazing!
Hello Anthea,
Wow! just wanted to let you know I baked the mango cake and the lemon cake. They both are so delicious! Thank you very much for sharing your recipes! You are a real pro to me! I also shared your website link with a friend of mine who enjoyed the cake.
Aw I'm so glad you enjoyed this cake and the lemon cake! Thank you so much for your kindness and for telling your friend about my website :).
Hello Anthea! I would like to bake this cake for my daughter’s birthday so is this cake be frozzen and be served later on?
Thank you!
Hi Dominique! Yes, this cake freezes well! I'd bake the cake layers and make the frosting separately then assemble it on the day. Hope that helps!
Such an amazing recipe!!! I had such fun making it and it was delicious! Can highly recommend the addition of ground cardamom it takes it to a whole new level 😍I also used coconut oil in the frosting which gives it an amazing tropical taste! No one guessed it was vegan until I told them! Fantastic fantastic recipe, I will be making it again for sure!
Hi Sam! I'm so glad you enjoyed this cake and that no one could tell it was vegan! Thanks so much for all your feedback and tips, I really appreciate it 🙂
How much almond flour and gluten flour do I need to make the Mango Vegan Cake? Can you give the measurements for this recipe? Thanks, I would really appreciate.
Hi Patricia, try using 200g almond flour and 200g gluten-free all-purpose flour. However, I didn't provide the measurements because I haven't tested it myself. Let me know how you go and I hope that helps!
I made this cake for my birthday and it is hands down the best cake I and my guests ever ate. The silence while everybody was enjoying it spoke more than a thousand words. Now I am wondering if it would work to replace the mango with different fruits, currently I am specifically considering pineapple or strawberries. What do you think, could it work?
Aw that's amazing Barbara! By reading your comment, I feel like I was right there! Strawberries will work with minor adjustments - my vegan strawberry cake is actually adapted from this mango cake recipe! I think pineapple would work and be lovely in a cake too 🙂
Hi! I would love to make this recipe, it looks delicious! But I was wondering, is it possible to use less mango in this recipe? For example, would only 2 mangos work as well? Would I have to use something to replace it? Apple sauce perhaps or would it be ok to just leave out? I wouldn't mind if it means that the cake tastes less of mango and is more 'cakey'. Thank you!
Hey! Yes, it should be fine to use less mango and applesauce instead (I think they are about the same consistency). The mango helps replace some of the milk and oil so I think it'd be easier to substitute than to just leave it out. I hope that helps!
I halved the recipe and made a mini cake out of this for my birthday. Everyone was blown away (even the non-vegans!).
Aw that's lovely to hear! And even better that non-vegans enjoyed it too! Thanks so much for your comment 🙂
This cake is delicious 🎂 thank you for sharing this! The only thing I did differently was I used swerve powdered sugar in place of regular powdered sugar for the icing and made buttercream icing, not cream cheese. The texture of the cake is amazing!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe and that your substitutions for the icing worked too! Thanks so much for your feedback x
This is such a great recipe. I used whole-wheat spelt flour, coconut sugar and a combination of frozen and fresh mango for the cake batter. I love how the chopped mango on top of the frosting stays in place and how it cuts so cleanly when slicing. It is so indulgent. Cannot recommend enough!
Aw I'm so happy that you loved this recipe! I'm glad that it worked with spelt flour, coconut sugar and a combination of fresh/frozen mango too. Thanks so so much for taking the time to leave a comment x
I made this cake today with wholemeal spelt flour and it turned out so good all my family enjoyed it and said it was delicious.
Thank you for recipe Anthea. Can't wait to try more of your vegan cakes they all look amazing!!
So glad it worked with wholemeal spelt flour and your family enjoyed it! Thanks soo much for your feedback and kind words 🙂
Hi I haven't made this cake yet, so wondered if I can use tinned mango pulp rather than making it myself?
Hi Jayne, I haven't tried it with tinned mango pulp but from experience with other cakes, it would work 🙂
Thank you. Once I have made it I will let you know if it was a success. ☺
Hi I am not vegan but I do not eat eggs so can I replace you recipes with dairy products , such as diary milk , butter and cream cheese etc.
Yes they should all work fine!