Vegan Mango Cake
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 puree the mango, 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 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, banana bread or mango bread.
Ingredients you’ll need
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
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.
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 puree) and mix until combined.
The mango cake batter should have a consistency similar to a thick pourable pancake batter. The mixture can have some lumps, as long as they aren’t lumps of dry 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 have cake strips, I recommend using them for this cake.
The 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 frosting tends 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 in the recipe card for more detail
- Stabilized 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 cake and the less sugar I used, the denser the cake. Sugar doesn’t only sweeten a cake but adds moisture and improves its texture.
My team and I have tested this cake with King Arthur’s measure for measure flour and it works beautifully! Other gluten-free flours will produce different results.
As this vegan mango cake contains a lot of fruit, it’s best to bake it in thin layers, such as in 8-inch cake pans or larger.
This recipe works in a bundt tin but the final cake is denser and you’ll have to back the cake for longer.
This cake 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. For a mango loaf, see my vegan mango bread recipe.
More Summery vegan desserts
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Vegan Mango Cake
Ingredients
Dry cake ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose plain flour, spoon and leveled (note 1)
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt, (note 2)
Wet cake ingredients
- ~2 cups (480g) mango puree, approx 3-4 medium-size ripe mangoes (note 3)
- 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 4 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) cornstarch / 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: For the best results, I recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients. I tested the recipe using grams and it's the most consistent way to measure the flour and mango puree.
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.
Video
Notes
- My team and I have tested this cake with King Arthur’s measure for measure flour and it works beautifully! Other gluten-free flours will produce different results.
- For extra flavor, you can add 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder to the dry ingredients.
- I got 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.
This post was originally published in January 2020 and updated in September 2021.
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
For the frosting when you say to cream until combined do you mean to mix the ingredients by hand or with an electric mixer?
Hi Pamela, you can cream the ingredients by hand or an electric mixer. I find it easier to to do it with a mixer!
The first time I made this cake omg, I fell in love it was delicious, I got so many compliments from a lot of people.
Now, I’m really not sure what I am doing wrong two times in a row. It comes out gummy and very dense. It is sort of inedible. I added fresh mango the first time, and now I tried with mango pulp. I am so confused because it was sooo soo delicious the first time I made it. Any advice on what I might be doing wrong? I am following you recipe fully. I made it with soy milk & fresh mango few weeks ago and today I tried with mango pure & coconut milk (from carton, not can).
Hi Iva, I’m glad that the cake worked out for you the first time! But I’m sorry that your second version wasn’t as successful. Can I ask if you used the cups or grams measurements? If you used the cups measurements for your second cake, you may have accidentally undermeasured the flour or overmeasured the liquid which threw off the ratios (a runnier batter is more likely to produce a gummy cake). Sometimes technique can affect how the cake rises. For example, if you accidentally overmixed the cake batter, it will activate the raising agents too early so it doesn’t rise properly in the oven. Also, was your mango puree sweetened? If it had more than 10% added sugar, this will affect the rise of the cake. I hope that helps!
Hi Anthea! Thanks to you I have already been making several amazing treats for the construction workers of our house and they seem to love every single recipe of yours that I have made! 🤗 Now I have some fresh mango’s riping and I like to make a cake for them. They prefer to eat everything out of hand so I want to give them something without frosting so they can enjoy it without any mess. (Muffins or coffee cake always works well.) I was wondering if can bake this recipe in a 20 cm square pan for creating a coffee cake out of it? Do I have to make half the recipe for this pan? And instead of the frosting what do you think about if I use the crumble topping from your mango bread on top of this cake? Or do you maybe have another suggestion for topping that does not get messy to eat by hand? Thank you so much in advance!
Hi Desiree, thank you so much for your ongoing support and I’m so glad to hear the workers are enjoying everything! For a 20cm cake pan, I’d suggest scaling the recipe down to 12 serves rather than half (in the recipe card, you can tap on the number next to ‘Yield’ to adjust the ingredients). Since a 20cm square pan is slightly larger than a 20cm round, 12 serves should give you a nice cake with good height. I also think the crumble topping from my mango bread would work beautifully and won’t be too messy. If you press it gently into the cake, it’ll hold even better. Hope that helps!
Thank you Anthea for your clear explanation! That is very helpful! 🙏 I also like to make mango muffins with this recipe, and here too with the crumble of your mango bread recipe on top. Can you recommend this or do you have another suggestion? In this case do I need to make the full recipe for 12 regular sized muffins and what baking time and temperature do you suggest?
You’re welcome! This cake will work as muffins, though the batter is a little runny, so they may spread out more than rise upwards. To avoid this, just fill each muffin cup about two-thirds full. The recipe should make around 14–18 regular muffins, or you can scale it down if you prefer. Bake them for about 22–25 minutes, depending on their size. Hope that helps!
I wanted to let you know the mango cake with the coconut crumble topping (from your mango bread recipe) was amazing! It was SO fluffy and moist!! We never had anything like it and everyone loved it! Thank you so much Anthea!
Hi Desiree, aw that’s the best news and I’m thrilled you and everyone loved it! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know. I appreciate it so much!
Have you tried making oil free?
We haven’t tested this recipe without oil, but from experience replacing the oil with more fruit or yogurt in high-fruit cakes will make it dense and stodgy. However, you’re welcome to experiment with the recipe!
This cake was amazing! It was so moist and delicious, it was the best vegan cake I have ever made. I made it for my husband’s birthday and everybody loved it. Don’t skip the frosting, it takes it to a whole new level of yumminess!
Thank you so much for your lovely feedback! We are so glad to hear it was a hit, especially for such a special occasion! And we totally agree: never skip the frosting 😍
Yum! Deliciously tender and moist. I used frozen mango which I pureed and to be honest they didn’t taste mango-y at all so I added some mango purée ontop before topping with a coyo whipped cream and some toasted coconut. Yum! Have sent them to daycare with my 4 yr old for her birthday
Hi Ourdia, thanks so much for your feedback and for choosing to make this cake for your daughter’s birthday! I get what you mean about frozen mango – it can be a hit and miss, but glad that you troubleshooted it with the extra mango puree!! I love the sound of how you decorated the cake too. Thank you again!
Absolutely fantastic recipe. I wasn’t sure looking at the measurements at first but took a leap of faith. Was incredible. I used the recipe as is but for 3 6″ pans and made a little compote to go between the layers. Was absolutely perfect!
Hi Mansi, I’m thrilled you loved this cake! Thank you so much for trusting the recipe and a compote sounds incredible. Thank you sooo much for your wonderful review!
This hits the description just right: moist but fluffy enough. The mango flavor is not strong at least from my experience, but I guess it depends on the mango you use. I did not make the frosting unfortunately because ingredients were hard to find for the moment, so I just decorated the cake with almonds and Chia seeds.
Hi Lawr, glad you enjoyed the texture of the cake! Yes, you’re absolutely right – the mango flavor is definitely influenced by the mango you use. Perhaps there’s a different variety of mango that you can use next time? Thanks so much for your feedback!
I made a gluten free version by substituting the flour with gf flour blend, adding a flax egg and reducing the amount of liquid a little. I ended up making it in two loaf tins (plus some cupcakes), so my cake ended up rectangular rather than round. It worked really well and was equally delicious. I am very impressed with the amount of mango that is in this cake! Thank you for the recipe Anthea 🙂
Hi Kostja! I’m so glad that it worked with your gf flour and with a few tweaks! Can I ask what brand of gf flour you used? I know all blends act so differently :). Thanks so much for letting me know how the cake worked for you!