Good Morning all!
Does anyone have any good vegan cake recipes that will work well with fondant and any good vegan crusting buttercream recipes? Thanks for your time, this website is the best!!!!! Oh and which fondants are ok for vegans? Just full of questions this morning......
this young lady won the Cupcake Wars with vegan recipes...
http://www.chefchloe.com/
not had a chance to try her recipes yet, but it should give you some place to start. good luck
Hey there! I actually do a lot of special diet baking - gluten-free, dairy free, etc. My daughter was allergic to eggs and other things as a baby and I did make some dairy-free/egg-free birthday cakes. I have to admit that I think egg-free baking is just about the hardest dietary restriction to work with (harder even than gluten-free)
Try this one:
http://southernfood.about.com/od/chocolatecakes/r/bl40212r.htm
I did use this for my daughter's birthday cake for her first 2 years. I also modified it to make a lemon flavored cake by removing the cocoa and vinegar, increasing the flour to 2c, and adding 1 Tbsp of lemon zest and 2 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice (no need to use the vinegar in this one because the lemon juice adds the acid)
Another thing I might suggest is to substitute soy milk for the water. I have actually had great success with soy milk in many of my recipes (especially the gluten-free ones) It sometimes works even better than regular milk when I have substituted it to make a recipe dairy-free. It seems to me to sometimes make my gluten-fee cakes more moist.
I will say that I do remember that it was very hard to get the egg-free/dairy-free cakes to turn out moist. I believe the chocolate cakes turned out more moist in general than the lemon version, but it was nice to have another flavor option.
One very important note, especially when making an egg-free cake: leave out the vinegar (or lemon juice or other acid) until the end. After your other ingredients are all mixed (beat them only until smooth, no more!), then add the vinegar, and beat for maybe 30 seconds to a minute at most, just until blended. And then get it in a pan and in the oven RIGHT AWAY! (Make sure your pans are all prepped ahead of time!) In these recipes, you are counting on the reaction between the baking soda (a base) and the vinegar/lemon juice, etc. (an acid) to help the cake rise. Unfortunately, this reaction happens very quickly, and once it is over you lose your rising power. So you need to get it in the oven while the reaction is happening to get the most rise out of your cake. I would also recommend using natural cocoa (like Hershey's or Nestle's) in these recipes as opposed to dutch process cocoa. Dutch process cocoa has been processed to reduce its acidity. The extra acid in the natural cocoa can help with the rising process (and it is usually cheaper anyway!)
Now, as for the icing, if you are planning on using fondant, be careful that it does not contain any gelatin. Gelatin comes from animals and many vegetarians will not eat it. I found this out the hard way with a baby shower cake I made for my vegetarian cousin. I wasn't thinking about it and used MMF, because that is what I usually use. It turned out she couldn't eat it because marshmallows contain gelatin. I am getting ready to make a wedding cake for another family member now and was searching gelatin-free fondant. I found that most fondant recipes and many store-bought fondants contain gelatin. Satin Ice does not, and that is what I am planning on using. I think from looking at the label that it is vegan. Vegan is a little different than just vegetarian though, so it might be best to call them and make sure. I have not used Albert Uster myself, but I have heard that it is very good, so if you already know it is vegan it would probably be a good choice.
Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helps! Feel free to PM me if you need to. We have so many dietary restrictions in my family and I have prided myself on finding a way to work around them all so that everyone can eat. I am always happy to help anyone with special diet recipes. Good luck and happy baking! 
wow-perfect timing! i just posted something similar to this request a couple days ago!! i recieved alot of helpful responses!! i just completed a vegan, dairy free, gluten free cake for a coworker!! complete with home made gumpaste. i used agar agar powder (found at a local asian market)to make the gumpaste and can be substitued to make homemade fondant as well. Agar Agar powder is a vegitarian gelitain. works pretty good.
i also made a buttercream which was very tastey!! pm if you would like the recepies i made. in total i baked 4 cakes-2 choc, 1 white and 1 banana. i utilized one box mix (choc) just to see if it would taste better. it didn't. scratch is the way to go. i also used egg replacers (powder) and vanillia soy milk. i'm delivering the cake this morning!! i'll post pics of the Smokey Bear cake later this am. 
Will these recipes work in a larger amounts? She wants a three tier cake and sheet cakes for almost 300 people. I am doing my research now and going to start trying recipes soon. The wedding isn't until December. Thanks everyone for your help with this..........
At least for the recipes that I posted, I would probably not try to do anything in very deep pans because you don't want the weight of the batter itself to work against you. The sheet cake might work if you bake 2 thinner layers and stack them, rather than one thicker one and torting it. I would try to do a practice cake first if you can. I have never tried a sheet cake with this recipe, and I am not sure if I have baked anything larger than an 8" round with it. I think it might work, though as long as you keep it thin.
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