An easy recipe for a holiday style cake with cinnamon and raisins, made with vegan buttermilk. It’s perfect as a coffee cake, as a snack or as a dessert. Did I mention it’s a vegan recipe?
Baking for another Pandemic Christmas
It’s wonderful to have a dessert or treat on hand during the holidays, that pleases my big-eater boys and at the same time pleases my non dairy and vegan family. This cinnamon flavoured vegan buttermilk cake fits the bill.
Scroll down for a Printable Recipe Card from RecipesGenerator.
During the pandemic, when most things shut down, we were blessed to have our young adult children visiting. We had our two boys who attend school in Ontario at home, and our Alberta resident son came home due to the cancellation of his sporting events and school. We were even blessed with our world-traveller daughter’s presence!
We had been isolating for so long, but had pandemic fatigue like the rest of the world – and finally decided to enjoy our family.

When our adult kids come to visit – and hopefully bring their “significant others” – we enjoy putting out food to create constant “filler”. Someone is always hungry.
We are also supporting a variety of diets, high calorie, vegan, dairy free, carnivore, etc. While we created traditional desserts like my mother in law’s traditional Christmas Cake, and gifted Christmas Cookies, we have also been making sure to put out desserts and snacks that are dairy free and vegan, which satisfy the omnivores as well.
Baking for Vegan and Dairy-Free Guests

We have made Vegan Mincemeat Tarts and Vegan Blueberry Bread Pudding, and there is always the possibility of Apple Dump Cake.
Vegan Cinnamon Buttermilk Cake
Lately we have been making this Cinnamon Vegan Buttermilk Cake – this cake is evolving every time we make it. The title has evolved too. Now that it appears whenever the kids visit, it becomes a Holiday Cake.
As my Fruitcake is definitely not vegan – we try to make this one as full of fruit and nuts as possible. We put in lots of raisins and walnuts, but there is no reason not to add pecans or even candied fruit to turn this “coffee cake” into more of a Christmas Cake! It works as a dessert with non-dairy whipped cream, or just as a snack or breakfast.

Buttermilk Cake
When you hear the words “buttermilk cake,” you may assume that it’s not a vegan option. However, this vegan buttermilk cake recipe proves that assumption wrong. By using plant-based milk and a few other simple ingredients, you can enjoy a delicious and healthy cake that’s 100% vegan.
Vegan Milk and Butter
The cake is made with non-dairy milk (we have used both Oat and Soya so far), and Vegan Butter (we have used Vegan Becel Margarine, as well as Melt Vegan Butter substitute).
Preparation Steps
The cake is easy to make, but does involve a few steps!
- A simple cinnamon sugar is put together and raisins are plumped.
- Some non-dairy milk is mixed together with apple cider vinegar to create vegan buttermilk.
- The sugar, butter and vanilla extract are creamed together.
- The vegan buttermilk is then mixed into the dry ingredients along with the sugar and butter, and the cake batter is formed.
- The good stuff is added (raisins and nuts!)
- Cinnamon sugar is sprinkled over the top
- and just like that (well almost), a delicious cinnamon buttermilk cake is ready to bake. It does involve a few separate bowls for preparation – but the recipe is not at all complicated.
Tips for Making the Perfect Vegan Buttermilk Cake
- For best results, use room temperature vegan butter. This will ensure that it creams well with the sugar and creates a light and fluffy texture.
- Be sure to whisk the dry ingredients together well, to prevent any lumps in the batter.
- When adding the buttermilk mixture and dry ingredients to the mixing bowl, be sure to do so gradually. This will help prevent the batter from becoming too thick or lumpy.
- Don’t overmix the batter. Once the dry ingredients have been added, mix just until everything is well combined.
- This recipe is for one 9 by 13 inch sheet cake. You could also prepare the cake in a bundt pan!
Below is a printable recipe card from RecipesGenerator. Please give it a try!
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Enjoy that wonderful family of yours. It is discouraging, this downturn after we thought we were going to move forward, but I know we will get out of this. We just have to be patient a little longer, as hard as it is.
Glad you could all get together!