A moist and flavorful vegan matcha pound cake with the aroma of matcha. It's just mixing and baking, a super easy cake that anyone can make without failure.

Vegan matcha pound cake, a beautiful cake that comforts you with the flavor of matcha. No butter or eggs required, but it has a moist and fluffy finish.
Instead of butter, we use sesame oil, and instead of egg, we use baking powder. We use maple syrup for sweetness.
- This recipe is for you if:
- You love matcha desserts
- You are looking for a matcha cake recipe
- You are looking for an easy vegan cake
This is a nice treat not only for vegans but also for those who are not good at the richness of butter and white sugar's strong sweetness.
Besides recipes, I will show you the ingredients and baking equipment I use, so if you are interested, please continue.
If you want to check the recipe right now, go ahead and jump to the recipe from the link below.
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About this recipe
- Vegan cake using matcha powder
- Require only 6 ingredients
- Baking time:50 minutes
- An easy and simple recipe
Easy Pound Cake Recipe
General ingredients for pound cake are butter, white sugar, eggs, and flour. It is called pound cake because each ingredient use one pound (about 450g).
And how to make it requires a lot of steps. Have butter at room temperature, beat it and add egg one at a time, add sugar and flour gradually...but I like simple and easy steps.
This vegan matcha pound cake is not technically a pound cake, but the taste is similar and easy to make.
Mix the liquid, sift the flour, mix and bake. Because it is made in three steps, even a beginner baker can make a delicious cake with no fail.
📋Ingredients
Here are the ingredients (amounts are in the recipe card below).

- Soy Milk: Please pick soy milk made from non-GMO soybeans, and the one no flavor nor sugar is added. Soy milk is cheap and easy to get in Japan, so I use it for cooking and baking all the time, but If you don't consume soy milk, you can substitute it with your favorite milk, such as almond mil, oats milk.
- Oil: I use taihaku sesame oil for baking sweets. This particular sesame oil is squeezed raw, so it does not have the color and aroma compared to common sesame oil (squeeze after roasting). It makes the dough fluffy and does not become greasy over time. You can substitute it with oil that doesn't have a strong flavor if you can't find it.
- Maple Syrup: Any maple syrup is ok. I prefer to purchase a large bottle (1L size), then make cakes many times! You can substitute it with honey.
- Flour: You can use all-purpose flour or Cake flour.
- Baking Powder: I recommend aluminum-free baking powder. It is said that aluminum can cause harm to children's health, so you should avoid it as much as possible.
- Matcha Powder: Please see below.
Matcha Powder

You might be able to find matcha powder for tea ceremony training or desserts, and both are OK.
You only use a tiny amount per each, so a small package is good enough for making desserts.
There is also matcha powder with chlorella. It gives a clearer green color, so if you want a beautiful finished color, matcha with chlorella would be perfect.
So far, I have shown you all the ingredients. If you have any questions about unfamiliar stuff, please feel free to comment in the section below.
🥣 Baking Equipment

Having practical equipment is very important. Please read through for a brief explanation of each item.
- Spatula: A spatula is an essential tool to mix ingredients. This particular spatula has a firm tip, so it's easy to scrape the dough from the bowl.
- Whisk: It's easy to use a whisk to blend liquid ingredients.
- Strainer: A strainer with a handle is easy to sift dry ingredients.
- Cake Pan: I use a rectangle cake pan (18cm/7inch). This loaf pan seems like a similar size in the picture, but you can use a round pan or square pan.
- Mixing Bowl: Deep and large-sized mixing bowl is good so that the flour does not scatter when mixing.
- Parchment paper: Parchment paper is placed in a cake pan.
That's it. Hope you have similar equipment at home then you can start cooking right now!
🔪Instructions
I will walk you through how to make it step by step. You can also watch this video.
Firstly, preheat oven at 180C/356F.

- Mix liquid ingredients: Put soy milk, oil, and maple syrup in a bowl and mix with a whisk until well blended.
- Add dry ingredients: Place a strainer on top of the bowl, add flour, baking powder, and matcha powder.
- Shift dry ingredients:
- Mix all the ingredients: Mix them with a spatula. If you mix too much, the cake will be firm and won't be fluffy, so be careful not to mix too much.

- Pour the dough into a cake pan: Place parchment paper into a cake pan and pour the dough. Hold both ends of the cake pan and release air.
- Score the surface: Score the surface with a knife or skewer.
- Bake: Place in a 180C/356F oven and bake for 35-40 minutes.
- Check if it's baked: Put a skewer in the middle and if the dough does not stick, it is done. A delicious matcha pound cake is ready!

Isn't it so easy? ! Once you get used to it, you can set it in the oven in less than 10 minutes.
After baking, remove the whole parchment paper and put it on a cooling rack to cool it down. It is difficult to cut when it is hot, so please wait for some time.
Storage
Store at room temperature for about 5 days.
It is safe to keep it in the fridge during the hot season. Although it will get dry, if you warm it in the microwave for about 20 seconds at 600w, it will get fluffy again.
You can also keep it in the freezer. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and store it in the freezer. It will last about one month.
Thaw at room temperature or microwave it before eating it.
Vegan Matcha Pound Cake with Azuki

The picture above is mixed with azuki (Red Beans Paste).
Matcha and azuki match very well. You can add 1 or 2 tbsp of azuki according to your taste. The cake won't be too sweet with that portion.
Also, the color is darker as one more matcha powder is added. If you want to fully enjoy the flavor of matcha, adding an extra teaspoon of matcha powder to this recipe will make such a bright green.
Do you like to tweak to your taste? Then go ahead and make your original matcha pound cake!
Variations
Let's change up some ingredients and bake the varieties of cake. Here are some ideas.
- Basic pound cake: If you omit matcha powder, it will be a plain cake.
- Cacao pound cake: Change matcha powder into cacao powder and mix in some chocolate chips.
- Banana almond pound cake: Mash one banana and mix in, then top with sliced almond.
- Blueberry pound cake: Mix in blueberries.
You can add your favorite dried fruits and nuts and enjoy the variety!
Thanks For Stopping By
This is a super easy, super simple, vegan matcha cake. If you love matcha, you will love it for sure!
I hope this recipe is helpful.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog♡ If you’ve tried this recipe(or any other recipe on the blog), please give it a star rating below!
Also feel free to leave comments if you have any questions. I love hearing from you!
Chef JA Cooks is a Japanese food blog that shares simple and healthy Japanese home cooking recipes include vegan and vegetarian. From traditional Japanese recipes to modern recipes with step-by-step instructions.
📖 Recipe

Vegan Matcha Pound Cake
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 8 slices 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Japanese
- Diet: Vegan
Description
A moist and flavorful vegan matcha pound cake with the aroma of matcha. It's just mixing and baking, a super easy cake that anyone can make without failure.
Ingredients
- A 50g Oil (56ml)
- A 70g Maple Syrup (56ml)
- A 140g Soy Milk (133ml)
- B 200g All-purpose flour or Cake flour (360ml)
- B 2 tsp Baking Powder
- B 2 tsp Matcha Powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven: Preheat oven at 180C/356F.
- Put wet ingredients: Put A ingredients into a bowl and mix.
- Add dry ingredients: Place a strainer on the bowl, add B ingredients, sift them, and mix.
- Pour the dough into a cake pan: Place parchment paper in a cake pan and pour it into it.
- Bake: Score the surface with a knife and bake for 35-40minutes at 180C/356F.
Notes
- Equipment: Loaf pan (18cm/7 inch), spatula, whisk, strainer, mixing bowl, parchment paper.
- Storage: It will last for 5 days at room temperature and one month in the freezer.
- Substitute: You can substitute soy milk with your favorite milk, such as oat milk and almond milk. You can use oil that doesn't have a strong smell.
- If you mix too much in step 3, the cake will be firm and won't be fluffy, so be careful not to mix too much.
Keywords: vegan matcha pound cake
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*Recipe Update 20.06.11 : amounts and baking time is updated
OMG baking powder 6 table spoons ! loaf is just growing out of the oven....
This is crazy....
Thanks for making, Jaime! I just realized that the recipe is wrong:( Baking powder is 2 tsp not 2 TBSP.That's crazy amount! Sorry about your cake but hope you will try again!
Hi ! Matcha powder is 2 tsps or 2 TBPs ?? I’m gonna try on friday
Hi Adriana, it's 2 teaspoons! I hope you will love it!
I just tried this recipe and the pound cake came out so yummy! I didn't have oil so I used butter, and I made matcha glaze to drizzle on top. It's amazingly soft and scrumptious. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
★★★★★
Hi Nayeon!, Matcha glaze sounds pretty good! Thanks for trying my recipe:)
hii i'd like to try your recipe.. but i dont have a raw sesame oil in my country.. can virgin coconut oil can replace it? and can i use almond milk instead of soy? Thank you so much!
Hi Hannah, Thanks for visiting my site! Yes, you can use both coconut oil and almond milk. Please give me a feedback if you make it!
Is the oil in mls?
Hi Eleanor, oil is 56ml in this recipe. By the way, maple syrup is 56ml and soy milk is 147ml. I will add these in the recipe. Thanks for your question!
I just tried this today and wow!! Absolutely loved it an totally recommend. I didnt follow the recipe completely but it came out so cakey and nice. I would recommend putting in some vegan white chocolate!
★★★★★
That white chocolate sounds so yummy! Thank you so much for trying my recipe!
I like how simple it is . Many vegan recipe call for lots of ingredients.
★★★★★
Thank you so much for your comment! I like a simple recipe. Glad you like it too!