birthday cake help, please

[kangamitroo]

i want to make a fairly traditional-style birthday cake for dd, but vegan.  i have usually made white cakes with cream cheese icing, using a better homes & gardens recipe. 

what non-dairy milk do you use for your cakes?  with soymilk it was was much too sweet (tho i could reduce sugar), and since i like a buttermilk flavor in a cake, the soy flavor also was....disappointing.

which egg replacement do you find works best?  i found that applesauce made the cake almost too moist.  in cookies i usually use bakingpowder +water&oil.

for frosting, i used earth balance sticks, confectioners sugar and vanilla.  however, i miss the slight tang of the cream cheese, and without the milk added it would be too thick.  suggestions?

TIA for any ideas.  i really want to master vegan cakes.

[askew]

I have made this cake and loved it, but maybe you don't want chocolate for your DD? Perhaps the ideas might help convert a recipe you like. 

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/making-mandys-chocolate-cake

eta: I have much better luck using creamers instead of soy milk. You can use the soy creamer or I use the coconut creamer. Not flavored, the plain ones. I make a killer vegan ganache with it, you would never know it was not heavy cream. Caramel as well. 

[sosurreal09]

I use coconut milk (either out of the can or so delicious) for milk

I use ground flax + 3 tbs water for the eggs. If you want to add nutrition you could to bananas or pumpkin instead of applesauce

with frosting I use coconut milk too. If you want a cream cheese tang try adding softened tofutti better than cream cheese to it (I add it to shrimp scampi to add a creamy cheesy flavor yum)

if you want a "whipped" frosting you can skim the fatty coconut milk from the top of the can (full fat coconut milk) and whip it then fold it into the frosting.

[catnip]

I've yet to come up with a white cake I really like. I stick with chocolate. :)

With the icing, though, try adding the juice of about 1/2 a Meyer lemon for every half-cup of fat, that is what I do, and I think it is cream cheese-like. Also, I like to go 50/50 EB and shortening, the EB alone is just too ... something. Salty, maybe.

[kangamitroo]

thanks very much to each of you for these suggestions!

catnip: i tend to believe lemon makes everything better, so yours will be an easy method to employ.

[kismetbaby]

I love this recipe for chocolate cake. So moist. http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Eggless-Chocolate-Cake

I too found that EB alone makes icing kinda icky.  Haven't actually perfected vegan icing myself.

[catnip]

The best vegan icing I've made has been 1/4 cup each tofutti cream cheese, eb and spectrum palm shortening, the juice of 1 Meyer lemon, a tablespoon or 2 of soymilk, 2 tsps vanilla, and 4-5 cups of icing sugar.

[jump mama jump!]

http://shmooedfood.blogspot.com/2006/01/fluffy-white-cupcakes.html

I've been using this for a white cake. I use coconut rum instead of extract though (don't worry there is only like a tsp and the alcohol cooks out anyway), and adding about 4 tsps of orange extract makes it a really nice orange cake. It takes a little longer in the oven as a cake than cupcakes. Maybe 5 minutes?

[RockStarMom]

I've made frosting with vegan cream cheese and had great luck.