Ask a Vegan Baker

Thanks for the suggestion. After some experimentation, I ended up reducing the baking soda to 3/4 tsp and the oil to 3 tbsp. I'm pretty happy with the consistency of the cake at this point.

And thank you so much for pointing out the issue with the oil. Reducing it from 8 tbsp to 3 tbsp resulted in much better texture and flavor, and resolved a couple of problems I was having with this cake. One problem was turning the cake out of the pan; my pan makes 6 mini bundt cakes and they were sticking terribly. I was often lucky to get even one of the mini bundt cakes out of the pan without it breaking apart. I had experimented with a number of different methods of preparing the pan, but the cakes always stuck! However, the first batch of cakes that I baked after reducing the oil turned out of the pan with little effort! I guess cakes with a high oil content are more likely to stick to the pan?! I would have thought more oil would make the cake less likely to stick to the pan, but apparently not.

The other problem solved by the oil reduction was decorating; when decorating the cake with a light sprinkling of powdered sugar, the powdered sugar would "disappear" into the cake within about 12 hours. After reducing the oil, this is no longer a problem!

Hooray! Thanks for your help!

So glad it worked out Buccaneer Bob! Regarding the oil and the sticking, the only thing I can think of is that perhaps the excessive oil inhibited binding to the point of where the cake would rather crumble instead of "let go" of the bundt cake mold.

These days I usually prevent my cakes from sticking to their molds by placing a folded paper towel over an open bottle of canola oil before giving it a shake to get oil on the towel. Then I run the towel around the inside of the baking mold, dust flour over it then shake off the excess flour. The oil soaks up the flour and keeps the cake batter's proteins and starches from binding to the mold during baking. For especially moist cakes, I just give up and use a springform pan