Vegan baking can be difficult if you are new to it. You may notice that sometimes your cakes will be stodgy and not rise or rock hard. Here are my tips to avoid this after lots of trail and error:

• Do not over mix your cake batter! Even if it looks lumpy, do not over mix. The lumps will cook out in the oven but if you over mix you will get a dense, chewy texture which might be okay for cookies but not for cake.
• If you want a light fluffy cake and you are confusing as to why your cake may not be rising it might be because it needs vinegar. Yes, I said vinegar! I promise your cakes will not taste like vinegar but they only need a tablespoon of it added to your wet ingredients in order to react with the baking powder/soda to make the cake rise. You can also use lemon or lime juice instead of vinegar and again I promise this will not effect the taste of the bake as it is only a tablespoon and it will cook out.
• If you cake is rock hard or seems very oil it is probably because there is too much oil in the mixture and therefore you are basically frying the cake. This is also the same for if you have hard cookies although check that you are not just over baking them as cookies can seem very soft in the oven but they will firm up a lot once they cool down.