Vegan Lemon Cake – Lazy Cat Kitchen

Hope the sunshine is gracing your corner of the world this week. It’s almost like magic to lift your mood, isn’t it? I find a slice of good cake along with your afternoon coffee seems to have magical powers. This sunny-looking vegan lemon cake is just what the doctor ordered. It has few easily accessible ingredients, comes together in a single mixing bowl and requires very little skill.

This recipe is based on my previous recipe for Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake that many of you love. This time I wanted to make a nut free lemon cake and I also wanted to make it a bit longer so I adjusted the amount of ingredients accordingly. This cake is soft and fluffy, flavored with lemon zest and drizzled with a generous amount of tangy lemon sorbet. If you’re feeling extra fancy or just want the whole look, finish the cake with a thin layer of lemon icing and let it drip around artistically.

More about ingredients

Plant Milk: I used soy milk to make this cake, but if you don’t have soy, any other neutral flavored plant milk will do. I made curd by mixing it with lemon juice and so made a vegan equivalent of buttercream, which helped this cake rise.

Lemon Flavor: The lemon flavor in lemon cakes in general comes from the zest and any lemon flavored icing/syrup you add after baking. I used a lot of lemon zest here to make this cake very fragrant, but feel free to add up to 2 lemons if you like.

Lemon juice: Lemon juice is used in cake batter not for flavor but to help rise – unfortunately the tangy flavor of lemon juice is lost during the baking process. To compensate and give this cake the level of tanginess it deserves, I used a generous amount of lemon juice to make a simple lemon syrup, which is used to add lemon flavor to the cake. I also added a touch of icing, which works to counteract the sweetness of the icing sugar a bit.

Flour: I used widely available white flour (known as all purpose in the US) to make this cake. If you want to make it gluten-free, use a balanced gluten-free flour mixture and a touch of xanthan gum to improve the texture.

Yellow: In a traditional, non-vegan recipe, it’s best to add a small amount of turmeric for the warm yellow color that comes from egg yolks. I find it’s not really necessary when used with olive oil and any other oil, just add a smidge, it’s surprisingly strong as it literally sits on the tip of a knife.

Oil: This case is very easy to make as it uses regular vegetable oil. There are several vegetable oils you can use, I recommend something neutral in flavor like grapeseed oil, or if you want something a little bolder, light olive oil works too. I would avoid extra virgin olive oil though as it overpowers the delicate balance of flavors. I’ve tried making this cake with unscented coconut oil, creaming both sugar and cold oil, and using melted coconut oil and both work well, but the texture of the cake is slightly thicker, less fluffy and springy. The fact is that coconut oil solidifies at low temperatures.

Casting Sugar: Caster sugar (also known as superfine sugar) is great for baking and is what I used both to make cakes and syrups.

Xanthan gum A small amount of xanthan gum is used to improve the texture of the cake (only if you use a gluten-free flour blend instead of plain gluten flour). If you have a well-formed gluten-free flour mix that has a high proportion of starch, you can skip it, but it does make a difference so use it if you can.

Baking Agent: I used carefully calibrated amounts of baking powder and baking soda to rise this cake. The latter reacts with the lemon juice in the buttermilk and keeps the cake nice and fluffy.

Dry Sugar: Icing sugar (known as confectioner’s sugar in the US) is used to make icing. To achieve the right consistency of icing, you’ll need surprisingly little liquid so be sure to add it very slowly.

In a large mixing bowl, place the oil, sugar, lemon zest and a small amount of turmeric if using – I found it completely unnecessary if using olive oil. Whisk with a wire until well mixed. If coconut oil is used, melt and cool it before using, otherwise it will dissolve the sugar.

Add Vegan Buttermilk – Combine soy (or other plant) milk and lemon together and stir until you get a homogeneous mixture.

Place a sieve over the bowl with the wet ingredients and slowly sift in the dry ingredients – I like to do this in 2-3 batches. Switch to a spatula and add the flour to the wet ingredients, gradually incorporating more and more flour by making small circles in the center of the bowl.

Transfer the batter – it will be pourable – to a greased and lined baking tin and bake in the preheated oven until fully risen, golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Poke small holes all over the cake and drizzle hot cake with cooled syrup or vice versa.