All About This Vegan Gluten-free Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Thyme
Poppy seeds and lemon are a classic flavour combination, sure to please most cake eaters. I added fresh thyme from my greenhouse, to highlight the lemon notes. Thyme presents earthy, minty and slightly lemony characteristics so it’s a great addition to this cake. The cake crumb is surprisingly soft with a crumbly, moist sponge like texture. The gluten-free flour blend creates a flawless crumb that’s impossible to tell it’s vegan or gluten-free. It’s a 1-bowl (and a jug) cake that’s vegan, gluten-free, and it’s absolutely delightful. It’s a fantastic choice for an easy afternoon tea cake as it’s a single layer 8 inch round cake that measures around 1.5 inches in height. This recipe will become a staple in your household, especially if you have fussy gluten-free eaters.
This cake uses a combination of white rice flour, almond flour, and potato starch as it’s gluten-free flour blend. Our egg replacer is xanthan gum which is a great egg replacer for gluten-free baking. It works as a binding agent and also helps create a spongy cake texture, which is hard in gluten-free vegan baking. A combination of coconut yoghurt, vegetable oil, and soy milk add the perfect amount of moisture to this cake, making one that will easily keep for 3 days without drying out.
This is only a single layered 8 inch cake. I use a standard 8 inch cake tin for this recipe. The brand I alway buy (and cherish) is USA Bakeware. I LOVE their cake tins. They are high quality, light coloured and last forever. This cake will present a slightly domed top and is very easy to decorate. I use a simple glaze recipe that is flavoured with vanilla, lemon essence, lemon rind and Thyme.
Vegan Gluten-free Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Thyme Breakdown
Skill: | Easy |
| Method: | Mixing in one bowl |
| Size: | Single layer 8 inch cake, 1.5 inches heigh |
| Serving: | 12 casual servings |
| Pairing: | Vanilla ice-cream, sour cream or yoghurt |
| Sweetness: | Moderate |
| Profile: | Vegan, gluten-free, soft cake crumb |
| Storage: | Stored in an airtight container in the fridge three to four days |
| Bakers Tip: | You can also make this without thyme |
Tips For Making This Vegan Gluten-free Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
- Make sure your oven is heated to the correct temperature before baking, use an oven thermometer
- Use vanilla bean seeds or high quality paste for the best flavour
- Don’t over bake this cake, the skewer will still present some sticky crumbs when poked throw the centre
- Bake on the middle rack of your oven
- Add a heatproof bowl of water to the bottom of your oven whilst baking, to help circulate the air and create an evenly baked cake
Ingredient Substitutions
- swap potato starch with tapioca flour
- swap almond flour with almond meal or pumpkin seeds ground into a meal for a nut free version
- swap soy milk with coconut milk for a soy free version
- swap xanthan gum with 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 2 1/2 tablespoons boiling water)
- swap lemon rind and essence with orange rind and essence for a different citrus flavour
Decorating This Vegan Gluten-free Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
- This is a super easy decorating technique that takes minutes
- When making the glaze for the cake, make sure not to make it too runny otherwise it will run off your cake
- This cake is moist enough to eat without glaze or other decorations if you’re after a healthier version
Watch my video to see how easy it is to make this cake
Love Gluten-free recipes? Check out these…
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Vegan Gluten-free Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Thyme
- Total Time: 68
- Yield: 12 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
An easy vegan gluten-free lemon poppy seed cake with thyme.
Ingredients
Cake
- 175 g (1 cup) white rice flour
- 100 g (1 cup) blanched almond flour
- 60 g (1/2 cup) potato starch
- 3 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
- 170 g (⅔ cup) caster sugar
- 125 ml (½ cup) plain vegan coconut yogurt
- 90 ml (⅓ cup + 2 teaspoons) vegetable oil
- 330 ml (1 ⅓ cups) plant milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- Zest from one unwaxed lemon
Glaze
- 125 g (1 cup) icing or confectioners sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons plain soy milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- Zest from one unwaxed lemon
- 1 tablespoon fresh Thyme leaves
- Small lemon wedges to decorate
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat your convection oven to 170°C (340°F). Lightly grease and line one 8 inch round cake cake tin with baking paper and grease again.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift the rice flour, almond flour, potato starch, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum. Whisk to combine. Add sugar and stir through. Make a well in the middle of your dry ingredients.
- Place the coconut yoghurt, oil, plant milk, vanilla, lemon extract and zest in a large jug and stir until completely smooth.
- Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry and gently whisk to combine.
- Pour the batter into your cake tin and tap on your bench with force to release any large air bubbles.
- Bake on the middle rack of your oven for 45 – 48 minutes (BUT check your cake’s progress at the 40 minute mark), until a skewer inserted into the center comes out almost clean of cake batter and the top bounces back when gently pressed.
- Let cool in the tin for 10 minutes before flipping onto a cake rack to allow your cake to completely cool. Once your cake has cooled, move onto making the glaze.
Glaze
- Mix the icing sugar, soy milk, vanilla, lemon extract, lemon rind together in a small bowl until it becomes a smooth, thick icing. Pour evenly over the top of your cooled cake. Sprinkle thyme leaves over the top and some small lemon wedges. Serve.
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 48
- Category: Dessert
- Method: 1 bowl mixing
- Cuisine: Dessert
Keywords: Gluten-free, vegan, poppy seed, lemon, thyme
I could not believe this was gluten free!!!!!! It’s one of the BEST GFV cakes I’ve ever made. So easy. Great recipe Sarah!!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Jules!
Hey Sarah,
I weighed out 165g of rice flour (in my case the super fine Thai kind) and it was so much more than 3/4 cup! Wondering what kind of rice flour you used? I’m never quite sure to do in this situation but as the 165g looked more like 1.25 to to 1.5 cups I decided to follow the cups in your recipe instead of the grams and used a generous 3/4 cup to make up for the difference in our cup measures (I’m in Canada). Haha: layers of confusion!
I hope this was the right thing to do. Cake looks and smells very nice anyway. But any insight appreciated. Thanks!
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Hey Lucy
That’s really interesting. I use a stand white rice flour that I get from the supermarket. I’m guessing it maybe different to the Thai kind. Using 3/4 of a cup was a great idea. Glad it worked out!
Hi again Sara! While still totally edible I wasn’t happy with the texture (dense) or flavour of the cake after my first attempt so I remade the recipe, this time using the gram measurement for the rice flour. Much better result! I remembered Alice Medrich writing in her book Flavor Flours (unfortunately not vegan but still full of interesting info) that she prefers superfine Thai rice flour like Erawan but that it measures out more in cups and so always to go by grams.
I have very little experience with GF baking and I had extra of all the ingredients so this ended up being a fun experiment!
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Hey Lucy!
So glad to hear that. I definitely agree with measuring in grams, I always get a more accurate result. Thanks so much for letting me know. Always feel free to reach out with questions xo
Hello, Sarah. is the yogurt to add moisture? if so can I use apples sauce instead and will it add more moisture? Thanks
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I wouldn’t use apple sauce I would use coconut cream. You still need that fat content.
I forgot to add…I used twice as much lemon 🍋 zest in the cake batter. Also measured everything out in cups instead of grams as my kitchen scales are on the fritz. 😔 I love that this cake is gluten-free!!! 😋🥰😋
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Thank you so much Krissoula! I love hearing your feedback. xoxo
LOL…now I’m seeing my first comment!!! And, you’re very welcome, Sara. 👩🍳 You’re such an AMAZING creator of recipes & baker!!! 🤗😘🤗
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Mmmm ~ LOVE this recipe, Sara!!! It turned out so light, moist & purrrfect!!! 😋🤩😋
Absolutely perfect recipe
I made it into a smaller cake and 4 large muffins and added a lemon syrup to warm cake before icing and plus extra lemon in the batter
So light moist and tender
Best gluten free cake I’ve ever made
Thank you I’ll be sharing it with family and clients tomorrow
This tasted great!
★★★★★
Incredible recipe! I couldn’t believe how soft the cake is. Thanks so much
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