Vegan lemon cake has to be one of the most requested cakes in my Facebook vegan baking group. I put a lot of time into developing this vegan lemon cake recipe. I wanted to create a cake that had a buttery cake crumb that melts in your mouth. This recipe has big notes of lemon rounded off with the gentle sweetness of sugar. It’s a very easy recipe to master and no-one will ever know it’s a dairy-free and egg-free cake. This cake keeps for around 4-5 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
I wanted to make this cake crumb very white so I used white chia seed as my egg replacer. The trick with this ingredient is you need to beat it so there are no lumps. You can use ground Flaxseed but your cake will have small flecks of seeds in it.
Once you have mixed all your ingredients, the vegan lemon cake batter will be very thick and light. Don’t overbeat your batter as it will cause your cake to become dense.
This recipe paired great with my vegan lemon curd. It’s a simple recipe that you can whip up in 10 minutes.
EXTRA TIPS FOR THIS VEGAN LEMON CAKE RECIPE
- Preheat your oven to the exact temperature
- If your oven heats unevenly, add a heatproof bowl of water to the bottom of the oven
- Make sure your chia seed egg replacer has no lumps in it otherwise you will have lumpy bits in your cake
- Use a high-quality lemon essence and vanilla bean paste
- Use an organic lemon for the rind because commercial ones have no flavour
Vegan Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp golden flaxseed, ground
- 5 tbsp boiling water
- 220 g vegan butter or margarine room temperature
- 200 g caster sugar
- 350 g plain all purpose flour
- 2 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 125 mls plain soy milk
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 100 mls lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla bean extract
- 2-3 tsp lemon essense (depending on how strong you want the lemon flavour)
- zest from one whole large unwaxed lemon
Instructions
- Preheat oven 160°C/320°F and line 2 x 6IN / 15.24CM cake tins with baking paper, grease with oil and dust with flour.
- Mix ground flaxseed with boiling water and stir to remove any lumps, set aside.
- In a small jug mix soy milk with vinegar to thicken then add lemon juice, vanilla, lemon essence and egg replacer. Beat or blend together until completely smooth. Stir through lemon zest.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar for a few minutes until creamy with no lumps.
- Sieve flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small mixing bowl.
- Add haft of the flour mix very slowly and mix on lowest speed to the creamed butter, then add half the liquid. Repeat until all ingredients are just combined. It will be a very thick batter (see image).
- Pause mixer and scrape down sides and mix for a few seconds.
- Divide between tins, tap tins on the bench to release air bubbles, bake 35-37 mins, check with a skewer through the centre, if it comes out clean it's ready.
- Let cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then flip on a cake rake.
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Sara
Can you please share a frosting recipe for this lemon cake?
Makes around 3-4 cups
Vegan / Gluten-Free
INGREDIENTS
½ cup room temperature high-quality vegan butter
½ cup soft vegetable shortening
3 cups powdered sugar, use organic if you’re in USA
2 teaspoons hot water
1 tbsp pure vanilla bean extract
½ tsp almond extract
INSTRUCTIONS
Sift icing sugar and set aside
Using a standard mixer with a paddle attachment beat shortening on low for 5 minutes until light and smooth, using your spatula to scrape down the sides, then add the butter and beat together on medium speed until light and fluffy for at least another 5 mins
Slowly add icing sugar on lowest speed
Then add vanilla, almond extract, hot water and beat for 5 minutes until white and fluffy, pause the mixer every few minutes to use your spatula to scrape down the sides
You can now use to decorate cakes or cupcakes. If you would like a firmer mixture leave in the fridge to firm up
This lemon cake is so delicious. I tried the recipe for cupcakes, they turned out very good. I used egg replacement instead of the chia seed, no difference I think. So delicious, I recommend it 100%
Thanks so much!
Ah I’ve just used all my lemons and bottle lemon juice to make the lemon curd I was gonna use to fill this, then I noticed I needed more lemon juice for the sponge 🙁 To avoid lockdown shop queues, can I up the soya milk quantity?
Hey Ruth
You can top it up with water xo
Hi Sara!!
Thanks for all your amazing recipes!!! Everything you share is sooo delicious!!
I have made this lemon cake
Can you please tell me if margarine can be replaced with sunflower oil?
Hi Paula,
You’re most welcome. No, for that recipe you can’t change it to sunflower oil xo
This cake is outrageously good. I have tried tons of vegan lemon cakes that I found online and none of them were lemony enough or had the right moisture level/crumb. This cake is super lemony, the crumb is amazing.. it just melts in the mouth, sturdy enough to stack, moist.. it’s just amazing! This will forever be my go to lemon cake recipe. Thank you so much!!
Thanks so much, Nicole!
could you make this with gluten free flour 🙂 (all purpose blend)
I would recommend finding a lemon cake that is already gluten-free. Check out my gf vanilla cake, you can sub the water for lemon juice and add lemon essence.
Hi Sara
Like the look of this but not keen on vegan buttering. Do you think I could just make one layer and drizzle with lemon and sugar on removal from the oven or would a vegan sponge be too delicate for this?xx
Yes I think you could absolutely do this.
Thank you, just noticed your reply
Made your Persian cake in a coffee shop that I’ve just started working in and it sold out within the hour xx
That’s fantastic! Thanks for letting me know