We like to slice this lemon cake in half and fill the middle with lemon curd, put the cake back together and top with the thick vanilla icing recipe given below. US equivalents for the ingredients are given in the notes.

Recipe updated Jan 2014.

Lemon Cake

12 fl oz (340ml) soya milk
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
5 fl oz (150ml) vegetable oil
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
9 oz (255g) caster sugar
2 dessertspoons ground golden flax seed, optional
11 oz (310g) plain white flour
1 tablespoon soya flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1½ teaspoons baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

2. Whisk soya milk and vinegar together in a large bowl. Add vegetable oil, lemon zest, sugar and flax (if using). Whisk again.

3. Weigh white flour, cornflour, soya flour, bicarbonate and baking powder together in a smaller bowl and mix well to combine. Sift into wet ingredients and mix well, whisking if necessary.

4. Pour into an oiled 7 inch round springform cake tin and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean. Alternatively use 2 x 7 inch round cake tins and bake for around 40 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.

5. Cool for 15 minutes, then take out of the tin and place the cake on a cooling rack. If you made the cake in one tin and want to split it in half horizontally, don’t do this for at least an hour after it has come out of the oven. A bread knife tends to work best for splitting the cake.

6. Put lemon curd or vanilla icing (recipe below) in the middle, and vanilla icing on top.

Vanilla Icing

2 oz (55g) vegan margarine
1⁄2 tsp vanilla essence
6 oz (170g) icing sugar, sieved

1. Mash margarine and vanilla essence into the sugar with a fork. This will cover the top of the cake, if you want to put some in the middle as well, make extra.

If you want really thick icing replace half the margarine with vegetable fat (e.g. Trex). If possible leave the Trex out to soften for a couple of hours before using.

Notes.

  • If you can’t get hold of soya flour or don’t want to use it, replace with the same amount of cornflour.
  • The soya flour slightly improves the texture and taste; the flax seed slightly improves the texture. But you’ll still get a good result without them.
  • To make this recipe gluten-free: use 14 floz/400 ml soya milk; replace the plain white flour with gluten-free flour mix (i.e. Doves) or rice flour and add 1 tsp xanthan gum in with the flour.
  • Ingredients, UK to US:
    caster sugar = use granulated sugar
    icing sugar = confectioners sugar or powdered sugar
    plain white flour = use all purpose flour
    cornflour = cornstarch
    bicarbonate of soda = baking soda

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This cake and others are available to buy in our shop.