This vegan lemon poppy seed cake is the perfect Veganuary cake. It’s light and lemony, easy to make with straightforward ingredients, and a lovely speckled café classic.
A little vanilla and maple syrup are included for warmth of flavour and ground almonds provide a moist lightly crumbly texture.
The recipe features a quarter of a whole fresh lemon blitzed in a food processor, which gives this loaf a particularly tangy flavour.
The crust is liberally sprinkled with caster sugar before baking. It’s thick and golden, reminiscent of madeira cake, which was actually the starting point for this lemony loaf. (Because the crust is already special, there’s no need for icing.)
It can be eaten right away, but improves if left alone for several hours to settle.
vegan lemon poppy seed cake…
ingredients
- 90 g soft vegan margarine
- 40 g maple syrup
- 100 g caster sugar plus a generous tbsp for sprinkling
- 30 g whole, unwaxed lemon plus the grated zest of a second lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 60 g ground almonds
- 210 g plain white/unbleached flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 15 g poppy seeds
method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and lightly oil/line the base of a standard 2 lb loaf tin.
- 30 g should be around a quarter of a medium (unpeeled) lemon. Chop it into a few chunks and remove any pips before placing in a processor/blender with 120 ml water. Blend until smooth (which might take a couple of minutes). Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together the margarine, maple syrup and sugar with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat a little further.
- Stir the grated lemon zest and ground almonds into the margarine mixture.
- Sift in about half of the flour and baking powder and stir until roughly combined.
- Pour in half of the blitzed lemon, and stir, before adding the remaining flour, poppy seeds and lemon liquid, stirring a little after each addition. Stir only until everything seems to be fully combined.
- Transfer to the tin and level the top before sprinkling liberally with caster sugar.
- Bake for around forty minutes until the crust is thick and golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool completely (and ideally leave overnight) before slicing. It will store well for a few days in an airtight tin.
If you would like to receive e-mail alerts when new recipes are published, please see my contact page.
