Recipe: Vegan Lemon Olive Oil Cake

The ladies on my street were meeting for book club earlier this week, so I knew I had to bring something. I always like to bring a vegan dessert: lots of people bring dips/hummus with veggies or chips, but I'm known for bringing something sweet (and since one of the ladies is vegan, I want her to be able to enjoy it, too!). I found this recipe on the Rainbow Nourishments blog, so I thought I'd try it.

Ingredients

Vegan Lemon Olive Oil Cake

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose plain flour spoon and leveled (note 1 for gluten-free option)
• 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• Pinch of salt optional
• 1 cup dairy-free milk room temperature (I used soy milk)
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ⅓ cup lemon juice (note 2)
• ~2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract optional

To decorate (optional, see note 2 for alternatives)

• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar / icing sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup fresh berries

Instructions

To make the cake:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line an 8-inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
2. Add all the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) to a large bowl. Mix until there are no lumps. Add all the wet ingredients (milk, oil, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla) and mix until just combined.
3. Pour the lemon cake batter into your prepared pan. Smooth the surface if necessary.
4. Bake the cake for 1 hour or until you can insert a toothpick in the center of the cake and there's no wet batter on it. As this is a moist cake, some crumbs on your toothpick are fine. If the surface of your cake is browning too quickly, carefully tent the pan with aluminum foil.
5. Allow the cake to cool in the loaf tin for 10 minutes then let the cake cool on a cooling rack.

To make the icing:

1. Add the lemon juice and sugar to a medium bowl and mix until smooth. Add more lemon juice or non-dairy milk for a thinner icing (like a lemon glaze) or more powdered sugar for a thicker icing.
2. Drizzle the icing over your cooled cake. If desired, top the cake with berries just before serving.
3. Store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for a day or in the fridge for up to 3 days. The cake can be stored without the icing in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Notes

1. This lemon cake works well with King Arthur's gluten-free measure for measure flour. If using, I suggest baking the cake for 5-10 minutes longer. Other gluten-free flour blends may produce different results.
2. You'll need around 2-3 medium lemons to yield the amount of lemon juice and zest for the recipe.
3. Alternatively, you can enjoy the cake plain, topped with fresh berries or a light dusting of powdered / icing sugar.

This was a very easy recipe to make, especially because I used Duncan Hines lemon icing (which is "accidentally vegan," says the internet). I did forget to line/spray the pan, but luckily because of all the oil in this cake, I was able to get it out without a problem. While my friends at book club were very complimentary of the cake (and even asked for the recipe!), I did not think it was my finest work. I thought the cake was far too dense, which also seemed to make it dry. I wanted to dunk my whole piece in icing instead of just having the drizzle on one part. But I'm happy everyone else liked it! 

*Note: Upon writing this blog post, I realized I had ALREADY MADE THIS RECIPE. Tammy and I had made it together last fall! I seemed to like it more that first time... I wonder went wrong here!