I spontaneously prepared this cake for my mum’s birthday and although unfortunately only half of the guests ended up coming,we almost completely finished it. It is simply delicious and juicy and the combination of lemon and poppy seeds rounded off with the refreshing topping is simply brilliant. I baked a similar (also ultra-delicious) cake with lime instead of lemon once from a recipe in the great “Das vegane Backbuch”. Just wanna leave this here as a suggestion for you to turn this recipe into a lime and poppy seed cake if you like.
Cake:
240ml plant-based milk
Juice and zest of an organic lemon (or organic lime for lime poppyseed cake)
300g all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch of salt
150g sugar
125ml neutral vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tbsp poppy seeds or ground poppy seeds
Frosting:
200g vegan cream cheese (Tip: Alternatively, it also works wonderfully with 150g of vegan crème fraîche, for firmness you can optionally add a tablespoon of melted coconut oil)
60g powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp lemon jusice (or lime juice for a lime variant)
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
Topping:
Toasted almond flakes (toast in a pan without oil until golden brown)
Poppyseeds
Lemon slices of an organic lemon (alternatively slices of an organic lime for lime poppy seed cake)
Additionally:
Loaf pan about 23/25cm (9-10″) long
Baking paper
Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 180° top/bottom heat and line a loaf pan with baking paper. I always cut a strip for this that clearly overlaps on the long sides of the loaf pan. I only grease the short sides of the pan with baking spray (vegan butter/margarine works too, of course).
2. In a measuring cup, combine the non-dairy milk with the squeezed lemon juice, stir and set aside to curdle. This makes for a kind of vegan buttermilk.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl. Add a good pinch of salt, the sugar, lemon zest and poppy seeds and mix the dry ingredients well.
4. Now add the wet ingredients, i.e. the vegan buttermilk, the oil and vanilla extract and stir everything until just combined. Don’t stir for too long, otherwise the cake won’t rise well because the baking powder is already starting to react.
5. Pour the batter into the loaf pan, distribute well and smooth out. Tap the pan briefly on the counter to release small air bubbles.
6. Put the cake in the oven. After the first 15 minutes, cut into the top of the cake lengthwise and bake for another 35-45 minutes. With a wooden stick check if the cake is ready or needs to bake longer. To do this, insert a wooden skewer into the center of the cake. If the dough is still sticking to it, the cake isn’t done yet. Repeat the skewer test every 5 minutes after the specified baking time, until the cake is done. If the cake gets too dark, you can cover it with aluminum foil.
7. After baking, let the cake cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes. With the help of the overlapping baking paper, you can then simply lift it out of the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Tip: If you don’t completely remove the parchment paper, you can store the cake back in the loaf pan even after decorating, making it much easier to transport.
8. Mix the ingredients for the frosting until they are homogeneous and creamy. Use a hand mixer if necessary.
9. Spread the frosting evenly on top of the cake.
10. Decorate the cake with the topping ingredients as you like.