Gluten-free, vegan wholesome lemon poppy seed cake with deliciously creamy coconut frosting.
Happy Spring!!! Today I have a little Lemon Poppy Seed Cake for your Spring celebrations. Deliciously moist and zesty with poppy seed crunch this wholesome cake will rock your day! I’m absolutely in love with this cake and I hope you will too, it turned out just so wonderful.
Lemon poppy seed cake is a classic and I’ve taken these traditional flavors and created a wholefood cake that is vegan and gluten-free. The recipe is an adaptation of my Strawberry Coconut Sponge Cake, another lovely cake for you to try :) Both of these are really moist and light, perfect for warmer months and lovely decorated with fresh fruit and flowers.
This time I’ve baked the cake in one tin only and then sliced it into three layers. It will take longer to bake, but it will be really moist. However if you prefer, you could bake it in two separate cake tins and make a two layer cake.
The coconut frosting is amazing on this cake and really compliments the flavors. I’ve chosen one large open cream rose to decorate the cake and some freshly grated lemon zest, which looked stunning. Happy baking :)
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake (gluten-free & vegan)
Gluten-free, vegan wholesome lemon poppy seed cake with deliciously creamy coconut frosting.
Ingredients
- 1 cup ground almonds (1000 grams)
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour (70 grams)
- 1/2 cup oat flour (50 grams)
- 1/4 cup arrowroot (30 grams)
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar (100 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- pinch of sea salt
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 lemon, zest
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 6 tablespoons water
- 1/3 cup olive oil (80 ml)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons almond milk (150 ml)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Coconut frosting:
- 13.5-ounce can full fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight (400 ml)
- 1/2 cup coconut yogurt (125 grams)
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup (optional)
- lemon zest to decorate
Instructions
- Place the can of full fat coconut milk into a fridge, preferably overnight.
- Mix 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed with 6 tablespoons water and set aside to thicken.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C)
- Grease and line 6" round cake baking tin.
- In a large bowl whisk together ground almonds, brown rice flour, oat flour, arrowroot, coconut sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and sea salt. Whisk in poppy seeds and lemon zest and set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together flax eggs, olive oil, almond milk, lemon juice and vanilla.
- Add the wet mix to the dry mix and mix until well combined. You should have pourable muffin consistency.
- Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and level out the surface.
- Bake for about 45 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool down for 20 minutes before carefully moving onto a wire rack.
- To make the frosting scoop the solid part of the coconut milk into a bowl, add coconut yogurt and maple syrup and whip until smooth. It will thicken as you continue to whip. Place into a fridge until you're ready to frost the cake.
- Once the cake is completely cool, very carefully slice into three layers. Be careful as gluten-free vegan cakes are more fragile.
- Place the bottom layer onto a cake stand and spread with some coconut frosting. Repeat with the second and third layer. Using spatula frost the top of the cake.
- Finish the cake with some grated lemon zest and fresh flowers.
- Store in a fridge and enjoy!
Notes
- To make oat flour blend oats in high speed blender or food processor into flour like consistency.
- If you like to use coconut oil instead of olive oil, make sure the almond milk is at room temperature before whisking.
- You can bake this cake in two 6" round cake tins for two layer cake or one 8" round cake tin for one layer cake.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving:Calories: 397Total Fat: 28gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 15gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 318mgCarbohydrates: 34gFiber: 3gSugar: 18gProtein: 7g
This cake is amazing!!! The texture is perfect – melt-in-the-mouth and very moreish – and the lemon and poppy seeds work really well together. The coconut frosting with lemon zest is heavenly too! Thank you dear H! <3 xxx
Thank you so much Teresa for this wonderful comment! I’m so happy you’ve enjoyed this cake so much & you’re right it’s very moreish :) xxx
Gorgeous! This looks and sounds divine. I think we need to have a cake party at some point, don’t you?! xx
Thank you so much Sasha! Cake party sounds amazing! xxx
Your cakes are so stunning!!! I’ve been looking for a good plant based cake for a while and I think this may be it. I am trying to avoid oil, however. How do you think this cake would do with pureed squash or sweet potato instead of oil?
Thank you so much Cassandra! To be honest I can’t say, because I haven’t tried baking an oil-free cake yet. Something I’m going to have to do now :) I’m sure it could work, but because of the flavours in this cake, I think apple puree might work better or a mix of pureed apple and squash. Do let me know how it went.
I made this without the frosting and it is still an excellent cake. It has a good lemon taste and a beautiful almost creamy like texture. This will certainly become a regular bake for me. I personally would have struggled to cut this for the frosting – what are your cutting tips – I know you said carefully…….preferred knife?
Hi Lisa, thank you so much for leaving such lovely comment. I’m so happy you’ve enjoyed the cake! I use a wire cake slicer, which works really well. If you feel it would be tricky to cut the cake, perhaps you could use 2 or 3 cake tins instead.
What could be used to replace the almond meal? Ground cashews?
Hi Sophia, you could use any ground nuts, maybe hazelnuts would work or ground sunflower seeds. I’ve never tried ground cashews in baking, but feel free to try.
This cake is AMAZING! My family loved it so much. They did complain a lot about the size though. I am supposed to make it much much bigger next time… :D Thank you very much for the recipe!
That’s so wonderful! Thank you so much for coming back and leaving me such lovely comment! Just double the quantity next time and use 8″ cake tin instead to keep them happy :)
hello! can you describe the texture I am hoping to achieve with grinding the almonds. is almond flour not appropriate here? thank you!
Hi Carmen, this cake is really moist. You should be able to use almond flour in this recipe, but the texture will be different. Ground almonds are more moist than almond flour. Hope you like it :)
Hi! This cake looks amazing – I will be attempting for a friends birthday this weekend. If I was to bake the cake on the Friday and then frost and serve on the Saturday night do you think it would store ok? I am worried about it being dry a day later!
Thanks!
Hi Dominique, it will be perfectly fine the day after. I often bake the cakes a day before frosting them. You can just leave it inside the tin until the next day or alternatively wrap it and leave it at room temperature overnight. Hope you enjoy making it :)