This may look like just another cake, to me it's a lot more than that! I'm fairly certain that this would have to be one of the best cakes I have ever baked, vegan or otherwise. It ticked all of the right boxes - light, moist, lovely flavour without being too sickly sweet and it was very simple to bake. The only box it didn't tick is that it's not exactly healthy which doesn't bother me as life is too short to worry about eating the right things all of the time.
Over the past month or so, our lemon tree has been taunting me. From a distance it appears there are plenty of fruit ready to be picked. When I'm about to rip some off ready for baking I discover green patches on the base or one side of the fruit and have to resort to the lemons from the grocers. So I have continued to wait patiently, planning many more recipes to make than I possibly could with my limited supply of fruit. It's only the first season the tree has been in the ground and with over 30 lemons this year, I'm optimistic for an even bigger crop next year.
Right up on the top of my list to make was a lemon poppy seed cake. I was planning to adapt it from an orange poppy seed cake recipe that my mother in law had given me years ago but I couldn't track down the recipe. A quick search led me to a lemon poppy seed cake on taste.com.au that needed a few vegan substitutions to be made. A further replacement had to be made for the self raising flour when I found a few nasty weevils lurking within my packet. Using plain flour plus baking powder for the self raising flour, nuttelex for the butter, soy milk for cow's milk, a bit of extra lemon juice and egg replacers I was delighted with how light and moist the cake turned out.
An interesting point to note from the recipe was that the poppy seeds were required to be soaked in warmed soy milk for 15 minutes initially. There was no explanation for this on taste.com.au so I did some further research and found that it was to soften the seeds and prevent them from drawing moisture out of the cake whilst baking. I'll never know if this made a difference as I don't think I'll make it any other way now!
Lemon poppy seed cake (Adapted from a recipe on taste.com.au)
50g poppyseeds
3/4 cup warm soy milk
1 cup raw castor sugar
2 cups plain flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 egg replacers (I used 3 teaspoons Orgran whisked with 6 tablespoons water)
185g dairy-free margarine, softened
zest of 1 lemon plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice
Icing
1 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon dairy-free margarine
2 tablespoons (or a bit more) lemon juice
Mix the poppy seeds into a jug containing the warmed soy milk and allow to soak for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 23cm x 10cm loaf tin with baking paper.
In a large bowl, place the castor sugar, plain flour, baking powder, egg replacers, dairy-free margarine, lemon zest, lemon juice and soy milk/poppy seed mixture. Beat with electric hand beaters until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Pour the mixture into the lined tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
Meanwhile, mix the icing sugar together with a teaspoon of dairy-free margarine and slowly drizzle in the lemon juice, stirring all the time. If the icing becomes too runny, stir through some more icing sugar. When the cake has completely cooled down, spread the icing on top of the cake then refrigerate for 5 minutes to allow the icing to set.
What a beautiful cake! I'm so jealous that you have a lemon tree in your backyard--what fun to be able to (eventually) pick a ripe lemon off it. Congrats on making your best cake ever!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jes, as much it's painful waiting for the lemons to ripen, it's so worth it when you can eventually pluck them off.
DeleteI love when you get those moments of blog serendipity. I just bought some lemons and some poppy seeds to make - go on guess! - yes, a lemon and poppy seed cake. And this one is just such a grand looking cake!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny when that happens! Hope your lemon and poppy seed cake worked out well too Joey. :)
DeleteI'd never heard that either about soaking poppy seeds. Very interesting! This cake looks absolutely delicious, and you're right, life is too short to not enjoy cake every now and again!
ReplyDeleteThe soaking step wasn't in my mother in law's recipe either and I hadn't heard of it before either. Recipes never fail to amaze me with their subtle differences.
DeleteYour lemon cake looks gorgeous. As does the lemon tree! I will definitely be tucking this away to try, a delicate lemon cake isn't always easy to achieve and is one of those things that can be so delicious or so disappointing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kari, cakes aren't really my forte so it makes me happy when they work out this well.
DeleteThis looks *so good*. I love citrus & poppy combinations. I really do need to get a lemon tree into the garden!
ReplyDeleteThanks Theresa. A lemon tree never goes astray in the garden and I'm sure it would look great with the rest of your plants. Do they grow well in the tropics?
DeleteSome varieties go better than others, apparently. I think Andy's settled on a Eureka. Do you know what variety yours is?
DeleteI had to run out into the cold wet night to double check that for you! ;) It's a Lisbon, I do remember considering a Eureka when we bought this one. We were tossing up between those two.
DeleteThis looks like a beautiful old fashioned cake - reminds me of my share houses where we loved poppyseeds - mine got eaten by weevils lately and it has made me a bit wary of buying too many which then means I don't cook with them much - which is a shame because poppyseeds are just so lovely in cakes and a fine pair for lemons
ReplyDeleteThanks Johanna, I haven't been using poppy seeds much lately and thankfully the weevils hadn't found their way into mine. I don't recall eating cakes with poppy seeds in my childhood so these types of cakes are a relatively new thing for me.
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