This loaf cake is great for tea time, and so easy to make. It also ticks off quite a few boxes if you've got guests with dietary requirements. It's vegan, dairy free, and I've also made a gluten free version before by simply substituting the flour for a gluten free one.
The egg replacement used is just a chia egg - which is basically 1 tablespoons of chia seeds and 3 tablespoons of water, left to do their thing for a minimum of 15 minutes. Due to the way chia seeds react to water, it allows the cake to bind.
Of course, you could also substitute a few things, however, they will make the cake less allergy / dietary requirement friendly. The almond milk could easily be substituted with regular milk, coconut cream with regular cream, chia eggs with regular eggs, and so on. However, I'll admit that the great texture this cake has is partially because all of these things.
Ingredients
Cake
330gr plain flour
2 tspn baking powder
1 tspn bicarbonate of soda
125gr white sugar
50gr brown sugar
55gr desiccated coconut
4 tbsp coconut cream
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 2 lemons
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup almond milk (or your preferred milk substitute)
2 tspn vanilla essence
2 chia eggs (2 tbsp chia seeds and 6 tbsp of water, set aside for 15 minutes - makes 2 eggs)
Icing (optional)
160gr icing sugar
5 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp coconut cream
3 tbsp almond milk (if consistency is too thick)
Candied Lemons (optional)
1 cup water
200gr white sugar
1 lemon
Method
Cake
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. In a small bowl, make the chia eggs. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda. Add the white sugar, brown sugar, and desiccated coconut.
4. Zest and juice 2 large lemons, adding all the zest and juice to the dry ingredients. The bicarbonate of soda will likely start to bubble when adding the lemon juice.
5. Add the coconut cream, oil, almond milk, vanilla, and the chia eggs. Mix until all the dry ingredients and wet ingredients are combined. The batter will be quite thick.
6. Place in a preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool.
Icing
1. Whilst the cake bakes, sift the icing sugar into a small bowl.
2. Add the lemon juice and coconut cream until well combined.
3. Add a tablespoon of almond milk at a time until the desired consistency is obtained.
4. Ensure that the icing is only added onto the cake once the cake has cooled down, otherwise, the icing will melt.
Candied Lemons
This is an entirely optional and extra step for decorating the loaf. I personally really like the look of candied lemons, and I think they add a really nice touch to the loaf. It is however, a lot of extra work. If you're serving this at an event though, it may be worth your time. Beyond that, you also technically get two things out of this recipe: the candied lemons, and lemon simple syrup which you can go on to use for drinks.
1. Slice a lemon into rounds, keeping the slices very thin. The thinner the lemon rounds are, the quicker you'll be able to make the candied lemon slices, and the prettier they'll look.
2. Place the sugar and water in a large deep pan. Mix until the sugar dissolves. The pan must be deep enough to hold the water comfortably, without the risk of it spilling over when it starts to boil, and wide enough to hold all the lemon slices without them overlapping.
3. Once the sugar has dissolved, place the lemon slices into the pan, turning every once in a while. Allow to boil for 45 minutes - 1 hour, or until the lemon flesh has turned translucent. Depending on how thick you've sliced the lemon, you may need more time. A minimum of 45 minutes is recommended.
4. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 90 degrees celsius. Prepare a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. (Do NOT skip the lining bit).
5. Once the flesh of the lemon has turned translucent, transfer the lemon slices onto your lined baking sheet. Ideally, try to drip most of the syrup off before doing so. I do not recommend disposing of the syrup - place in a jar and this can be utilised later for homemade drinks. You may need to dilute the syrup with an extra cup of water if you intend on saving it for later.
6. Place in the oven for around an hour and a half, flipping the slices every 15 minutes are so.
7. Leave overnight to dry. Use to decorate your cakes, add the slices to tea, or eat as is!
Recreating this recipe? Tag me on instagram @juliawgr!
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