This post contains affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
Vegan Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. No added refined sugar in this soft and Delicious Lemon Cake! Makethe batter into cupcakes, loaf or a sheet pan cake. Vegan Soyfree Recipe, Can be nut-free, glutenfree Jump to Recipe
This Cake is Zesty, lemony, Soft, Moist, Sumerry and everything I want in a Lemon Cake. A super easy Cake with loads of lemon juice and zest covered with 4 ingredient vegan cream cheese frosting. I use kite cream cheese or a cashew based home made cream cheese. A simple glaze with a few tsp lemon juice and half cup powdered sugar will work wonderfully as well.
It takes just a few minutes to put together and then it is the excruciating wait time to bake, cool and frost! All maple syrup, no refined sugar in the cake or the frosting. The batter can be baked into cupcakes, baked donuts or a loaf like my Cinnamon Swirl Loaf which is getting made every day on Instagram!
Soft, Spongy, Fresh and so Lemony! Perfect to have some around at all times.
More Cakes from the blog
- Cinnamon Swirl Cake. Super popular!
- Eggnog Pound Cake
- 1 Bowl Banana Apple Bread. Can be made into muffins
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Marble Cake
- Lemon blueberry pound cake
- 1 Bowl Oil free Turmeric Coconut Loaf
Gluten-free options
- GF Cashew Butter Chocolate Marble Cake.
- Gluten-free Cinnamon Roll Bread yeast-free.
- GF Carrot Banana Bread – Also grain-free.
- Sweet Potato Crumb Cake. GF
Tips to make a great Vegan Lemon Cake
- Adjust the batter based on the ingredients used. Different flours and differences in amounts(measurement errors), means the mixture will absorb moisture differently. You want a flowy batter, but not too thin (will make gummy cake with high moisture content), and not too stiff(will make a dryer cake).
- Add more zest if using less lemon juice.
- Once mixed, bake the batter immediately. Because of the higher acidity, the reaction with the leavening agents will already start on mixing. If the batter sits for too long, it will tend to rise less on baking.
- This recipe makes a moist cake with higher moisture content. It can easily end up gummy, see point 1 to ensure fluffy cake.
Vegan Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Wet:
- 1/2 cup maple syrup, (add 1 tbsp sugar for sweeter)
- 1/3 cup lemon juice, ( 1 tbsp more if using whole grain flours)
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/4 cup water, or non dairy milk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, optional
Dry:
- 1 1/2 cup flour , (I use all purpose or a combination of all purpose and whole wheat pastry/white whole wheat flour, 1 :1 or 2:1 ratio)
- 2 tbsp almond flour or meal, , or use more flour to make it nutfree
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/3 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp turmeric, for color, optional
- zest of 1/2 to 1 lemon depending on the size of the lemon and your preference of lemonyness
Frosting:
- 6 oz vegan cream cheese, (I use kite hill plain almond cream cheese, see notes to make your own cashew cream cheese)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- a pinch of salt
- 1 - 2 tbsp powdered sugar and 2 drops of vanilla if needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the wet ingredients in a bowl until well combined.
- Add the 1 1/4 cup flour and the rest of the dry ingredients and whisk well to make a smooth batter. Add rest of the flour 1 tbsp at a time to make a smooth flowy batter, but not overly watery or overly stiff. You might not need all of the flour if using whole grain flour.
- Pour the batter into a lined or greased pan. Even it out using a spatula.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes if using a square baking dish or brownie pan. If the dish is stoneware, add a few more mins to the baking time. If baking a Loaf: 40 to 50 minutes, Cupcakes: 20 to 25 minutes for cupcakes. Test with a toothpick from the center. It should come out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 mins, then remove and let it cool completely before frosting.
- Whisk the ingredients under frosting until smooth. Add 1-2 tbsp powdered sugar for sweeter frosting. Adjust the tang with lemon zest if needed. Add a drop or so vanilla extract or almond extract for flavor (optional). Chill the frosting for 15 mins if too flowy.
- Spread the frosting on the cake evenly. Slice and serve. Store refrigerated for upto 4 days. The lemon flavor gets stronger on storing
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This was soooo goooood!
Can i use Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour instead?
I made this for Mother’s Day and it was amazing!
I used a small 8inch round pan, used olive oil for the oil and made the icing with dairy cream cheese.
It was light and delicious! Thanks, Richa, I love all your recipes!
Could I only use whole wheat flour (aata) instead of all purpose flour .
Swapping it out 100% will be too dense so I suggest half and half all purpose flour.
Hi Richa
I really want to make this , but still want it to be light and fluffy like yours!
I would need it to be gluten free so could I either use your mix and substitute the potato starch with arrowroot or tapioca (as I don’t have potato starch )? or use a gluten free mix I have already which is a blend of rice flour , potato starch, maize flour?
Also if I wanted it less sweet could I use less maple syrup and make up the difference in liquid with unsweetened almond milk ?
If any of those changes are viable , would I still get a good result ?
Thank u so much , love your posts and recipes ! X
Do not use the gluten free blend with rice flour, it will usually give a very dense result. Use my blend with Tapioca.
You can replace maple syrup with non dairy milk.
Make sure to have a thick batter with the difference in the kind of liquid you are using.
Thank u so much – would I sti use the 2 tbsp of almond meal too as per recipe ? Final question sorry and thanks so much for reply x
I need to make this cake for a group and my pan is 9×13″. Can this recipe be doubled successfully?
yes, add a bit more flour for a thicker batter as larger size needs thicker battere to rise and hold
Hi Richa, this recipe sounds delicious! I’m going to make the gluten-free version and had a question about the flour mixture. For the rice flour, would you recommend white rice flour or brown rice flour?
i use white rice flour as brown rice has a mush stronger flavor
I have to confess I was sceptical about this recipe. The cake is very thin and I thought it would be hard, like a (English) biscuit. But I was wrong. The cake was beautifully soft and spongey. If you enjoyed this, try the cinnamon swirl loaf cake – that also turned out brilliantly!
This reminds me of my mom’s cornbread recipe from childhood! I think it reminds me of this because she used to use a box of vanilla cake mix as it’s base with added cornmeal.
So yummy! I enjoyed it days later in a bowl of milk.
Hi Richa,
I’ve not made any of your recipes before but the GF lemon drizzle looked too tempting. Instead of baking a large cake I made smaller loaves in my mini loaf pan. When they came out of the oven they seems very moist, however once cooled and store for the next day, they were rock hard. What’s gone wrong?
I am a frequent baker and have made plenty of began cakes too. But I’ve never had such a rock hard cake?!
What flour did you use and how did you store the cake?