Lemon Blueberry Cake
If you feel like eating cake but want something light and fresh in its taste, rather than heavy and creamy, then I have a perfect recipe for you. In this post I will show you how to make an easy, simple, moist, and tasty vegan lemon blueberry cake with glaze. Thanks to the fresh lemon juice and the grated lemon zest, this cake tastes really lemony, in a very nice way. The blueberries complete the fresh taste.
Since this homemade cake is vegan, it is made without butter, milk, buttermilk, or any other dairy, and it is eggless. Instead, the dough contains plant-based yogurt and oil, which make it nicely moist. Despite wholemeal flour as an ingredient, the result is by no means dry, but a beautifully moist, soft, and addictive lemon cake, topped with a lemon blueberry glaze, or drizzl.
When life gives you lemons, bake a cake
Aren’t the simplest things often the tastiest? At least that’s how I feel. A few good ingredients, as healthy as possible, but also inexpensive, lots of love, and voilà – that’s all it takes. Pizza Marinara is an excellent example of this. I’m a big fan of easy vegan cooking and lemon cake is definitely a part of it. Although I allowed myself a little “bells and whistles” with the blueberries inside and on top.
Blueberries and lemons just go so well together. And just as I am writing this line, I remember the three types of ice cream I always ordered as a child: a cone with lemon, blueberry, and chocolate. Funny, I guess that stayed with me to this day – except for the fruit and chocolate combo, which doesn’t really have to be for me anymore (but I love desserts with a fruit component, like this delicious Kaiserschmarrn with strawberry and rhubarb compote or sweet braided coconut milk bread).
Vegan baking
Ten years ago, the following adjectives would have come to mind when I heard “vegan baking”: complicated, boring, bone-dry. Fortunately, I know better today, and I am sharing a dairy-free cake recipe with you that proves exactly the opposite: Totally simple, wonderfully tasty and so moist. “It doesn’t taste vegan at all”. And the whole grain flour that I use (in addition to “normal” wheat or spelt flour) is not noticeable either. I like to use whole wheat flour in baking to make the cake “healthy”.
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake baker’s man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can! This recipe for a vegan lemon blueberry cake is really easy and quick – but of course, you have to consider the baking time. The preparation itself is so simple: combine sugar, yogurt, oil, lemon juice, and zest, add flour, baking powder, and the fresh or frozen blueberries, stir, put in a baking dish, and bake. And then add the glaze.
For me, it is the best lemon cake in the world. Well, one of the best, there must be others out there somewhere that taste just as good. Yes, modesty doesn’t always work, but it just really tastes too good. If I bring a baking tray of the lemon cake to work (I did that last time before I went on maternity leave), it’s eaten in no time.
Speaking of the tray: I usually bake it in a loaf baking pan. So it is mostly a vegan lemon blueberry loaf cake. When I want to make a bigger version, then I double the amount and bake it in a casserole dish (the tray mentioned is actually almost more of an XXL casserole dish because it is deeper than a normal tray). Probably a bundt baking pan would also work, but I didn’t try that yet.
Lemon with lemon and lemon
As if the cake itself wasn’t lemony and delicious enough, there comes a lemony blueberry glaze on top, simply made out of powdered sugar, lemon juice and blueberries. Due to the blueberries and their pretty color, the glaze is also a nice decoration for the cake. If you’re wondering when exactly to put the glaze on the lemon cake, I have two answers for you:
On the one hand, you can “soak” the lemon cake with the glaze, which makes it even moister. For this lemon blueberry drizzle cake version, the glaze comes on the still warm cake. Small holes are usually made in the cake beforehand, e.g. with a thin wooden stick. I always skip that part. The result is a thinner, shiny coat like, the photos in this post.
In contrast, for the classic icing, the lemon icing is poured over the already cooled cake. As a result, it does not seep in, becomes firmer and thicker, and resembles a coating.
Which version will you choose?
Vegan Lemon Blueberry Cake, simple & moist
Vegan super moist lemon cake with blueberries and glaze on top. Delicious lemon cake recipe with yogurt and oil (without butter and eggs).
Ingredients
Ingredients for a cake tin approx. 28 x 11 cm (11 x 4.5 inch) big
- 170 g (6 oz or 3/4 cup) of sugar
- 250 g (8.8 oz or 1 cup) unsweetened (soy) yogurt
- 110 ml (3.7 oz or 0.5 cup) rapeseed oil (or sunflower oil)
- 1 organic (!) lemon: The juice from it (it should be at least 50 ml or 1.7 oz or 3.5 tbsp), if it is a little more that's fine too) and the grated zest
- 150 g (5.3 oz or 1 cup) wheat or spelt flour
- 150 g (5.3 oz or 1 cup) whole wheat or spelt flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 100 g (3.5 oz or 0.5 cup) blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Glaze
- 2 tbsp blueberries (fresh or frozen)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 125 g (4.4 oz or 1 cup) icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (360 F), top/bottom heat.
- Meanwhile, mix together the sugar, soy yogurt, oil, lemon juice, and zest (I usually do this with my kitchen machine).
- Next, add both types of flour (white flour and wholemeal flour) and the baking powder. Continue stirring.
- Then stir in the blueberries and pour the dough into the greased cake tin.
- Bake on the middle rack for about 45-50 minutes. After 45 minutes, do the toothpick test: poke a toothpick into the cake and see if the dough sticks to it = continue baking, or not = done.
- When the cake is ready, turn off the oven, open the door and let the cake cool down a bit.
- For the frosting, blend the blueberries, lemon juice, and powdered sugar in a food processor or another small blender. Pour the frosting over the still-warm cake to “soak” it, or over the cooled cake for a bit thicker icing.
Notes
The cake tastes nice and fresh for a few days. It is best to store the lemon cake in a sealed cake container or a large Tupperware container.