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Vegan Easter Lemon Sponge Cake

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Easter Lemon Sponge Cake

Spring is finally in the air! And I’ve got the perfect cake to celebrate this time of year.This Easter Lemon Cake is made up of a light vegan lemon sponge, frosted with lemon buttercream and topped with colourful egg decorations.

Perfect for those avoiding eggs and dairy but still want something indulgent.

Vegan Mini Eggs

If you’re wondering where on earth I found these vegan-friendly mini eggs – I happened to come across them in Carluccio’s, of all places!

Edit: They no longer appear to stock these but now you can get vegan mini eggs from Doisy & Dam.

Easter Lemon Sponge CakeEaster Lemon Sponge Cake

I made this cake for the Laura Ashley blog, using their lidded glass cake stand, blue check tablecloth and Spring bunting to create the perfect Easter table setting. 

Easter Lemon Sponge CakeEaster Lemon Sponge Cake
Easter Lemon Sponge Cake (Vegan)

Easter Lemon Sponge Cake (Vegan)

Yield: 10
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

For the lemon sponge cake (adapted from cakemerchant.com)

  • 360 ml unsweetened almond milk
  • Juice of half a lemon, save other half for frosting
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 230 g caster sugar
  • 110 ml sunflower oil
  • 2 tsp vanilla bean paste, or extract
  • 250 g self-raising flour
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the lemon buttercream frosting

  • 300 g dairy-free butter, I used Vitalite
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste, or extract
  • 450 g icing sugar
  • Juice of half a lemon

For the deocration

  • Dark chocolate, melted
  • Vegan-friendly mini eggs or chocolates

Instructions

To make the lemon cake

  1. Preheat oven to 180C / 350F. Grease and line two 8 inch cake tins.
  2. In a large bowl or stand mixer, mix the lemon juice and zest with the almond milk and set aside for a few minutes to "curdle".
  3. Stir in the sugar, oil and vanilla.
  4. Add the dry ingredients a small amount at a time until well combined.
  5. Transfer the batter to the cake tins, dividing the amount equally. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top and a cake tester comes out clean.
  6. Once baked, allow the cakes to rest in the pan for a few minutes before removing and cooling on a wire rack. Wait until completely cooled before decorating. I like to put the cakes in the freezer for a few hours or overnight so it's easier to decorate.

To make the lemon frosting

  1. Simply whisk the butter with the vanilla, adding a small amount of icing sugar at a time until fully incorporated. Whisk in the lemon juice. Taste and add more sugar, butter or lemon juice as needed.

To decorate

  1. You may need to trim your cake slices if domed on top, to create even layers.
  2. Place one layer on your cake stand or board and add a large dollop of icing on top. Smooth to the edges, using an icing spatula and add more as needed until you have a thick filling.
  3. Place the next layer on top and repeat.
  4. Start smoothing the frosting around the sides of the cake to create a thin "crumb layer". At this stage, I like to put the cake in the fridge for about an hour to set slightly and help make the final layer much smoother.
  5. Apply the rest of the frosting to the cake and work your way around, using a turntable if possible, to create a smooth layer.
  6. Once frosted, use a pastry brush to dip into the melted chocolate and carefully flick the chocolate onto the cake to create a speckled effect.
  7. Top the cake with mini eggs or chocolates to finish.
  8. Keep refrigerated for up to 4 days. Enjoy!

Did you make this recipe?

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© Aimee

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Comments

  1. Stephanie says

    Aimee! Thank you so much for sharing this amazing vegan recipe! I hope you don’t mind, but I plan to make this with a matcha green tea icing. Can’t wait to try it out. Steph xoxo

    Reply

  2. Anna says

    This recipe is AMAZING, thank you!

    Made it for my non-vegan family and they all said it was one of the best cakes they ever tasted.. it came out perfect, people could not believe it is vegan.

    FYI – i used oat milk in the recipe and double the amount of lemon, which worked very well.

    Reply

  5. Tom says

    I just made this and the cake layers are firm but very sticky. I’ve had this issue with the last two cakes I’ve nade as well. I cannot figure out why this is happening. I followed the recipe to the letter and even baked them longer than the recipe calls for. They always taste good, they’ve just been coming out a bit sticky and gooey.

    Reply

  6. Tom says

    I just made this and the cake layers are firm but a bit sticky. I followed the directions and even baked the layers longer than the time on the recipe. I’ve had this problem with two other cakes I’ve made recently and I cannot figure out the problem. They always taste good but are a bit on the sticky, gooey side.

    Reply

  7. Jackie says

    I made this for Easter dinner with my non-vegan family, and everyone went nuts for it! Thank you for the lovely recipe. I couldn’t find vegan mini eggs where I live, so I made my own, using this recipe http://www.radiantrachels.com/raw-vegan-mini-eggs/. I used natural food items I had in my pantry to colour my “eggs”, beet crystals for pink, spirulina powder for green, and turmeric for yellow.

    Reply

  8. Sandra says

    Hi, just to let you know that I made this today and it went down a storm with my family. I used gluten-free flour and it was still moist and delicious. Thanks for a great recipe!

    Reply

  10. Lucy Jones says

    I made this today and both halves literally split apart after i took them out of the pans! I followed the recipe to the letter, let them cool before i turned them out, mixed the ingredients together properly etc. Really disappointed :-(

    Reply

  11. Gemma says

    Is that not too much raising agent for self-raising flour? I’ve used a lot of raising agent with self-raising flour before and the cake cracked into pieces. I want to make this this week for a friends birthday, but I’m worried about it cracking again.

    Reply

    • Aimee says

      Because there are no eggs, I always use a little bit more rising agents. It’s typical for a lot of vegan cakes and have never had a problem with this particular recipe cracking. Hope that helps! And please let me know how you get on :)

      Reply

  12. Yvonne says

    i would like to make this cake but a 10 inch as its for a birthday cake . Would I just half the ingredients again and how much long would I cook it for

    Reply

  15. Kelly Taylor says

    I attempted this last night and a couple of requests for help.

    1. the sponges didn’t rise very much – is there something I could have done wrong to cause this?
    2. the buttercream separated – again any tips to avoid this happening?

    Thank you!

    Reply

    • Aimee says

      Hi Kelly, sorry to hear that!
      1) The only reasons I can think that might cause this is not mixing the batter well enough OR leaving the batter sit too long before baking. Also, did you definitely use self-raising flour and not plain flour?
      2) I would be tempted to blame the brand of spread you used because I’ve not had this problem before, although it might be too much lemon juice. Perhaps you could try using the zest or lemon extract instead?

      Hope this helps and let me know how you get on!

      Reply

  18. Donna says

    What a pretty cake – looks like absolute perfection! I am also super intrigued about those mini-eggs – will have to check them out :)

    Reply

    • Aimee says

      I nearly squealed with excitement when I saw them in the restaurant! Apparently they’ve run out online so check your local restaurant ASAP to see if they have any left :D

      Reply
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