I'm really excited to share this cake because it took a few experiments to get it right.
It uses an unusual ingredient which makes it light and spongy.
Mashed potato.
Yes, there is mashed potato in this cake but I promise you would never know it.
It tastes just like a traditional vanilla sponge and has the same lightness too.
Yet it's made with surprsingly wholesome ingredients and no refined sugars.
This idea is based off my Butternut Squash Cake recipe.
I figured that I could use potatoes instead of butternut squash for a similar result and it turns out you can.
You can do anything. There are no rules.
Except potatoes are even better because they yield a lighter colour and texture and are so much cheaper too.
And if I wasn't excited enough about the fact that the sponge cake turned out so perfectly, my experiments with a vegan white chocolate buttercream were also successful.
After making it, it was hard not to eat the whole bowl, it's that good.
I also used my trusty vegan lemon curd recipe with some added elderflower cordial for the centre filling.
The combination of these three is just heavenly... If I could do one thing different next time though it would be to add the lemon curd as a whole layer and not just in the centre of the cake.
MORE lemon curd. Always.
📖 Recipe
Vegan Elderflower Cake with Lemon Curd & White Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
- 300 ml 1 ¼ cups almond milk or preferred dairy-free milk
- Zest and juice of half a lemon
- 600 g 3 ⅓ cups plain white flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150 g ¾ cup mashed potato
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 270 ml 1 cup + 2 tbsp agave nectar
- 80 ml ⅓ cup sunflower oil or other mild-flavoured vegetable oil
- Vegan lemon curd with elderflower
- Vegan White Chocolate Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c. and grease three 8 inch sandwich tins. lemon juice and zest to the almond milk and set aside.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and discard any large granules left in the sieve. Mix in the baking powder and bicarb.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the almond milk from earlier, mashed potato, vanilla, agave and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until well combined and a thick, smooth batter is formed.
- Evenly divide the mixture into the three sandwich tins. The mixture will be quite thick and hard to smooth so I like to wet my hands and smooth the tops with my palms.
- Bake on the middle shelf for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake layers to cool at room temperature and then place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes (this makes them easier to handle and decorate.)
To assemble the cake
- Place the first cake layer on your cake stand and spread a generous layer of frosting on top.
- Dollop about four tablespoons of the lemon curd into the centre and gently smooth out.
- Place the next layer on top and repeat.
- For the last layer, simply smooth some icing on top using the back of a spoon.
- Decorate with fresh elderflower or other flowers.
- Serve and enjoy! This cake can be kept refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Pauline Sutherland says
Hello
You say “lemon juice and zest to the almond milk and set aside” after preparing the tins. Do you mean add? Also the list of ingredients states 600g of plain flour but the instructions item 2 says sift the spelt flour. Is the quantity of plain flour of 600g correct?
Kind regards
Pauline
Aimee says
Hi Pauline. Sorry for the confusion, I didn't mean to write spelt flour - it's just plain and the amounts are correct.
Paula says
I am sorry Aimee but I did not like this at all. The lemon curd was clumpy and the frosting has so much fat! Ugghhh. 400 grams of it. Not nice.