I don’t think it’s any secret that I love all things lemon! I’ve been wanting to make a lemon cake for quite some time, as a follow up to my Lemon Cupcakes. I’ve always loved a good loaf cake, so I decided to make one with poppy seeds! Y’all, I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but TOOT TOOT! This Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Cake is amazing. Perfectly moist, lemony, and sweetened to perfection.
How to Make Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
You won’t believe how easy this cake was to make. Just look at the ingredients! Does it get anymore basic than this? You’ll start by combining your dry ingredients together. The flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Mix these together to combine and then prepare to add your wet ingredients. Mix in the almond milk, lemon juice, vegan butter, and lemon extract. Once these ingredients have been combined with the dry ingredients, whisk in the poppy seeds and lemon zest. When mixing the ingredients it’s important not to over-mix. The batter may be slightly lumpy before adding in the poppy seeds and lemon zest. This is okay! As long as they’re not huge globs, you’re good to go!
Once your batter is ready, it’s time to prepare it to go into the oven. I baked this cake in a standard 9 inch glass loaf pan. To make for easy retrieval of the cake once it’s finished, I placed a piece of parchment paper in the pan (as shown above). Parchment paper isn’t absolutely necessary, but it does make retrieving the cake easier. Don’t have parchment paper on hand? Be sure to grease the pan thoroughly to keep the cake from sticking to the sides of the pan.
After placing the batter into your loaf pan, it’s ready to bake! Place the pan into a preheated oven for 55 minutes. If you’re using a metal pan, be sure to keep an eye on the cake as it will most likely cook faster, resulting in a crispier top and edges. I would recommend checking on it after 35-40 minutes to check on its progress. You’ll know that the cake is done after gently pressing down on it and it bouncing back up. If you press down on it and the cake doesn’t bounce back up, allow it to continue cooking, checking on it in 5 minute increments.
Can Lemon Poppy Seed Cake Be Made Vegan?
Absolutely! This recipe is a great example of that. Growing up, if you would have told me that you could make a cake without cow’s milk or eggs, I wouldn’t have believed you! You can make this Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with just a few basic ingredients that you probably already have.
Once your cake is done baking, it’s important to let the cake cool entirely before removing it from the baking dish. Removing it prematurely may result in the cake falling apart because it’s too hot. Once the cake has cooled, you may find it helpful to go around the edges of the baking dish with a butter knife to loosen the sides (especially if you didn’t use parchment paper). At this point, you can grab the parchment paper and pull the cake directly out of the pan and peel back the sides of the cake with the parchment paper and transfer it to its home (cake dish).
Making the Lemon Icing is super simple! You’ll just whisk together the lemon zest, powdered sugar, and lemon juice. It’s important to note that you may need more liquid than the 4 tsp suggested. I’ve found that different brands of powdered sugar perform differently, even if they are organic. Weird right? I know. If yours requires more powdered sugar than mine did, just add one tsp at a time until the consistency is loose enough to form a drizzle.
Enjoy!
I know you’ll love this Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Cake. It’s moist, perfectly sweetened and filled with zesty lemon flavor. Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think in the comments below!
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Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup organic cane sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- ¼ cup lemon juice (zest lemons before juicing)
- ½ cup melted vegan butter
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
Icing
- 1 cup organic powdered sugar
- 4 tsp lemon juice (plus more as needed)
- 1 tsp lemon zest add more if you'd like!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- In a large mixing bowl, add in your flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Whisk them together.
- Next, add in your almond milk, lemon juice, melted vegan butter and lemon extract. Whisk them into the same bowl. Mix until just combined. Do not over mix (batter may still be slightly lumpy).
- Add the lemon zest and poppy seeds to the bowl. Whisk them into the batter.
- Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan lined with parchment paper for easy retrieval (if you don't have parchment paper, you can also grease the pan instead) and transfer to the oven.
- Bake for 55 minutes or until the top bounces back up after being gently pressed down. Note– cooking time may need to be slightly adjusted if using something other than a glass baking dish.
- While the cake is baking, you can mix together the ingredients for the icing. Cover and set aside until needed.
- Once the cake is finished cooking, remove it from the oven and set it on the counter to cool.
- Once the cake has completely cooled, remove it from the pan (may need to gently go around the edges with a butter knife) and transfer to preferred serving dish. Drizzle with the icing, slice and enjoy!
Notes
- Different brands of organic powdered sugar perform differently when creating the icing. Mine came together with just 4 tsp, however yours may require more. If after 4 tsp yours is still too thick to drizzle, simply add 1 tsp of additional lemon juice at a time until it is thin enough.
- If using fresh lemon juice and zest, you will likely need 3-5 lemons.
- Can substitute fresh lemon juice for bottled lemon juice.
My mom & I loved this lemon cake recipe! It has a great texture and just the right amount of sweetness! I did have to use a little extra lemon juice to make my icing, but I just added a teaspoon at a time until I got to the right consistency. I will probably be making this all summer!
Thanks Chelsei! I’m so glad you and moms enjoyed it!
This Lemon Poppyseed cake is so delicious that it was gone the very day I made it. And I made it in the afternoon! Ha! Oink oink! Anyway, I’m impressed that this is vegan, lemony, moist and additive! I’ll be making this recipe on the regular!
Thanks, Desiree for another superb vegan recipe!
Thanks so much Noël! This cake disappears pretty quickly around here too! You’re not alone!
I enjoyed making and eating this cake. I’ve never made anything from scratch before so I was extremely nervous. It came out amazing! Instructions easy to follow and everything turned out as expected! I used a steel pan so it cooked the cake pretty fast and made the top a little crunchy so I’ll be sure to use a glass pan next tine. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks Mia! So glad you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂
This cake is the BEST!! This is the best lemon poppyseed cake I’ve made to date, and I’m a huge lemon poppyseed fan. Highly recommend serving it to vegan food skeptics because they will NEVER KNOW 😉 Love how moist and easy this cake is to make. It is SO decadent and delicious, be careful, it won’t last long 🙂
This recipe is such a good beginner baker recipe. It’s not intimidating and I’m not vegan and I LOVED it. Definitely a great way to impress/trick your family!
Oh my goodness!!! This lemon poppyseed loaf is dangerous. I had to slice it and freeze it right away because I have no self control. For those who are gluten free, I used King Arthur measure for measure gluten free flour and it was perfect.
Can I please find out if your measurements such as the cup of flour is based on the US or metric measurements? =)
Hi Rina, US measurements.
Love this recipe. It was a huge hit with my husband and company. Can’t wait to make it again.
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Hi! I am looking forward to using this recipe, however I am aiming to make a 3-layer cake. If I’m using an 8-inch round cake tin, how will the baking temp/time change?
Hey! I’d like to double this recipe (to make for my son’s birthday). I don’t have 2 loaf pans, but I have a:
– 9×9 square pan
– 9×13 rectangle pan
– 9” circular cake pan (springform)
– 9.5” Bundt pan
– 7.5” Bundt pan (6 cup)
What would you suggest and how should I adjust the temp & bake time? Thanks so much!
– Katie
Hey Katie! I’d try going with the 9×13 rectangle pan and just keep an eye on it every 5-7 minutes after the first 20 minutes. Because the pan is so much wider, I’d find it hard to believe that it would need the whole 55 minutes. Let me know how it goes!
Thanks! I’d love to try it in a bundt pan too (since it looks so pretty), so if you have any temp/time suggestions for that, let me know! Also, this was THE BEST lemon poppyseed cake I’ve ever made. I’m ashamed to admit that I ate the ENTIRE LOAF myself within 24 hours. Holy whoa, it was good!
Hey Katie, so glad you enjoyed it!! My guess is that a bundt pan will take closer to 45 min – 1 hour. I’d try a similar approach to the 9×13 pan- cook for 30 min, then check on it every 5-10 min or so to gauge how much longer it might need.
I have been wanting to make this for over 2yrs. now and it was so worth it. Easy to follow and make. The icing made so much I only used half of it. Will definitely be doing again. I used cake flour I had and it still came out great.
Hands down THE BEST dessert I’ve made in years. Made this for Mother’s Day and it was a hit. The recipe is perfect. No tweaks needed.
So very excited to come across your recipe. Can I substitute coconut or grapeseed oil for vegan butter? Thank you.
Hey Malina, either of those should work fine. I hope you’ll come back and share how it goes!
I made with the substitutions of real butter and coconut milk (due to allergies). Followed everything else per recipe. The flavor was amazing but consistency was super dense. Any idea why this would happen?
Hey Annie, thanks for giving this recipe a try! I’m guessing it may have been the coconut milk (usually tends to thicken dishes). I would try soy milk next time if almond doesn’t work for you.