Let’s start with the credit: this cake was inspired by Chef Joel’s recipe – Yogurt and Olive Oil Lemon Cake.
His cake caught my attention immediately: lemony and juicy, with yogurt and olive oil, topped with sugar-lemon glaze, and garnished with toasted coconut chips. The recipe is easy:
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
Add the dry to the wet.
Transfer to a pan.
Place in the oven.
After the cake has cooled completely, pour the sugar-lemon glaze on top, and sprinkle with toasted coconut.
And yet, veganizing the recipe required changing the ratio of quantities. So, I adjusted the amounts and replaced the yogurt with vegan yogurt and the eggs with almond butter.
I baked it for about 45 minutes, let the cake cool completely on a wire rack, and then poured the sugar-lemon glaze over it. Next, I sprinkled a handful of toasted sliced almonds.
Enjoy, and let me know how it turned out 😋❣️
Dry Ingredients
- 1¼ cups white spelt flour, or all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan plain yogurt
- 1 Tablespoon almond butter or tahini
- ½ cup sugar
- zest from half a lemon
- juice from one lemon about 3-4 Tablespoons
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup olive oil
Topping
- 3-4 Tablespoon Toasted blanched sliced almonds
- ½ cup powdered sugar* see note
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice* see note
- ¼ tsp lemon or lime extract optional
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius – 356 Fahrenheit
- Grease the pan, sprinkle with flour, and shake off excess. Next, cut a strip of baking paper that will fit the bottom of the pan (put the pan on a baking sheet, and draw a line around the pan to mark it).
- Sift the flour into a wide bowl, add baking powder and salt and mix with a whisk. Set aside.
- Put the wet ingredients in a separate bowl: yogurt, almond butter, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla; mix well; add olive oil and mix well.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until combined without lumps. Avoid over-mixing.
- Pour gently into the mold and level with a spatula.
- Transfer to the center of the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Put baking paper on the work surface. Place a wire rack over the baking paper. Remove the cake from the oven and put it on the rack to cool completely.
- When the cake has completely cooled, turn it over on the wire rack. Remove the mold and the baking paper. Turn the cake over again – face up.
Topping
- Toast the sliced almonds in a pan until golden, set aside.
- Mix powdered sugar, lemon juice* (see note), and lemon extract in a small bowl until you get a smooth mixture. Pour it on the cooled cake and spread it with a spatula. Allow the mixture to drip down the sides; it's part of the chic 🙂 Using a spoon, collect the glaze accumulated on the paper and drip it onto the cake.
- While the glaze is still liquid, generously sprinkle the toasted almonds. Allow the glaze to harden before serving.
- To get a snow-white glaze, use powdered sugar without vanilla beans. If you make powdered sugar at home according to the recipe in the blog – omit the vanilla in the recipe.
- Please note: the less lemon juice you add to the powdered sugar, the whiter and harder the glaze will be, so it’s better to add the lemon juice gradually.
- Olive oil makes the cake taste delicious without any trace of olive oil flavor. It also keeps the cake fresh and moist for a longer time.
- Based on a recipe by Chef Joel. 🙂
Delicious cake with a beautiful soft yet satisfyingly dense texture. It sliced really well too.
Thank you, Sheila
Glad you liked the recipe :),