I’m home sick today and completely miserable. Tea, tissues and my fluffy duvet are my best friends. Always the busy body, it’s really hard for me to sit and be calm for any amount of time. Now, as my friends and family read this they’ll be saying something along the lines of one of two thought steams:
1. DUH!!!
2. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem!
Hehe.. yeah yeah… love you guys too!
With quite a few family birthday’s coming up I consider that an excellent excuse, er, opportunity to bake a few cakes! While perusing my instagram feed earlier today, I came across a LOVELY picture from one of my favorite food photography blogs; “Le Chou Sauvage” . It was for vegan lemon poppy seed cake and it was just too delicious looking!
SEE WHAT I MEAN! Are you drooling now or what!? But thanks to the picture above all I’ve been thinking about all afternoon, between cups of tea and blowing my little nose (too much info?!), and I had to go out to the blogosphere and find at least 15 recipes for a vegan lemon poppy seed cake that I can personalize and try!
Vegan/ dairy-free baking has long been a hobby of mine. When I realized I was allergic to dairy it nearly ended me… no…no more scones and muffins!? There is little more in life than a truly delicious muffin or scone homemade fresh out of the oven with a side of fresh fruit and a good cup of coffee. I digress… and wish I was enjoying that right this moment!
Well, jumping into vegan cooking can be a rough transition because the eggs and butter, which are both excluded from the vegan diet, in recipes act as a binding agent to hold all the ingredients together as well as providing texture and flavor. With vegan cooking and baking those qualities still need to exist in a baked good and there are many alternatives. Keeping with my tenants of mindful eating, try to stay away from processed foods as much as is feasible and since I’m really only dairy-free and not vegan I do include eggs in my diet. If you’d like to understand a bit more of the science behind how ingredients work in a recipe, as well as outlining a few alternatives depending on your dietary preferences and restrictions check out the blog, Real Sustenance: 101 in Baking.
Finding recipes that are vegan or dairy-free without using xanthan gum or some other processed replace thrill me! They truly make me so excited!
After a few cups of tea and some perusing I came upon the two recipes below and will (oh “darn”) have to try out both to see which wins! Please weigh in on which has your vote and I’ll update this with a review of each cake and updated pictures of our taste testing!
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Vegan Poppy Seed Cake
Recipe from blog: Feed Me I’m Cranky
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups vegan sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups water
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup poppy seeds
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×13 baking pan with non-stick spray.
- Mix together first four dry ingredients, then add in wet ingredients.
- Make sure you mix thoroughly, then fold in poppy seeds
- Pour mixture into pan and bake for 40 minutes. Check the center with a toothpick to make sure it comes out dry (that means done and voila!)
- YUM!
Frosting: She used a favorite butter cream frosting recipe from The Vegan Chef, here, but substituted one tablespoon lemon extract for the two teaspoons vanilla.
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Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
recipes from blog: v:gourmet
ingredients
2 cups pastry flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder
2 tsps baking soda
1/3 cup poppy seeds
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup lemon juice (juice from approx 2 lemons)
1/3 cup water
1 cup apple cider or apple juice
1 2/3 cups maple syrup
2/3 cup olive oil or sunflower oil
2 tsps vanilla extract
4 tbsps lemon zest (zest from approx 2 lemons)
1 cup super fine sugar
Juice from 1 lemon
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly brush 8 x 12 baking pan with oil. Add several tablespoons of flour and shake to coat evenly. Invert pans and knock against the counter to rid them of excess flour.
- Whisk the flour, baking power, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds together in a medium-size mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the lemon and apple juices, maple syrup, oil, vanilla, and zest. Using a wooden spoon, stir the wet mixture into the dry to form a batter. Do not overmix.
- Transfer batter to the baking pan and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes before removing.
- Meanwhile, mix together the super fine sugar and lemon juice. Once cake is removed from the pan, place on a serving dish and drizzle with the lemon sugar icing.
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