adventures in vegan birthday cake

Hillary's birthday was this week and after some investigation, I found out the only bakery in town that specialized in vegan/gluten-free type items was not a walk-in bakery but a call-ahead only place. So lots of help that was. This put me in a position where I had take the burden of preparing Hillary's birthday cake on my shoulders. Thanks to Google, I found a promising looking vegan lemon cake recipe and decided to put my own spin on the icing (which is more accurately, a "glaze"). That was the manliest sentence I've ever written. I was excited to find this recipe because lemon is one of Hillary's favorites. There was also some room to tinker with the recipe, which I did, making it a lemon cake with a blueberry-lemon-vanilla glaze. 

So with my recipe, my itunes playlist, and our dogs, I got to work.

The cake itself was very easy to make. I made 2 sheet cakes out of doubling the recipe. I had ambitions to layer the sheets and make a very impressive cake, but the icing turning out to be more of a glaze and time constraints but a lid on that plan. The icing/glaze was a different story. It never got creamy like icing should. No matter. I consulted with Hillary and after I described the consistency of the would-be icing, she said that sounded more like a glaze. Excellent! I took the glaze and we poured it over the warm cakes. Be sure to poke some hole in the cake to allow the glazey goodness to seep deep down into the cake.

Below is the lemon cake recipe taken from the website credited below and the glaze which is an adaption of what they originally suggest. A third twist to the cake is to add lemon-curd as a middle layer. I must say it sounds delicious, but the cake is great without it, and it significantly adds to the prep time.

And remember kids, the cake is totally vegan. We brought the 2nd cake, which was not consumed at the birthday festivities over to Hillary's dad and grandma without telling them it was vegan. They were surprised to learn it was, and this is not the first time we have tricked Hillary's dad into eating vegan. I think he would stop trusting us if he didn't enjoy eating our food so much.

So, with no further delay, the recipe (it seems like a lot to do, but it really doesn't take long):

Vegan Lemon Cake with Blueberry-Lemon-Vanilla Glaze*   

Lemon Cake Ingredients:

- 2/3 cup vegan margarine

- 1 cup sugar

- 3 1/2 cups white flour

- 3 1/2 Tblsp cornstarch

- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1 1/2 cup almond milk or other non-dairy milk

- Dash of vanilla

- 1/2 cup lemon juice

- Zest from 1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Butter and flour a 9 x 12” pan or 2 9” round cake pans

3. Mix almond milk and lemon juice and set aside to curdle

4. Cream butter and sugar

5. Combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt

6. Add dry ingredients, almond milk mixture, and lemon zest to butter mixture

7. Mix all ingredients together until just blended

8. Spread the batter evenly in the pan(s) and bake 35 to 45 minutes until slightly golden in color and firm in the center. The 9 x 12 pan will take longer to bake than the 9” rounds

9. Remove from pans and cool on racks. Chill cake and all ingredients

(optional) 10. Spread lemon curd between the 2 layers, then drizzle with the glaze

Blueberry-Lemon-Vanilla Glaze Ingredients:

(Makes enough for one cake)

- 1 cup vegan margarine

- 1 lb powdered sugar

- Zest from 2 lemons

- 1 tsp lemon extract

- 3-4 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

- 1 cup frozen blueberries, defrosted in microwave but cooled off

Lemon-Blueberry Frosting Directions:

1. Using a hand-held mixer cream together margarine, sugar, and zest until smooth

2. Gradually beat in lemon juice 1 Tbsp at a time

3. Add blueberries in same manner

Refrigerate in an air tight container until needed

Lemon Curd Ingredients (optional):

Makes 1 cup

- 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

- 1/4 cup water

- 3/4 cup white sugar

- 2 Tblsp cornstarch

- Zest of 1 lemon

- 6 Tbsp unflavored almond milk

- 1 Tbsp vegan margarine

Lemon Curd Directions (optional):

1. Whisk together lemon juice, water, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon zest in a saucepan

2. Place on the stove on medium heat and continue to whisk until the mixture comes to a boil

3. Allow mixture to boil for 1 minute without stirring

4. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in almond milk and margarine

5. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate in an airtight container for 8 hours or overnight before using


(*Recipe taken from and adapted from savvy vegetarian)