Delicate and moist vegan lemon blueberry cake, but in the lazy form of a sheet cake! It’s super easy and can be made gluten free and refined sugar free.
Lemon blueberry cakes were one of the most popular items in my vegan cake business. The subtle and smooth sweetness of the berries balances with the tartness of the lemon! ‘Inspired’ by my laziness, I incorporated lemon and blueberry into a sheet cake… basically a cake which is super easy but doesn’t look like a lazy effort! Sheet cakes are also so so much easier to divide and serve than a round cake!
The cake has a delicate crumb, zest of lemon and is studded with blueberries. I topped it with an easy cashew cream coloured and flavoured with blueberries!
To achieve a deep blueberry colour and flavour, I reduced the blueberries on the stove. The heat forces a lot of the fruit’s water to evaporate which makes the juice and natural sugars more concentrated.
In addition, blueberries and lemon are so so beautiful together! I’ve been brushing up on my food photography and watched this video by The Bite Shot on colour theory. Joanie talked about how using colours which are opposite to each other on the colour wheel can be visually pleasing and allow each colour to pop. Her videos are fantastic for beginners to those with more experience!
I used a high-quality rectangular cake pan from Williams Sonoma (not sponsored) for this lemon blueberry cake. It was extremely sturdy and the cake cooked evenly! In particular, I loved the upright sides and corners of the tin. That means that people who get a side or corner cake slice don’t miss out! I’m all about sharing as equally as possible! If you don’t have a large cake pan, feel free to reduce the recipe.
I hope you enjoy this recipe!
If you try this recipe, I would love to hear about it! Comment below and rate it as it would really help us and other readers! If you post it on social media, tag @rainbownourishments and #rainbownourishments.
Vegan Lemon Blueberry Sheet Cake
Ingredients
Dry cake ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups (360g) white rice flour, or all purpose flour
- 2 1/4 cups (225g) blanched almond meal
- 2 cups (200g) cane sugar, or coconut sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
Wet cake ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups (440mL) plant-based milk, such as almond, soy or coconut
- 1 cup (250mL) light-tasting vegetable oil, such as sunflower or rapeseed
- 2 medium-size lemons, juice and zest (approximately 50mL of juice and zest)
- 2 tsp (10mL) vanilla extract
- Pinch of any good quality salt
- 1 cup (150g) fresh or frozen blueberries
Two-toned Blueberry Cashew Frosting
- 1 1/2 cup (225g) fresh or frozen blueberries
- 1 1/2 cup (165g) raw cashews
- 3/4 cup (180mL) canned coconut cream
- ~1/4 cup (50g) sweetener or sugar, of choice, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a rectangular cake tin with baking paper. I used a 33 cm x 23 cm x 5 cm (13 in x 9 in x 2 in) cake tin.
To make the cake:
- In a large-size bowl, add all the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Add all of the wet ingredients except the blueberries and mix until the batter is combined and smooth.
- Pour the cake batter into the lined baking tin. Scatter blueberries over and press them into the cake batter.
- Bake the cake for around 25 minutes or until a skewer can be inserted into the middle of the cake and it comes out clean. Allow the cake to rest in the cake tin.
To make the two-toned frosting:
- Add the blueberries to a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Boil for 15 minutes and mash them with the back of a fork. Boil until the blueberries have softened and their juice has thickened.
- Add 1/4 of the blueberries to a blender with the rest of the frosting ingredients. Blend on high for 3 minutes or until extremely smooth.
- Pour out 1/2 of the frosting into a bowl. Add the remaining blueberries to the blender and blend until extremely smooth. Set aside both frostings in the fridge to chill.
To decorate:
- When the sheet cake has completely cooled, dollop both frostings on top of the cake. Use the back of a spoon to marble the frostings and to spread it on the cake's surface. Avoid over-mixing the frosting to ensure the the colour of each frosting is still noticeable.
- Serve the sheet cake immediately. Alternatively, cover the cake tin and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Hi Anthea!
We’re so close to being able to make this recipe, Ive seen it a few times now 🙂 Allergies! Is there anything we can sub for cashews though? Thank you ❤️
Hey Adriana! Ooh lovely! For cashews, you can use either soaked macadamia nuts, soaked blanched almonds or soaked sunflower seeds (the last one will taste a bit earthy so you can balance it out with some plant-based yoghurt). Let me know how you go and I hope that helps 🙂
Hi, can I use all rice flour instead of rice flour and almond meal?
Thank you.
Hey, I wouldn’t recommend it because rice flour can be a little gritty and dry when it’s used by itself. If you can have regular flour, substitute both flours for that and add a little more oil to make up for the oils in the almond meal.
Hi, I followed the recipe exactly but it still turned out gritty. Is there another gluten-free alternative you would recommend in place of the rice flour? Maybe gluten-free mixes or another specific specialty flour?
I have a baking competition against non-gluten-free cakes but one of my bakers has Celiacs, so we need to be I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Gluten level hopefully haha
Hi Bob. Is there another brand of rice flour that you can get? In Australia, the rice flour we get in supermarkets is often gritty but the rice flour from Asian supermarkets is very fine. It makes a huge difference! I’ve tried gluten-free flour blends instead of rice but they are a bit chewy for my liking. There is a Bob Red Mills 1:1 gluten free flour which has been highly recommended to me which you can try. Alternatively, you can try gluten-free oat flour. Thanks!
I’m excited to try this cake! Making it today, do you think it would work to replace the cup of oil with 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup applesauce? It’s a beautiful cake!
Hi Angela! I saw that you made the cake and posted it on Instagram! It looks great! xo