Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
Vegan lemon poppy seed cake with a soft, moist and light crumb and lots of flavor from fresh lemon juice and zest. The batter is easy to prepare and is baked in a loaf pan for ease!
Ingredients you’ll need
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Notes about the ingredients
Fresh lemon juice and zest, for the brightest lemon flavor (no lemon extract here)! While lemon juice makes the cake really tender, too much lemon juice can make a cake heavy and dense. This cake contains the maximum amount of lemon juice without weighing down the cake.
Any neutral-flavored oil, for example avocado oil. For extra depth of flavor (and to give the cake a slight golden hue), you can use a light olive oil.
Poppy seeds for a nutty flavor and crunchy texture. This cake also works well without poppy seeds (see my lemon olive oil loaf cake).
Optional: A few drops of yellow food color, or a pinch of turmeric to give the cake a more golden color. Note that turmeric may give your cake a greenish hue due to the natural chemical reaction of the ingredients.
Even though this cake doesn’t have eggs, we don’t need any special egg replacers. I carefully tested the ingredient ratios to ensure this cake is moist, light and fluffy.
Preparing the cake batter
First, I recommend rubbing the sugar with the lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. This releases the lemon’s essential oils and flavor and deepens the flavor in the final cake. Then, mix in the dry ingredients and wet ingredients until combined.
For the best results, make sure you:
- Measure the all purpose flour accurately. Use an electronic scale, or if you’re using measuring cups, use the spoon and level method. Too much flour will result in a dry crumbly cake.
- Avoid overmixing your batter. Overmixing any cake batter strengthens the gluten and makes a tough and dense cake.
Baking the cake
This cake takes about 55-60 minutes to bake and is ready when you can insert a toothpick in the middle and it comes out mostly clean.
Try to avoid opening the oven door during baking. Once I made this cake, I opened the oven door a few times and this caused the cake to deflate. It was still a delicious cake, but denser than normal.
Due to the large amount of lemon juice in the cake, it will rise less than a plain vanilla cake. This is normal! If you want your cake to rise a little more, you can:
- Rest your cake batter in your loaf pan for 1 hour. The starches will absorb the liquid which will thicken the batter and encourage the cake to rise more. You can see the difference in this post by Handle the Heat. On a cool day, rest the cake batter at room temperature but if it’s a warm day, rest the cake in the fridge.
- Start baking your lemon loaf at a higher heat. This forces the baking powder to react quicker so the loaf grows taller. I suggest baking your loaf at 200°C (395°F) for 5 minutes then reducing the heat to 180°C (355°F) for the remainder.
Decorating the cake
This vegan lemon poppyseed cake is lovely with a simple lemon buttercream and homemade vegan lemon curd. It’s also wonderful topped with:
- Simple lemon icing made from just powdered sugar and lemon juice, such as the one in my lemon olive oil cake.
- Simple lemon glaze. Use my lemon icing but add more liquid to make it a thinner glaze.
- Vegan cream cheese frosting, such as the one in my carrot cake loaf recipe.
- Dairy-free whipping cream or yogurt.
Customizing this recipe
Yes, it works well with King Arthur’s gluten-free measure for measure flour! For more details, check note 1 in the recipe card. Other gluten-free flour blends contain different flours so may produce different results.
Berries and lemon are a dream combination! However, the batter for this cake is quite runny, so berries are more likely to sink. Instead, check out the reader-favorite vegan lemon blueberry cake. If you want, add 1-2 tablespoons of poppyseeds to the dry ingredients.
This cake bakes differently in a muffin or cupcake tin. For muffins, check out my vegan lemon poppy seed muffins. For cupcakes, use my lemon cupcake recipe, but add 1 1/2 tablespoons of poppy seeds.
If you want to make a layer cake, I suggest using my lemon cake recipe. It has almost exactly the same ratios as this recipe, but has been scaled for two 8-inch pans. To make a sheet cake, use the lemon cake recipe but bake it in a sheet pan.
More vegan lemon desserts
Or check out my other vegan cakes or quick breads baked in a loaf pan.
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Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
Ingredients
Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
- 1 ¼ cups (250g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon packed lemon zest, (you'll need around 3-4 medium lemons)
- 2 ½ cups (315g) all-purpose plain flour, (note 1 for gluten-free option)
- 1 ½ tablespoons (14g) poppy seeds
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt, optional
- 1 cup (250g) dairy-free milk, room temperature
- ½ cup (125g) neutral flavored oil, or a light olive oil
- ⅓ cup (80g) lemon juice, (you'll need around 2-3 medium lemons, note 2)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
To decorate (optional, see note 3 for alternatives)
- ⅓ cup (75g) vegan block butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (150g) powdered sugar / icing sugar, or to taste
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice, or to taste
- ½ batch homemade vegan lemon curd, from my lemon cheesecake recipe, optional
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (355°F). Line an 8-inch (20 cm) loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Add the sugar and lemon zest to a large bowl. Rub the mixture together until the sugar is pale yellow and fragrant.
- Add the dry ingredients (flour, poppy seeds, baking powder and salt) to the bowl and whisk until the mixture is well combined. Add all the wet ingredients (milk, oil, lemon juice, and vanilla) and mix until just combined. Some lumps are fine, as long as they aren't lumps of flour.
- Pour the cake batter into your prepared pan.
- Bake the cake for 55-60 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in the center and there's no wet batter on it (some moist crumbs are fine). The top of the cake should be golden brown.
- Allow the cake to cool in the loaf tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Make the frosting:
- Add the vegan butter to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add more sugar for a firmer frosting or more lemon juice (or milk) for a smoother frosting.
- Dollop the lemon frosting on your cooled loaf cake. If desired, use a small spoon to create swirl patterns on your frosting. Dot some lemon curd on top and swirl it into your frosting (save any leftover lemon curd to serve with the cake). Sprinkle the top with poppy seeds.
- Store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for 1-2 days, or in the fridge for 3-4 days. The frosted cake can be stored in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
- This lemon poppy seed cake works well with King Arthur’s gluten-free measure for measure flour. If using, I suggest baking the cake for 5-10 minutes longer. Other gluten-free flour blends may produce different results.
- Don’t be tempted to add more lemon juice to this recipe as it will make the cake dense and stodgy. There’s a lot of lemon flavor in this cake, but if you want an extra zesty cake, use more lemon zest.
- To give your cake a subtle yellow color, use a light olive oil or a few drops of yellow food coloring. Adding turmeric may give your cake a slight green hue.
- Alternatively, serve the cake with a two-ingredient icing (check out the one from my lemon olive oil cake), with fresh berries or lightly dusted with powdered sugar.
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Really delicious! Fluffy batter, fresh lemon flavour, a perfect spring cake! I used cream cheese instead of vegan butter for the frosting and sprinkled some freeze-dried raspberry pieces on top. Perfect!
Hi Sonja, I’m thrilled you loved this cake! A cream cheese frosting and freeze-dried raspberries would’ve complemented the loaf perfectly. Thanks so much for your feedback!
Can I try with gluten free flour?
Yes, you can certainly try! Some high-quality gluten-free flours such as King Arthur’s measure for measure may work without any other changes. Otherwise, I’ve usually had luck with using half almond flour and half gluten-free all-purpose flour. I just haven’t tested this recipe with either.
Looks great! Can I use this recipe on a regular English cake pan? Thank you!
It’ll work well in an 8-inch (20cm) round cake pan as long as it’s not too short, or a 9-inch (23cm) round cake pan. Enjoy!
Can I use a 9×5 pan or do I need to increase ingredients?
It’ll work well in a larger pan if you don’t mind a slightly shorter cake! The baking time will be around 5 minutes less. You can also increase the ingredients for a 9″ pan, but will need to bake it for longer.
This is the best Lemon Poppy Seed cake I made. Ever. And for many reasons:
– first it is vegan, and it taste GREAT! I am a fan of the Starbucks version which stopped to sell it in order to renew proposal, that’s ok. But I truely miss it. And your recipe has just got the right moisture to align with my favorite benchmark :))
– second, your recipes are converted into US/Europe unit of measure. That’s pure LOVE for the readers abroad like me. THANK YOU FOR THAT!
– and finally path for explanation with notes regarding ingredients properties make the recipe completely convincing (and avoid to skip steps which might be details, but drastically change the result).
I will visit your site again for other recipe try.
Hi Emilie! I’m thrilled that you loved this recipe and found it comparable to the Starbucks version! I’m so glad that you found the unit of measurements, blog post and recipe instructions clear and helpful too. And, I hope that you enjoy any other recipes that you get to make from my website. Thank you so much for your thoughtful review! 🙂
Loved making this cake
Turned out great with all the amazing tips very good tips thanks
Hi Georgina, aw I’m so happy to hear!! Thanks so much for your comment 🙂
Okay first off, I am NOT on a vegan diet and I bake regular bakes allllll the time and then dabble in vegan baking for my vegan friends and then do it out of curiosity too. Anthea’s recipes always hook me in and this one is no exception. The outer crust’s texture of this loaf most certainly is like a vegan baked good, but when I get to the actual loaf/cake part, you can’t even tell that it’s vegan. Such a lemony nice flavor and nice fluffy texture.
Hi Michelle, I’m so glad that you enjoyed the crumb of the cake and I love that you bake vegan recipes here and there, despite not being vegan! Thanks so much for your kind words and for taking the time to leave a comment here 🙂
One of the best teacher you are and this explanation is very useful and enough for us to making very easy for baking the cakes.
That’s very kind, thank you so much! And glad that you find everything helpful 🙂