When Life Hands You Lemons…

…Make Lemon Cake!

The rental place I’ve moved into has a meyer lemon tree, which is going great guns at the moment.  I have lemons coming out of my ears, even after I’ve given bags of them away to the neighbours.

As a result, I’ve been experimenting with all things lemon flavoured. The latest semi-success was a lemon and almond cake I made this week.

I’ve never really had the knack with citrus in cake – they tend to turn out sort of like pudding, and this was no exception. I intend to look it up, but I suspect there’s some chemical reaction between the acid and the baking powder.

Anyway, despite the dense texture, this cake was delicious, so here’s a recipe for anyone willing to try it out. If you improve it, let me know!

Vegan lemon cake – only one piece left!

 

Lemon and Almond Cake

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 1/3 cup white flour
• 2/3 cup almond meal
• 2 tsp baking powder
• zest and juice of 2 meyer lemons (or any lemons)
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup silken tofu
• 1/3 cup soy milk

Icing

• 2 cups icing mixture
• juice and zest of one meyer lemon
• 1 tbs margarine
• 1/3 cup flaked almonds

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees celsius, and grease and line a round cake tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl mix sugar, flour, almond meal, and baking powder until well combined. Add all other ingredients and mix with an electric mixer until well combined.
3. Pour mixture into the cake tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.
4. Let the cake sit for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.
5. To make the icing, beat sugar, magarine and lemon juice and zest together until creamed. Smooth onto cooled cake.
6. Toast the almonds in a dry, non-stick pan, then sprinkle over the icing.