Earl Grey Lemon Cake (Vegan)
Earl Grey lemon cake - this easy vegan loaf cake is delicately flavoured with Earl Grey tea and lemon. It is a lovely, light, soft, tender cake that pairs beautifully with a cup of tea!
Servings 10 people
Ingredients
Cake:
- 2 Tablespoons finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves (about 5 tea bags)* (see notes)
- 200 g (1 cup) caster or granulated sugar
- 180 g (¾ cup) vegan yogurt, preferably Greek style
- 100 g (6 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons) unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use soy)
- 124 g (½ cup + 1 Tablespoon) neutral oil (I use olive)
- finely grated zest of 2 lemons
- 45 g (3 Tablespoons) lemon juice
- 20 g (2 packed Tablespoons) cornflour (cornstarch)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 270 g (2 ¼ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
Glaze:
- 150 g (1 ¼ cups) icing (powdered) sugar
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon vegan Greek style yogurt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/160℃ fan/350°F/gas mark 4. Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line with greaseproof paper.
- Whisk together the earl grey tea leaves, sugar, yogurt, milk, oil and lemon zest and juice in a large bowl.2 Tablespoons finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves (about 5 tea bags)*, 200 g (1 cup) caster or granulated sugar, 180 g (¾ cup) vegan yogurt, preferably Greek style, 100 g (6 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons) unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use soy), 124 g (½ cup + 1 Tablespoon) neutral oil (I use olive), finely grated zest of 2 lemons, 45 g (3 Tablespoons) lemon juice
- Whisk in the cornflour, baking powder and soda and salt, followed by the flour.20 g (2 packed Tablespoons) cornflour (cornstarch), 2 teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), ¼ teaspoon salt, 270 g (2 ¼ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- Scrape the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for about 60-70 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then carefully turn it out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
- Once the cake has cooled make the glaze; sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in the lemon juice and yogurt to form a thick but spoonable glaze. Add more icing sugar if it is too runny or more lemon juice if it is too thick.150 g (1 ¼ cups) icing (powdered) sugar, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, 1 Tablespoon vegan Greek style yogurt
- Spoon the glaze over the cake and serve. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
- *You can use any Earl Grey tea leaves in this cake, though the preparation will be different depending on whether it is a finely ground tea or whole tea leaves. I use bagged tea as it tends to be finely ground so can be added straight to the batter. If using loose leaf, or a very high quality bagged tea, you will need to grind it up to a fine powder first. You can do this in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder, or pulse the tea leaves with the sugar in a food processor or blender.
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup coversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!