Vegan Lemon Yogurt Cake
Last week my family and I got together to celebrate a very important occasion: my mom’s birthday! My mom is a notoriously tricky person when it comes to buying presents for her. She’ll always tell you she doesn’t need gifts, but she also has very specific taste. She likes bright, funny socks, coconut-scented body products, circus peanut candy (who likes circus peanuts?!), and anything related to animals. Normally, I buy her a fancy body lotion or oil that she would never buy for herself, except this year she specifically told me “no more body products” because she’s still working her way through the giant bottle of coconut + lemon lotion I gave her for Mother’s Day. She really likes that lotion though, which is why I decided to take a few of her favorite things—coconut, lemon, and sugar!—and bake her a special vegan lemon yogurt cake.
Lemon and coconut are a couple of my favorite things too, so I’m not sure why it’s taken me this long to share a lemon cake on P&H, but I promise this recipe was worth the wait! I spent a lot of time writing notes and recipe testing so I could get it just right, and the results are that 1) Aaron and I have way too much cake in our fridge and 2) this is maybe my best cake to date?!
In order to make a vegan yogurt cake, I used So Delicious Dairy Free Coconut Milk Yogurt, which comes in a new and very handy twenty-four ounce size container. One spoonful in, I realized just how far non-dairy yogurts have come in recent years. The smooth texture and tangy flavor is pretty darn perfect, and the bigger container is ideal for baking because it’s more affordable than buying multiple five ounce yogurts AND there’s less packaging that needs to be recycled. Win-win! I really like the unsweetened plain and vanilla flavors since they give me more control over the sweetness in recipes, and using yogurt also means I can cut back on the oil without sacrificing texture in baked goods.
For this vegan lemon yogurt cake, I used applesauce in place of eggs and extra virgin olive oil instead of butter. The olive oil, yogurt, and lemon are a great combination, and then the fluffy lemon cream frosting (which uses So Delicious Dairy Free CocoWhip!) and fresh raspberries make it next-level awesome.
If you’re a lemon lover like me, I think you’re really going to enjoy this simple and easy vegan yogurt cake. I even overheard my mom tell my dad he couldn’t eat all of the leftovers, so that’s how I know she really likes it too.
A big thank you to So Delicious Dairy Free for sponsoring this post!
Vegan Lemon Yogurt Cake
Vegan Lemon Yogurt Cake
Serves: 1 large 9-inch cake
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins
Total Time: 50 mins
This vegan lemon yogurt cake is simple to make and a big crowd favorite! It has a light, tender crumb, a bright lemon flavor, and a quick vegan lemon cream and raspberry topping.
Cuisine: Vegan Servings: 1 large 9-inch cake
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 40 mins Total Time: 50 mins
This vegan lemon yogurt cake is simple to make and a big crowd favorite! It has a light, tender crumb, a bright lemon flavor, and a quick vegan lemon cream and raspberry topping.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan with olive oil. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, applesauce, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon oil, and vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let sit in the pan on a cooling rack.
- Once the cake is cool, make the lemon cream frosting: Stir the vanilla and lemon oil into the CocoWhip until combined. Gently remove the cake from the pan and place it on a serving dish. Frost it with the lemon cream and top it with the raspberries.
Notes [3]
If you don’t plan to enjoy all of the cake in one sitting, store the frosting separately in the fridge and frost as you’re ready to serve the cake.
Very lightly adapted from my Vegan Vanilla Birthday Cake.
I used this 9-inch jadeite cake stand in the photos.
Copyright © 2022 Amanda Maguire for Pickles & Honey
I love lemon flavors in dessert too. This sounds lovely and like the perfect gift for a woman who already has everything she needs. Happy birthday to your mom!
Also, I love that cake stand. Very pretty! And thanks for the recommendation on Fleabag. David and I just finished watching the whole series, and it was excellent. The last episode gave me chills when it was revealed why her friend’s death haunted her. The British really know how to make good television.
Thanks, Cadry! I love the cake stand too, although we realized it’s lopsided, so what you don’t see is the mound of cardboard I wedged under the base to try to even it out. 😉
I’m so glad you also loved Fleabag! I really appreciated that I had no idea where that show was going. Refreshing! You might also enjoy Crashing on Netflix (another Phoebe Waller-Bridge show) if you haven’t seen that one yet. Aaron and I laughed really hard the entire way through.
This cake sounds great and I will have to try it. I am not vegan, but I am always looking for good vegan baking recipes to serve to my family members who are. Glad to know these non-dairy products are good and reliable.
Thanks, Ginger! I hope you’ll give the lemon yogurt cake a try (it’s one of my all-time favorite recipes!). I really like the So Delicious yogurts for baking, and they’re pretty great with things like granola too. 🙂
This is STUNNING. Lemon is one of my favorite flavors and I cannot wait to try your cake recipe! Also, thank you for the dairy-free yogurt recommendation. I’ve been looking for a good option without too much sugar so I think these unsweetened flavors will be perfect for me. Keep up the great work! I adore your blog. <3
Your post really cheered me up with the happy colors from the lemons and raspberries. Now all I need is a big piece of this cake. 😉 Thank you. -Diana
Love the simple, satisfying flavors in this beautiful cake! You can never go wrong with lemon and raspberries:)
Thank you, Bethany! I agree about the lemon raspberry combo—one of the best for sure!
Aw you are so sweet making your momma this cake! I think our moms are the same person ;). And we too seem to make lemon and coconut everything! I still remember the cake I made for her flavored the same one year. So so sweet. I hope you two are having a cozy fall in Boston Amanda, hugs from CA!
I just love the lemon and coconut flavor combo! Late fall/winter I am always very thankful for citrus to brighten up the gloomy Boston days. I miss that CA sunshine so much! Soak some in for me, okay? 😉
For anyone considering this cake recipe: make it! I made it twice in the last 2 weeks (once for a holiday party, once for my kids) and both times to rave reviews. It’s tender and fluffy with a detectable lemon flavor and the coconut whipped cream is light and just sweet enough but not too sugary. Thank you Amanda! This did not disappoint.
My friend shared your blog with me and I’ve been loving all of your recipes. I made your lemon cake for a get together last weekend and it was the star of the night. Seriously–people could not stop talking about it and couldn’t believe it was vegan. I was sad there weren’t leftovers! haha
This recipe is beautiful. I needed to make a couple of changes – I didn’t have any apple sauce or apples so used 1cup oil in total. I also had blueberry coconut yoghurt so used that and topped off the batter with some frozen blueberries. Glazed with a simple lemon juice and icing sugar mix.
Absolutely Devine. Thanks for a lovely recipe.
Thank you, Nicole! Your recipe changes sound great, especially the blueberry yogurt and addition of frozen blueberries. I love lemon & blueberry together!
Hey,
Would it be possible to use lemon juice instead of lemon oil?
Lemon oil is highly concentrated in terms of flavor (think peppermint oil versus fresh peppermint leaves). If you replaced it with lemon juice, the lemon flavor wouldn’t be nearly as strong.