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Gluten Free Vegan Lemon & Orange Cake Recipe

two slices of vegan lemon & orange cake on a wooden tray

.I would like to start this post by saying I’m very very appreciative of the fact I run a food blog therefore my regular pantry is well stocked in terms of things like flour. As I mentioned in my GRWM on Sunday, it was my mum’s birthday last week. Every year, I make a cake. This year, I opted for this vegan lemon & orange cake recipe, GF obviously, I wanted to eat my own creation. Making this cake was not as smooth sailing as it should have been, and under usual circumstances, this post would have been a lot different.  

Lockdown birthday cake issues 

The size – start with the basics, this is a two person household. With no one coming to visit, making a whole birthday cake is not exactly ideal. The smallest cake tin I own is 8.5inches, far too big for a cake I was planning on making two layers for. I tried to get a 4inch cake tin about 10 days before I needed it and couldn’t find anywhere that could deliver me one before May (even with Prime). So, I decided to make one in the tin I had and I was going to cut it in half to make the two layers rather than make two smaller ones and leave it as a crescent shape instead. Not ideal, but not the end of the world.  

Timing – under usual circumstances, I have all day to do this, take some photos and present it looking beautiful later in the day. This year, I had her sat upstairs in the office tapping her foot, knowing exactly what I was doing downstairs, asking if it was ready yet every two minutes and trying to ask me what variety it was (I had to keep some secrets). 

Presentation – so as a result of the timing issues, it was rushed. And because of that, there are zero pretty pictures. It was a relatively warm day and I should have given it longer to cool. The buttercream was starting to melt (because the cake was too hot and the room was warm – nothing wrong with the actual buttercream) and I ended up rushing it upstairs for her to see it and grab a slice.  Realistically, I should have told her to wait…

Posting it anyway? 

Under usual circumstances, if my cake looked how the end product did, I would have made it again.  Next time, I’d let it cool properly, take nice photos then send it over to my grandparents because who needs a second cake? However, given the supply shortages, unnecessarily wasting my dwindling flour supplies didn’t seem like the greatest move. Even though I’m sure they’d be very happy with a surprise cake on their doorstep…

I almost didn’t post this, but when I was flicking through the few photos I did get, the actual cake slices look nice. The individual slices look like a nice cake, albeit a bit messy. So, here we are. My finest photography? No. The nicest presentation of a dish? Far from it. But a really nice gluten free & vegan cake recipe? Yes. It went down very well. So, you’ll have to take my word for this one. When this whole situation blows over I probably will end up making another and updating the photos here, but for now, we’re making the best of it.  

Gluten Free Vegan Lemon & Orange Cake Recipe 

Last year I made a double stack peanut butter brownie recipe and this year I wanted to make something totally different, so I opted for something fresh and zesty instead. The sponge is more light and fluffy than a heavy lemon pound cake texture, so I opted for a heavier buttercream rather than a light lemon drizzle icing.  

This recipe is gluten free, dairy free and vegan. It can be nut and soy free depending on your choice of non-dairy milk.  

two slices of vegan lemon & orange cake on a wooden tray
4.67 from 3 votes
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Gluten Free Vegan Lemon & Orange Cake Recipe

A zesty light vegan lemon & orange sponge cake with creamy orange buttercream frosting.

Course Dessert
Cuisine British
Keyword Gluten Free Cake Recipe, Vegan Cake Recipe, Vegan lemon cake recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 8
Calories 203 kcal

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup GF self raising flour
  • ½ cup GF oat flour
  • ¾ cup caster sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • Juice of 1 lemon topped up with vegan milk to make a total of ¾ cups of liquid
  • ¼ cup sunflower oil
  • ¾ tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 3 tsp orange extract
  • Zest of one lemon
  • 3 heaped tbsp candied orange peel

Frosting

  • 1½ cups Icing Sugar
  • ½ cup Vegan Butter
  • 2 tsp Orange Extract

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare one 8-inch cake pan (or two 4 inch pans) by spraying with non-stick spray and lining the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.
  2. Sift the all flours into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking powder and salt and mix in.
  3. Add in the milk/ juice mix, oil, vinegar, orange extract and lemon zest and use a hand whisk (or stir thoroughly) to whisk it briefly until well combined and no large lumps remain (tiny lumps are okay). Once the mix is relatively smooth, stir in the candied orange peel.
  4. Divide the batter between the two prepared cake pans and bake for 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting

  1. Let the cakes cool for a few minutes before removing from the cake pans and placing on a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
  2. Prepare your frosting by adding the icing sugar, vegan butter and orange extract to a bowl and mix until smooth.
  3. When the cakes are cooled, frost the cake.

Serve and enjoy!

Have you found yourself struggling to get baking supplies during lockdown? Or had anything go wrong as a result? 

Until next time,

Sophie

36

Comments

  1. A lovely recipe I have bookmarked for my nans birthday! It looks tasty Sophie and I bet your mum loved it! I hope she had a lovely birthday and thank you for posting
    Sarah

    Reply

  5. Oh my that looks delicious! I might just have to try that whilst we’re locked away! I’m terrible at baking but you know what they say… practise makes perfect

    Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  8. This sounds like such a lovely cake – even if you weren’t completely happy with it! I’ve never had a lemon and orange cake, I’ll usually just have a lemon one. But I love the sound of the two together. I hope your mum had a great birthday despite the current circumstances 🙂 x

    https://www.femaleoriginal.com

    Reply

  11. I love that you are so honest about how the whole baking process went, and posted this despite not having half a dozen pictures. The one you do have shows an excellent crumb, and I love lemon and orange in a cake, especially with buttercream! 🙂

    Reply

  12. This looks delicious! Happy birthday to your mum 🙂 it’s nice you were able to make her something – flour is really hard to get here too, although I did manage to get sugar last time I was at the shops! I was so excited to see so much of it! 🙂 Still no flour though!

    Hope that you are having a good week 🙂

    Reply

  16. This sounds delicious and I actually love the photos – it’s great you posted them still. Well done for baking even though you had some problems to overcome – looks amazing

    Reply

  19. That sounds so delicious! And I always worry about the presentation of my cakes too and if they look good or not. But honestly, all that really matters is that it taste delicious! And I am sure this one did too. Lemon and orange are perfect flavors for spring!

    Reply

  22. Suggestions for substitutions for the self raising flour? Many of them use potato flour and tapioca flour which I’m intolerant to. Cake looks delicious though and I really wan to try!

    Reply

    • Ooo, that’s a tricky one! If I were trying to make it without I’d probably switch to all oat flour and add a tbsp of xantham gum. Would that work with your dietary requirements? If you try it I’d love to know how it turns out!

      Reply

  26. 5 stars
    Everyone in my house enjoys citrus flavored cakes like lemon cake, so I totally clicked fast to read this post when I saw it was lemon and orange. I think the pics turned out lovely and the cake looks so soft and moist. I would certainly be happy to have this as a birthday treat!

    Natonya | https://JustNatonya.wordpress.com

    Reply

  30. Oooh! Happy belated birthday to your mom! It is great that you made her a vegan lemon orange cake. Though, it is a bummer that there were some issues before making the cake. At least you made the most out of it! I don’t worry too much about the looks. At the end of the day, it is going to be eaten anyways and if it tastes good… That’s all that matters! I love that it is fairly easy to make the cake. Thanks for sharing the recipe! OK, I had a hard time finding flour so I had to spend like 4x more on coconut flour.

    Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me

    Reply

  31. Okay you got me right away with the title and the Following picture! I have an incredible sweet tooth and it just looks delicious! I will try it and let you know!

    Reply

  32. Omg Soph, you read my mind!!! Ever since I read your recipe for lemon oats the other day, I’ve been thinking about baking something with lemon in, and this is JUST the thing. Can’t wait to try this recipe out xx

    Reply

  33. 4 stars
    This both looks and sounds delicious – I think your pictures are still pretty! Yes you’re definitely lucky that you run a food blog and have things like flour in the house. All I have is some chickpea flour, haha. I hope your mum had a great birthday despite the lockdown! 🙂

    Reply

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