Lemon cake is a favorite cake flavor in our family, so we wanted to develop a vegan lemon cake recipe that would be our new go-to lemon cake recipe for family celebrations and gatherings. But the problem we have with most vegan cakes is that they are very fragile. And fragile cakes are difficult to work with when making layer cakes. So we decided to develop a vegan lemon cake recipe that could handle being stacked in layers and decorated in various way but was also super delicious and tender.
The vegan honey milk soak and vegan honey Italian meringue buttercream both add wonderfully warm honey notes to the fresh, bright lemon flavors of the cake. We hope you enjoy this cake as much as our family does.
This recipe uses the same vegan honey recipe that we use in our vegan honey and yogurt eclairs.
Make sure to check out the recipe notes for additional information and tips.
If you try this recipe, leave us a comment below to let us know how it goes. We would love to hear from you!
Vegan Honey Lemon Cake
A three-layer celebration cake with fresh lemon flavor, a vegan honey milk soak, and a vegan honey Italian meringue buttercream frosting.
Equipment
- stand mixer
- saucepan
- three 8-inch cake pans
- rubber spatula
- microplane
- candy thermometer
- offset spatula
Ingredients
Vegan Honey
- 500 g apple cider (2 cups)
- 200 g sugar (1 cup)
- lemon extract or lemon juice optional but recommended
Cake Layers
- 750 g all-purpose flour (6 cups)
- 450 g sugar (2 ¼ cups)
- 225 g vegan butter (2 sticks or 16 tbsp) room temperature
- 30 g vegetable oil (2 tbsp)
- 315 g Just Egg (1 ⅓ cups) room temperature (substitutes in notes)
- 225 g unsweetened soy milk (1 cup) room temperature
- 90 g vegan heavy cream (⅓ cup) room temperature (see notes)
- 2 tbsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp kosher salt if using unsalted butter
- 1 ½ tbsp vanilla extract
- 6 medium lemons
Soak
- ⅓ cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1 tbsp vegan honey
Frosting
- 125 ml aquafaba
- 288 g granulated sugar
- 150 g water (½ cup + 2 tbsp)
- ½ tsp cream of tartar
- 400 g vegan butter (3 ½ cups) room temperature
- 5 tbsp vegan honey
Instructions
Vegan Honey
- Mix the apple cider, sugar, and a few drops of lemon extract in a saucepan. You can also use a few teaspoons of lemon juice. Cook on medium heat until it reaches a thick consistency. This can take a while… The final consistency will be thicker once it cools down. We store ours in the fridge.
Cake Layers
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Prepare your 8-inch cake pans using your preferred method. We like to use a piece of parchment paper on the bottom as well as buttering and flouring the bottom and sides.
- Into a bowl, zest and juice the lemons.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (if using unsalted butter). Pulse the stand mixer to combine the ingredients.
- Add the softened butter, vegetable oil, and heavy cream. Mix on medium-low speed until no dry flour remains and the mixture is a sandy texture, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Add the soy milk, Just Egg, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium-low speed until well-combined. Turn off the mixer then scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Then mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Turn off the mixer then scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix on medium-low speed just until well-combined.
- Turn off the mixer, remove the bowl, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then fold the batter a couple times.
- Pour the batter evenly into the three prepared cake pans. Bake in the center of the oven for 35-40 minutes until the tops begin to brown, the sides have pulled away from the pans, and a cake tester (skewer, toothpick, knife) comes out clean.
- Remove the cakes from the oven. Let them cool completely in the pans.
Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or a large mixing bowl, add the aquafaba and cream of tartar. Whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form. It will go from bubbly, to foamy, to a glossy foam. This can take up up to 20 minutes in a stand mixer.
- Add the granulated sugar and water to a small sauce pan on low heat. We want to heat the sugar to 240-245°F. It will be syrup-like, but not caramelized.
- Once the sugar reaches 240°F, turn off the heat. Slowly and carefully stream in the sugar down the side of the mixing bowl while the aquafaba continues to whisk on high speed. Try to avoid pouring over the whisk because it will send most of the sugar flying to the sides of the bowl rather than into the aquafaba. The sugar will also be extremely hot and any splashes could burn you. It's okay for there to be some sugar that remains in the pot that can't be poured out. Don't worry about the specks and drops of sugar on the sides of the mixing bowl either.
- Continue to whisk on high speed until the bowl of the mixer is cool to the touch. It will be extremely hot when you first pour in the sugar. Our bowl cooled down in about 15 minutes. You will see the aquafaba become really glossy and start to thicken as it gets mixed.
- Using room temperature butter, add about a tablespoon at a time to the Italian meringue. We just estimated it–sometimes we added more and sometimes we added less. Allow each addition of butter to fully incorporate into the meringue. The buttercream should be smooth and fluffy.
- Add the vegan honey and mix until honey is completely incorporated.
- This is where you would add any food coloring to the buttercream. Gel-based food coloring would work best.Pro-tip: If your buttercream is slightly yellow from the butter, you can add a small amount of violet food coloring to help offset it and make your buttercream white.
- Place the buttercream into piping bags or into an airtight container. Place in the fridge until you are ready to assemble.If your buttercream splits and looks curdled, you can try beating it on medium speed for about 30 seconds. You can also try microwaving about ⅓ cup of frosting and adding it back to the rest of the frosting, then beating on medium speed.
Assembly
- In a small cup or bowl, add the soy milk and honey for the soak. Microwave for about 30 seconds and stir to dissolve the honey. Place in the fridge until ready to use.
- Level the cake layers by cutting the domes off of the tops.
- Choose where you want to assemble your cake. We like to put a round piece of parchment on the surface, as well as four strips of parchment around it. It makes it easy to clean up after decorating.
- Place the first layer on your surface with the cut side up. Use a pastry brush to dab the honey milk soak across the top surface of the cake layer, making sure to not go over the same area more than once so as not to oversoak the cake.
- Place about 1 cup of frosting on the cake layer and spread into an even layer using an offset spatula.
- Place the second layer on top of the frosting layer, cut side up, so that it lines up with the first cake layer. Apply the honey milk soak to the second layer.
- Place about 1 cup of frosting on the cake layer and spread into an even layer using an offset spatula.
- Before placing the third layer, apply the honey milk soak to the third layer. Then place the third layer on the frosting layer, cut side down, so that it lines up with the other cake layers.
- Place about 1 cup of frosting on the top of the cake. Crumb coat the entire cake by spreading the frosting into a thin layer across the top and sides of the cake using an offset spatula, fillin in any holes in the sides. Place the cake in the fridge for 10-15 minutes so the buttercream can harden.
- Use the remaining frosting to frost the cake. Decorate as you wish.
Notes
- If you don’t have access to Just Egg, you can substitute an equal weight of unsweetened applesauce, or about 1 ⅓ cups for the full recipe. The Just Egg helps give the cake a little more lift and provides a bit more structure, but we have baked this cake with applesauce and it turned out wonderfully.
- We use Silk heavy whipping cream for our vegan heavy cream. You can also substitute the vegan heavy cream with an equal weight of unsweetened soy milk, or about ⅓ cup + 1 tbsp for the full recipe. The heavy cream adds a bit more richness to the cake by adding a little bit more fat, but again we have made the cake with only soy milk and it turned out delicious.
Hi! Do you know approximately how much honey one would use? I’m only vegan for allergies but I’m not allergic to honey and would prefer to use it for this bake. (p.s, your vegan just egg eclairs changed my life they are SO good!)
Hi Riley! The vegan honey in the recipe can be substituted with non-vegan honey in equal amounts.
thank you! Made the cake last week and it was AMAZING! Everyone who tried it loved it, and they don’t usually eat vegan desserts! I’ve got another question for you if you don’t mind. I’d love to make the vegan Italian buttercream blueberry flavored instead of honey to go along with the lemon cake next time, do you think I could substitute blueberry jam for the honey? Thank you<3
So glad that it turned out well for you! Blueberry frosting sounds like it would be delicious on this cake. You could almost certainly substitute blueberry jam for the honey. You probably want to use a high-quality jam, and you might want to press the jam through a fine mesh if it has blueberry chunks and/or seeds so that you have a smooth buttercream. You should also start with a little less jam than you think you might need and add more little by little until you have the consistency and flavor you want.
Good luck! Let us know how it comes out!
thank you! I will certainly let you know how it goes!